Mina’s Fuel Oil — Italian American Stories

Mina’s Fuel Oil

Before talking about my two summers working at Mina’s, a brief history as I know it.  I was told that the company was started by my aunt’s father in law, I guess in the 30’s or 40’s.  My aunt’s husband ( Nick Mina ) was running the company when I was a boy.  

Now Uncle Nick was a card.  He used to make me laugh all the time, especially when he would deliver oil to our house in College Point.  My mom had a special gold chair in our living room, that no one was allowed to sit on.  Uncle Nick knew this and whenever mom would have him come in for coffee, he would go sit on that chair, with his oil burner clothes, just to freak her out.

I was about ten when he passed, and actually we were vacationing with him and my Aunt.  It was so sad, and I remember every detail of that night.  

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My Career at Mina’s Fuel Oil

During Easter vacation of 1967, when we were having some snow squalls, my cousin Lou came to deliver our oil.  He asked me what I was doing, and I said not much.  He asked, do you want to work on the truck.  You bet!  

So I ran and got some old clothes and off we went.  Little did I know, that I was the guy to hump the hose to the house, while Lou sat in the truck.  But that was fine, I didn’t really mind.  It was fun and I made some cash.  One of the best parts was climbing to the top of the truck and filling up the three bays with 2700 gallons of oil.

So I guess I did a good job, because once the summer rolled around Lou asked if I would like to help clean the oil burners.

Photo by The U.S. National Archives on flickr · · · Original Caption: Oil Truck at the John F. Kennedy Airport 05/1973 U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-5475 Photographer: Tress, Arthur, 1940- S

Cleaning the burners

Needless to say this was a dirty job.  So dirty that my mom would make take my clothes off at the bottom of the steps that led to our basement.  But I was well paid ( I think about $75.00 a week ) big bucks for a 16 year old in 1967.  Not to mention that Lou would be me breakfast and lunch.  

Lou lived in Bayside, so he’d pick me up on the way to Corona.  We would stop at a place on 111th St., or sometimes go to Frank’s Luncheonette.  Then we would head out to do the cleanings.  

We (I)  would have to bring some boxes with tools, cleaning fluid and supplies down to some pretty funky basements, usually with little light.  Lou taught me how to hook up the cleaning fluid to the pump, change the glass gauge, touch up the burner with paint and repair asbestos when needed.  As I got skilled Lou would let me work on my own.

Sometimes we would have to put in a new burner or unit and that would be an all day job.  Maybe even longer.

Close calls and other fun stuff

After you ran the cleaning fluid though, you would have to prime the pump on the oil burner. You did this by putting a wrench on the plug and bleeding out the air.  One time, I had the wrench on and was holding it to bleed, as Lou through the switch to start the pump.  As soon as he hit the switch, I was getting electrocuted.  I kept yelling turn it off, he kept yelling why.  Finally, he turned it off.  The worst part was that I couldn’t let go of the wrench.

Another time, after bleeding the pump, the igniter wasn’t working, so I opened the door to the chamber and BOOM, it ignited.  Knocked me clear across the floor.  

One of the accounts was a funeral home.  We had to go deep into the basement past all the embalming rooms.  We brought everything in and Lou said, “I’ll be right back” and as he walk out he was shutting all the lights going oooooh oooooh.  When he came back I said “I couldn’t see”,  “why didn’t you just walk around and feel for the light switch, or an arm or leg?”

One of the funniest events, was at Future Motors, in Long Island City.  They a had a very large underground tank, which held probably 1000 gallons.  The fill was basically just a whole in the ground with no vent, and the nozzle didn’t lock in.  So as I’m watching the nozzle and hose starts to bounce.  Thinking it was going to pop out I went to grab it to hold it in the ground.  Just as I did, Lou shows up just across from me.  Wouldn’t you know that’s when it popped out!  I must have it Lou with about 5 gallons.  Now, that wasn’t the worst part.  Lou was known for not getting dirty ( that was my job ), when we went to lunch that day, all his oil burner buddies were getting on his case.

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