TRR photo by Tracy Denman Douglas Heinle shows his son Brian one of the original Soccony Mobil cans from back in the day. (Click for larger image)

Four generations buys a lot of gas

By TRACY DENMAN

COCHECTON — William F. Heinle started Heinle’s General Store back in 1892. In 1893 he began buying gas from Soccony Vacuume better know today as Mobil.

What William F. started was soon continued by his son William A., who also bought gas from Mobilgas (Mobil) for the store. As time went on eventually his son Douglas took over in 1968 and continued to buy gas from Mobil as well. Douglas, now 71, recently retired and passed the store on to his son Brian, 41. Guess what kind of gas Brian gets for the store these days… Mobil.

The Heinle family has been buying from Mobil for 108 years and counting. As a reward, Mobil recently honored them with a plaque for being their longest long-term customer. The plaque was presented at a dinner Mobil holds for its best customers. The second longest was a 52-year customer, and the dinner covered the counties of Rockland, Orange, Delaware and Sullivan.

Douglas Heinle says, “They [Mobil] think I could be the longest in the northeast or New York State, they’re still checking into it.”

When asked why he never changed companies, Heinle said, “There was no reason to. The service was very good, it was a competitive brand and it was popular.” The only problem Heinle does recall for business with Mobil and gas in general was a gas shortage several years ago. “It was hard because you were only allowed to give certain people on certain days. There just wasn’t any gas to be found, some days we pumped $2, that was all we could pump,” said Heinle of the shortage.

The biggest differences he has noticed over the years have been in the transportation and quality of the gas. “Back when my grandfather bought it, the gas was transported in barrels by horse and wagon, then it was delivered by railroad to a storage tank in Callicoon, and eventually in chain drive Mack trucks and tankers.”

Today, “Gas has more octane so the fancier cars are boosted,” he said. “Nowadays people use gas hogs, big cars like Fords, Lincolns and Cadillacs instead of smaller foreign gas cars that get better mileage. They also have stuff that makes the engines cleaner.”

As for the recent rise in gas prices, Heinle said, “Sometimes I feel it’s not necessary.” He also said, “Most people thought gas pricing would go up this summer but instead right now the prices keep going down.”