After 70 years in business, E & S takes the off-ramp

Joe Soberg was 12 when he started pumping gas at his father’s service station. That was more than 55 years ago, when attendants washed windshields and pumped petrol while motorists waited in their cars. Some attendants even wore caps and bow ties.

But every era draws to a close eventually.

Soberg, 68, dropped the hood recently on E & S Mobile Service, ending 70 years of his family pumping gas and fixing cars in West Acton. “It was time to retire,” Soberg said.

Joe Soberg and his brother Bill sold E & S Mobile last month to Acton Country Store LLC, which, according to filings with the state’s Corporations Division, plans to operate a gas station and store on the land.

Early days 

E & S Mobile was founded in 1955 by their father, Howie Soberg, and his business partner, Ted Edwardsen, at the corner of Main Street and Baker Avenue, current site of TD Bank. 

As Joe wrote in a recent letter to The Bridge: “They sold fuel for Mobil Oil and performed vehicle repairs and maintenance until 1968, when they decided to set up shop at 166 Commonwealth Avenue and sell fuel for Gulf Oil.”

The gas station became a family affair, with Joe and his brothers Dana, now 75, and Bill, 73, pitching in to help. Howie died in 2021, a couple of months shy of his 100th birthday.

In 2006, Howie told the Acton Oral History Program (at the Acton Free Public Library) that most gas stations eventually dropped the repair part of the business and kept the gas. Yet in 2018, Joe dropped the gas and kept the repairs.

‘A crazy time’

Back when the business was still about filling tanks, 1973 brought a particular challenge for customers and retailers alike: the nationwide gasoline shortage.

Motorists could get gas only on even- or odd-numbered days, corresponding to the last number on their license plate.

“There were always lines,” said Dana. “People would go at night and park their cars near the pumps, hoping they would be the first in line to get their $10 worth of gas in the morning. There were a lot of upset people. I remember that. You could only pump so much each day. That was a crazy time.”

No ordinary ride

The early 1970s were crazy in other ways, and a memorable car from that era occasionally found its way into E & S: “A Stutz Blackhawk formerly owned by Dean Martin,” Joe said. 

“The outer part of the steering wheel was wood, and the inner part had to have been plated with gold,” Joe said. “There was a lot of gold plating on the dash; the shifter was gold-plated, and the console was gold-plated, sections of the dash were gold-plated.”

So, how did this ostentatious set of wheels get here?

“A West Acton customer, who was a car collector, owned it and brought it into the shop for general maintenance,” Joe said. “Oil change, antifreeze, nothing major.

“He put it away for the winter. He hardly ever drove it.” 

As for modern machines, Soberg is in favor of hybrids but not fully sold on electric cars.

“The Toyota Prius is one of the first hybrids; from what I’ve seen, they worked out pretty good,” he said.

Changing times

Over the decades, E & S Mobile provided a vantage point to track West Acton’s evolution.

“Traffic is one of the big changes,” said Joe. “Traffic is crazy now.”

Dana concurred: “More people. More vehicles. More problems.”

“The stores in West Acton, a lot of them have changed over the years,” said Joe. “The 5&10, the West Acton Supermarket, and the 99 Restaurant have gone out of business.”

As for retirement, Joe’s plans remain flexible. He does intend to keep his professional skills sharp by working on his own car — a Ford Five Hundred — “as much as I can,” he said. “I still have a whole bunch of tools.”