For a recent travel writing work assignment, I took a ‘gas station eats’ culinary road trip around Louisiana. At the first stop, Shawarma on the Go, a local fave in New Orleans, the owner tipped me off about a book. It’s called Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed and Fuel the American South, by Kate Medley a New York Times photojournalist from North Carolina.
Naturally, I bought a copy and got in touch with Kate immediately to find out more. It documents her road trips across the Deep South, in which she photographs the region’s service stations, convenience stores, and quick stops. Along the way – as I did – she pulled over for tamales, fried fish, and banh mi, her images uncovering the people and landmarks that supply far more than food and gas.
‘I began seriously documenting gas stations in 2012,’ she told me over email. ‘This book spans 11 states in the American South, including a fair amount in Louisiana, which I believe was your focus, where I travelled thousands of miles and stopped at more than 150 gas stations. The journey has been so much fun. As I hope it was for you,’ she said.
Growing up in the Deep South, she knew gas station food from a young age. ‘In my Mississippi town, for instance, the only Indian food on offer was at the local BP, where the proprietor’s wife would cook their family recipes at home and then bring it in small Tupperware containers to sell from behind the register. For a traveller, gas stations hold great mystery. You never quite know what you’ll find inside or how you’ll be received. I swing open the glass door, a little bell rings, and what will I find?’
In her work as a photojournalist, she regularly passes through communities that are not her own. ‘When the hunger pangs set in, given the option of Burger King or the local gas station, I will choose the latter every time. I want to know who’s doing the cooking, what’s firing on the grill, who’s discussing what while they wait, and what is featured on the community bulletin board. These are the clues that introduce me to a place. They tell me, who lives here? What do they do for work? What do they eat? What do they believe? What is important to them?’
It is the democratic nature of these spaces that intrigues her. ‘Our US politics may be polarized, our economics stratified, our neighbourhoods segregated, and our rhetoric strained, but still, nearly everyone passes through these same commercial spaces on a regular basis. We hold the door for one another, rub elbows at the lunch counter, and share conversation and ketchup.’
She finds gas stations to have a liminal nature. ‘They are determined to survive, sometimes against great odds. To do that, they have to remain flexible—so we see them constantly changing to meet the needs of their community. As new populations move to town, as new generations become their clients, what has to change in the way they do business? Perhaps it’s a menu shift, introducing a more global food offering to accommodate emerging immigrant populations? Perhaps it’s ripping out the tanks altogether and prioritizing food and beverage?
Follow Kate Medley on Instagram, here, and buy your copy of Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South, here.
