I'm sure many of you have seen this, and wondered. It's just north of the intersection of Hwy 33 and Cerro Noroeste Rd. (Hudson Ranch Rd.) Forty-some years ago, and for many years prior to that, it was a working gas station, with a little food counter and a cold case for beer and soda. It was owned (and run) by Alice Reyes and her sister. Alice's late husband was a truck driver who was killed driving on Hwy 33 (many years before any of us met her). She had a sign behind the counter that said "Pray for Me-- I drive 33".
Alice's was a sort-of halfway stop between PMC and Maricopa, or Taft. It took a while to drive the 37 miles from PMC to Buck's Steak House in Maricopa, or The White Elephant in Taft-- the back road was not as "good" as it is now, and the 3 miles from Cedarwood Dr. to Mt. Abel Road (Cerro Noroeste Rd.) was "unpaved" -- meaning a one-lane, dirt, pot-hole filled, rock-strewn, mountain road, that turned to deep mud in anything wetter than a heavy dew.
We would all pile into one or two (or 3) vehicles (no seatbelts) and head down the hill. Alice's was in an ideal spot: we were usually getting low on beer, and some had to get rid of the beer they had already consumed. Alice sold beer--perfect! If anybody was low on gas, they could tank-up, too. (The nearest gas station to PMC was in Lake of the Woods.)
Alice (and her sister) were "interesting characters." Her last name : "Reyes" was the same family that gave its name to Reyes Peak, and Reyes Creek. They were around a long time. Some people (not any of us) nick-named her "Dirty Alice", mostly due to the fact that the inside of the "store" was less than clean, and she and her sister kept company with who-knows-how-many cats. The place had a certain distinctive "fragrance" -- something like "Eau de Cat Box" that clung to you after you left.
Alice was plain-spoken, and did not take crap from anyone. She loved to take the average smart-ass down a notch or two. One time, noticing a rifle mounted on a rack on the wall, a guy (not me) asked her if she could shoot. She replied "I can shoot the balls off a piss-ant at 50 yards! Tell ya what, sonny, walk across the highway there, drop yer drawers and bend over, and I'll show ya!"
