When I skipped the 4th grade, I wound up in 5th grade with Mike's son Vic DiPierro, and continued in school with him, until high school graduation. We always got along fine, but were basically separated after school by the distance between our homes. Gary and John Messinetti also went to Floyd until the 8th grade and Butch was in their class. I always thought they were twins, but actually they were a year apart. According to Gary, their Mom started them together in first grade because there was no kindergarten . It was in their last year at Floyd, that Butch started to hang around with them a bit after school. Of course I tagged along. That's a little brother's job right?

I remember going to their house a couple of times in 1958 and having a lot of fun. They had a finished basement, which was a very cool thing to have in the 50's. I think I first heard the record Jennie Lee by Jan and Arnie (forerunner of Jan & Dean ) in the Messinetti basement. Their cousin Vic lived right on the block and he dropped in one day. We all went up to their station, because they had a car they could drive around in the field behind it. It wasn't just any car either, it was a '36 Ford sedan, with the hood side panels removed. With me being a huge stock car racing nut, this sedan looked a whole lot like the cars I had been watching at Riverhead Raceway for a year or so. It didn't have a muffler, so it not only looked like a stock car, it sounded like one. The 5 of us all piled in it and Gary or Johnny took us around the dirt track they had plowed with it in the big field the summer carnivals used to set up in. We really bounced around as I think the shocks were shot. It had mechanical brakes, which were basically like not having brakes, except that they grabbed and that jolted us around even more. I don't think we took too many laps before Pat appeared and waved us in. I just remember really wanting to have something like it and would always ask Victor about it back in school. One day he told me his Uncle Pat sent it off to the junkyard because a guy who lived behind the station on Victoria Drive complained about it interfering with his TV reception. Even though it wasn't mine, I hated to see that car go. It would be four more years before I had a car like it, that I built a stock car out of.

Victor and I got to know each other a little better and he started coming over my house on his bike back then. He had a green Schwinn Corvette with a speedometer. I remember trying it out and being really disappointed that I could only pedal 15 to 20 mph. It always felt I was going faster than that, especially when I was learning how to ride a two wheeler. I would of bet that Butch could of pegged the needle on it though. I never saw anyone ride a bike as fast. He dragged race Willy Conklin once and Willy had a car, Butch beat him for the first twenty feet.

Right around Butchie's 8th grade graduation time, I remember Pat getting a new '58 Olds, Super 88. The first time I saw it , it was parked at the station. Pat had just got it and he was telling my Dad all about it while we gassed up. I got a real close look at it on Butchie's graduation night, as I was outside the gym most of the time playing with a classmate Tony Abruntilla. It was a very sharp and patriotic car. Red, White and CHROME....I had never saw that much chrome on any car before or since. However it would not be the most radical thing on wheels I ever saw at Pat & Mike's. That was a few years down the road yet.

As I think back on it, I remember associating Pat a whole lot with the wrecker. Whenever I'd see it out on the road, he seemed to be the one driving it. One day around 1961, I was walking my dog Boots around Swamp Road. Swamp Road was really the south end of McKinley Drive, that curved around and became Forest Road. As it did, it passed through a real swampy wooded area where no houses were. Swamp road was always the unofficial name for it. Just as we got to the curve, I saw Willy Conklin in his Studebaker coming towards me. Willy, a friend of Butchie's, was in the passenger seat and it looked like no one was behind the wheel! I thought uh oh Willie's up to some kind of trick and I stepped off the road into the swamp. It was not until he got right in front of me that I saw there really was someone behind the wheel. It was Augie Paschuitta (sp?), who was very short. I guess Willy was teaching him how to drive....or should I say trying to, because as they took the curve, I heard Willie yell "JESUS CHRIST Straighten It Out !" Well Jesus wasn't driving, nor was St. Christopher, Augie was and he never did straighten it out and went right into the swamp. Now the Mastic Beach swamp land was full of drainage ditches to control the misquitos. The left front wheel went into the ditch which turned the car on it's side. They hit a tree and the tree which thankfully was very dead , just exploded into wood chips. It was a spectacular sight, only topped by me seeing their heads get knocked together as they came to a halt. I ran to the car and climbed up on the passenger side, which was now facing the sky. Willy was laughing hysterically and Augie was rubbing his head. I yanked on the door which would not open because goofy me was standing on it. They got out and Willy was saying, " Gee we got to get this thing out here quick and get it cleaned up before my old man gets home." Augie said, " Kenny !...run home and call Pat & Mike." Willy said, " Wait....how much money you got on you Augie?" Well between the two of them they only had about 6 bucks and I said, "I don't think that will get it pulled out of the swamp guys." They asked me if I had any money I could loan them, I didn't promise, but went home and found 5 dollars my Mom had left in the kitchen and called up the station. Pat showed up in a few minutes with the little wrecker. As soon as he got out, Willy asked him sheepishly, " Hey Pat, How much will this cost us?" Pat looked it over, took off his cap for a second, scratched his head, then asked him, " How much do you boys have to spend?" Willy said, " We only have around eleven dollars between us, but we can get more later 'cause Augie has a paycheck coming to him. Pat only charged them ten dollars, which I 'm sure was far below the going rate for a mess like that. Although there was no sheet metal damage, the front of the car was just covered with mud and tiny pieces of tree. Willy drove it to my house and hosed it down for a half hour. When he brought it home, his father was there and took one look and said " Willy ......you been riding in the creek again with this car?"

One day a whole bunch of us were joy riding in Willy's Stude. Willy had pulled into Pat and Mike's for a "Dollars Worth" (75 cents worth of regular and a bottle of drain oil ,25 cents a quart and good enough) We saw the ten wheel drive wrecker pulling out and asked where it was going. I think it was Vic who said "There's a car in the water at Shirley Marina." So you know that's where we headed. The cops were there and already had a diver in the water. As Pat winched it up, a '54 Ford or Merc broke the surface and there was bunch of beer cans floating inside. I don't think anyone ever claimed that car and it sat behind their shop for quite awhile. No one was reported missing either, so I guess whoever was in it got out ok.

I mentioned that Pat's '58 Olds was not the wildest looking thing I ever saw at the station. That honor had to go to young Doc Calabro's brand new '63 Corvette split window coupe. Although we all had seen drawings of them in the car ads, word spread around town like wildfire that young Dr. Frank actually had one. It really looked like something from outer space. RAD -I- CAL! there was nothing on the road back then that was even remotely close, as far as styling goes. Young Frank had sewn me up once at his Dad's hospital, which was what Old Doc had done with the mansion after all the family moved out and built their homes all around it.

In the early '60's they added an extension on the back side of the station and a guy named Jimmy started doing collision and paint work. As a sideline, he would fix up cars and sell them too. Actually Pat & Mike sold new cars for a short time around 1950. They were a dealer for Austin, a small English car. According to Gary that came to a screeching halt when his Mom, Carol rolled one over. She wasn't hurt, but after Pat got it righted with the wrecker he said "That's it...we are not selling these anymore, they aren't safe."

One of the first used cars I remember going up for sale right under their Texaco sign was a blue '53 Olds. I'd see it everday from the school bus window on my way to auto mechanics. One day it was gone, and like the small town it was, it didn't take long to find out who had it. Jackie Burkhardt, who was always a pretty wild kid, bought it. He was the son of Brookhaven Town Police Officer Sgt. Dave Burkhardt. Jackie didn't have the Olds very long, he wrecked it on Montauk Highway and if I recall someone riding with him was killed or badly hurt. Jackie followed his Dad into law enforcement and was killed on duty while chasing some burglary suspects in the 1970's.

The next car I saw being put together there that caught my eye was a '55 Pontiac convertible. The body was multi colored, as it had several different fenders and doors on it. But after it came out of the Pat & Mike body shop, it was painted baby blue and looked incredible. Butch just flipped over it and the price was right $400.00 ! So Butchie went from a Zeidler Motors "special" (a dull mousy gray $250.00, '55 Plymouth that spun a rod and seized the engine, to one of the sharpest winter cars in "The Beach" at that time. When the summer kids came out from the city and lined our town's main drag with '57 Ford Fairlane 500's and '58 Chevy Impala's with spinners, connie kits and cruiser skirts, it was no contest. But I wished I had Butchie's Pontiac, today or the dough it would take to buy one. (Around $25,000.00) I remember riding with him the week he got it. It was Easter Sunday, the weather was perfect and we had the top down, radio playing, and were on top of the world.....

We moved away in 1964, just about the time I got my license and first vehicle. A '50 Ford panel truck that came in real handy for toting the equipment for the band I was in with Doug Percoco and Frankie Aeilio. The main reason I opted for a truck though was to tow my '37 Plymouth stock car, I was about to start racing with. Gary and Johnny had inherited their Dad's '58 Olds, when Pat got a new one in '63. Butch had replaced his Pontiac with a '59 Buick Invicta Coupe with a 401 cubic inch V8. Mike surprised Vic with a green '53 or 4 Chevy Convertible with multi carbs in his senior year. Their cousin Bobby Siriani who's Mom and Dad had a deli attached to the east side of the station, also had a Chevy convertible like Vic's only in fire engine red. I'm sure we all wish, we still had them.

Pat & Mike's was much more than just a service station, it truly was a "community center" and with their extended family, you were bound to come into contact with some of them. I mean what other family could sell you gas, or a house or a 1/4 pound of salami, tow you out of a swamp or a lagoon, rush to your house and try to save it from burning down, take out your transmission or your appendix? They say if you lived there long enough, you would wind up related to them. The DiPierro's started that out, with all those kids.

Although I lived in Patchogue about 12 miles away , I still returned to "The Beach" to see old friends, like Adolph Almasy, Doug Percoco etc. I recall one very memorable trip in late April of 1965 when I wheeled in to Pat & Mike's probably for the last time to get a little gas. It was probably the only time I ever bought gas there for my very own car, but it was a very special car. I had just bought a 1933 Ford "Vicky" Street Rod. It may of been the wildest looking machine to ever pull up to the Pat & Mike pumps. Vic, Gary and Johnny who all worked there, were not around. I think Gary and Johnny were off at college then. Pat was there and everyone else who was working or just hanging around (there was always someone hanging around) came out to inspect what had just pulled up to the HIGH TEST pump. I wish I had a decent photo of it, Butchie took a couple of snapshots of it but they were in my wallet and one day the wallet went into the washing machine. It was a full tilt hot rod. The yellow lacquer fender less body was dropped 10" over the red frame giving it about a 3" ground clearance. It always scraped going into gas station driveways. It had a '32 Ford Grille, and there was no hood. The engine was a fully chromed, '54 Caddy V8 with two 4 barrel carbs, 3/4 Cam and Jahns pistons built by Bill Frick who was known for his Ford A Lac and Stude A Lac conversions.

Pat gave it a whistle and me some advice, "Just keep it out of the swamp" "Pat ! that wasn't me, who put the Stude in The Swamp...It was Augie Paschuitta," I replied. I wonder how many cars through the years Pat or Mike had towed out of the swamps? I know they towed Willy Conklin's kid brother Donald when he went joyriding at midnight with his Dad's '55 Desoto, and rolled it over on it's roof into the swamp at the foot of Jefferson Drive. The Dermody boys (Peter & John) were with him and one of them broke their collarbone. I kept my Hot Rod out of the swamps, but it too met a sad ending after I sold it. The "Benedetto Brothers" from Shirley wound up with it and flipped it at the Westhampton Dragstrip in the late '60's. I was told it wound up in the landfill by Floyd High. I went looking for it in the '70's one day but never found it.

It was in the '70's when I saw Pat for the last time. I was married then and my wife and I had an 8 foot boat, we carried in the back of our pickup. We would launch it in all sorts of creeks rivers and the Great South Bay from Islip to Forge River. One day we took it down to Pattersquash Creek. I was all set to show her a world, I had not seen since the days that Butchie and Me tore up the bay in our "Little Chief" racing runabout. As I backed my huge F-350 5/4 ton Ford up to the east bank of Pattersquash, the bank gave way. Without four wheel drive there was only one thing to do...... Call Pat & Mike....except there were no cell phones back then. But it was a beautiful day for a walk and Pat & Mike's was only about a mile or so away. We all rode back in the Big 10 wheeler and Pat kept kidding me, still driving in the swamp eh. " PAT.... THAT WAS AUGIE & CONKLIN! I just paid their bill....." My wife just giggled at me.

Pat & Mike , I wondered if they selected that order based on the Spencer Tracy Movie...?NOPE.....That movie wasn't made until 1952....perhaps Hollywood borrowed it from them......whatever......
It just sounded right and it was right. Long before "their sponsor" would come up with the slogan "You Can Trust Your Car To The Men Who Wear The Star" they were role models for how to do things right. Mike passed away in the early 1980's, then Pat who was getting up there in years sold the station...Pat passed away in 1997. The station like the town was never the same.