By David Peel
Just south of Millington and Lucy, Tennessee, on a stretch of US Highway 51 that most people now blow past without a second thought, there is a building that refuses to disappear. Its A-frame roofline still cuts a distinctive silhouette against the sky — the same shape that told southbound travelers for decades that they were almost to Memphis, and that a cold Fanta or root beer, free bubble gum, and a friendly face were just ahead.
It was a Billups station. No it was never ever a Whataburger. That was a similar A-Frame in Frayser.
And stopping at Billups for gas — sometime in the mid-1950s, on a sweltering July afternoon with the family packed into a ’53 Chevy — was an experience that bore no resemblance to pulling off an interstate today. A uniformed attendant came to you, filling your tank, wiping your windshield and checking the oil. A gallon of regular ran about twenty-five cents. For five dollars, you got a full tank, topped-off oil, clean glass, and change back. The sign above the door said it plainly: Fill Up With Billups — Your Friend. They meant it.
The Billups brothers — three Mississippi men from Carrollton — had built one of the South’s great independent petroleum chains from two Depression-era pumps to more than 300 stations across twelve states.
Then the interstates came. Interstate 55, built parallel to Highway 51 through Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, drained the traffic away as surely as a plug pulled from a bathtub. The Billups chain was sold in 1959, absorbed and eventually dissolved. The station at Woodstock became other things, including Woodstock One Stop, which you can still just make out on the old Dr Pepper sign.
Today the building sits at 5238 Highway 51, like a scene from Fallout.
That Dr Pepper sign still hangs on the exterior, put there by a teenage boy from Lucy. That same man, many decades later, installed the sign for Peel Law Firm in Arlington.
Seventy years ago, the world was different indeed. But people still want to do business with a friend.
Peel seeks justice for those injured in tractor-trailer and car accidents, medical malpractice, and disability. He often addresses churches, clubs, and groups without charge. Peel may be reached through PeelLawFirm.com wherein other articles may be accessed.
