Monte Kemp a Former Petroleum salesman passes at 94 year old. Stories must be told.
Many of the younger crowd will not remember when we had gas wars at almost every corner of big cities and small towns. Before all the consolidation of the oil companies, each company fought bitterly for their share of the market. The marketing of Gas and TBA (Tires-Batteries-Accessories) was an exercise similar to the barker at the local circus. It was more than price wars. The gas station business is based on volume then as it is today. Most people today think that the oil companies make tremendous profits on the sale of gas and they do but not on a per gallon basis but rather on volume. We can debate that in the comments section if you are so inclined.
The truth is that gas is at best a breakeven project for the local stations. It was worse in the 50-60's before the advent of convenience stores. Today the profit is in the store in the form of food, impulse items.
Those old enough to remember the old days will remember the promotions with free glasses, mugs and the ever famous "Sugar Gas" where you got 5 pounds of sugar with ever fill-up. Service was the king and loyalty was a sparse commodity. Consolidation is a natural course for all business. Today there are few independent gas stations. Most are larger companies that can take advantage of the economies of scale necessary to survive.
Enter the promotional salesman. He was the guy who hit the road in a car and tried to help the independent dealers to increase their volume with all sorts of crazy ideas. It was the age of the fast-talking salesman and the ever present "have you heard the one about" stories.
My brother started with Phillips Petroleum in 1959 and started out as a local city salesman eventually ending up as an international chemical and distillate manager for the non-gas portion of business.
One of his first bosses was Monte Kemp. Monte was a good old Oklahoma boy born in 1921 and naturally went to work for the Local Gas Company P66 based in Bartlesville, OK. When
I met Monte many years ago on one of his many visits back to Georgia to see my brother. For many years the old retired salesmen would meet at various locations in the south to reminisce and tell lies about their life on the road. I attended many of the events. As old salesmen must do, they had to have a name and some form of organization. My brother was one of the younger members and he was the "Scribe", another was the "Cook", one was the "Sundry" guy and finally the "Booze Guy". Well you get the idea.
Their name came naturally because everyone knows that salesmen are full of hot air to put it mildly. They were known as the "Phil-Farts". Their last get-together was 2009 as many were no longer driving and age had taken its toll.
I went and was promptly designated as the "Camera Guy".
Phil-Farts eating and telling lies
When my brother called to tell me of Monte's passing, I asked him to send me a couple of stories about Monte. I knew them well but part of the healing process is the telling of stories about the departed. Here are a couple from Jim that capture the spirit of Monte.
Of all my fond and wonderful memories of dear old Monte Kemp, two stories stand out as my best and most fondly remembered, along with many others.
When he was transferred to Georgia, as an old Oklahoma boy he loved boiled peanuts. So in one of his travels in South Georgia he saw a roadside sign that said "Peanuts." So he stopped and bought a bag. The little black boy that sold them took them out of the boiler and put them in a brown paper sack, gave them to Kemp and he had a few and just as a joke he said to the little black boy, "Son, these peanuts are wet." The little black boy said, "Course they's wet, they been biled!" Kemp loved to tell that story about biled peanuts.
My second favorite story was on one of the Old South Phil-Farts trips to Guntersville State Park when the guys were referred to as "The Gunts Guys" before Kemp renamed the group "The Old South PhilFarts." When Kemp returned to Bartlesville he was missing a new sport coat Ann had packed for him and she wanted to know where it was when she unpacked him when he returned home. Well Kemp said he must have left it in his room at the Guntersville State Lodge when he checked out.
So the next year when we went to Guntersville he asked the little young Alabama redneck girl at the desk if they had a lost and found department for items people had left in their rooms. She said they had a whole back room full of stuff people left; so Kemp told her he thought he had left a sport coat in his room last year and described it and asked her to look for it; rather than go in the storage room and look for it himself. Well the little gal spent most of the day looking for his coat and finally found it. When she showed it to him and told him she found it, just as a joke, (you well knowing what a big jokester Kemp was); he told her his wife had given it to him as a present and it was all wrinkled and not pressed and he couldn't take it back to his wife in that condition so could she get it cleaned and pressed for him. She said she did not think they could do that and he would have to get it cleaned and pressed himself. Then he told her (again just as a joke) that there was a 50 dollar bill he had left in the pocket and it was not there. Well she said she did not know anything about that she had just spent the larger part of her day looking for his coat.
In any event when we checked out, the same little gal was on duty at the desk, and Kemp told her he guessed he could get the coat cleaned and pressed at his own expense, and he would just chalk the $ 50 bill up to a loss. But he told her it depressed him, because his wife still had 2 or 3 payments left on the coat. Well the little sweet young Alabama check out gal said in all seriousness, "Well Mr. Kemp, with all due respect sir, you've been nothing but a problem ever since you arrived here!" We all got a big chuckle out of that.
Your Bro Jim.
Here is a picture of Monte and Jim on our last trip to his Home in Oklahoma in 2009. RIP Monte, I hope they have biled peanuts ready when you get there.
