By Peggy Sturdivant

Just think how many people stop the intersection of Market and 24th Avenue every day, waiting at the long traffic signal, by car or on foot. Even before the seven-story apartment building enveloped the Spirit gas station on the northwest corner, it seemed mysterious.

When I finally ventured into the service station for the first time last week Harold Hezel told me that people either know him as a nice guy, or think there’s an ogre holed up in that corner and the service station is a drug front. Those people definitely don’t know him. After a few hours I realized I’d met one of those hidden heroes in Ballard–hidden in plain sight.

To walk past the one island of gas pumps, past the collection of older cars along the side and into the office is to learn that Harold Hezel is a product of an earlier time in Ballard, and of the American tradition of service stations. Or as Ballard Oil’s Warren Aakervik thinks to himself every day when he drives by the Spirit Station, “It’s Scotty.”

Gene “Scotty” Briscotti was the former owner of that gas and service station at that corner (taking over the location started by Einar Hansen). In the 1950s, 24th Ave. NW boasted close to ten service stations. In Ballard’s automobile prime there were 18 service stations, some four to a corner. They were local businesses that sold gas and worked on cars. Starting in his teens Harold worked at just one of the many, at Chuck’s Arco. Scotty would walk up 24th to ask him a question about a car in his shop. Mentor to all the guys was Bob Rapp, who owned stations in Ballard from the 1930s to 1970s.

Until I went into the small office that is lined floor to ceiling with auto supplies and memorabilia I hadn’t realized service stations were nearly extinct. Now people generally fill their gas tanks at convenience stations, meaning mini-marts that also sell food, but take their mechanical problems to auto repair shops or back to the dealer. At a service station like Harold Hezel’s Spirit Station you can get gas without ethanol, refill your propane tank and get a reasonable price on repairs. Harold said folks are surprised to find a new headlight doesn’t cost that much. Unlike the mark-up at the dealer he just charges the cost of the headlight.

Harold Hezel graduated Ballard High School class of ‘76. He and Sven Buen, son of Bob Buen, a music director at BHS, starting working for Scotty in the mid-80s, although Scotty had heart troubles dating back to the 70s. When he died the executor of his will was able to fulfill his wishes for maintaining a small, independent service station. Harold and Sven worked for the estate for the first years and then were able to acquire the business. After Sven started a family Harold bought him out and for decades has been what he calls, “the smallest of small businessmen.”

What makes him a hero of sorts is how he bucks the odds to stay small and independent. Service stations used to have fairly low overhead and ownership made for a decent living. Now he pays $19,000 a year just on property tax for the commercial space and then faces increasing and additional costs. In 1998 there was the cost to upgrade the underground tanks. Annually he pays business license fees, for tank insurance, fire department permits. “The world of gas has changed,” Harold said. “I’d planned to be working less by now. But it’s just me and one half-time guy.”

He has customers like C. David Hughbanks, son of one of the original gas station owners in Ballard. Hughbanks bought his orange 1966 Mustang at Ballard’s Wilson Car dealership. Thanks in part to Harold, Hughbank’s car now has 800,000 miles on it. He works on new cars as well, but his own tend to be older. He’s partial to Corvairs and the DeSoto. “I stopped buying cars years ago.”

Harold gets a call at least every other month from Arco asking him to consider becoming a mini-mart. “I was not designed to serve Big Bites or Slurpees,” he said. Although he was speaking personally it applies to the property as well. A recent photograph shows the now-Spirit station enveloped by the AMLI/Mark24 development. The caption reads: Ballard still has its spirit.

Harold knows that people wonder how he stays in business, but those are the people who don’t know him. Who don’t know they could pull up and he would check their oil and tires. Those who pass by and always see the same cars on the small lot but don’t know how many vehicles he keeps running or how many customers will only get their gas from him.

He won’t be there forever. There will come the day when Harold accepts a fair offer for the location, but that day won’t be soon. Because Harold still loves working on cars, although he wishes he got to do it more. In the meantime people like Warren Aakervik of Ballard Oil know that Harold is not surviving by selling gas. “He survives by taking care of the community.”