fill 'er-up x two

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:58 PM -0500 5/22/05, Rex W. Stocklin wrote:

>I am a nut about collecting local idioms, dialect variances (and such
>like), though, as the parenthetical expression would suggest, I enjoy
>broader regional (Midwest, possibly the South, even) flavor.
>
>As I just DID figure the server hierarchy of ADS-L and where the list
>archives were kept, I searched for some of my pet utterings, as
>"roastin' ears" and the local penchant for using "coke" for all
>carbonated beverages, regardless of hue or taste. ("Kin ah haff a
>coke?" "Yabetcha, which kind ya gotta hankering fer?" "One of them
>red* cokes")
>
>*meaning redpop, aka red cream soda aka strawberry soda.
>
>Thus I saw a 2000 discussion of the pop/soda/cola landscape.
>
>I went looking for this and saw it not and thus wondered if anywhere
>the term "fillup station" was still in use, I'm guessing that
>"filling station" is probably still in use, especially in many rural
>areas. But in a day and age, where even "gas station" & "service
>station" have ceded turf to "auto center", "fuel stop", "fuel plaza",
>truck stop"
>and even "convenience mart".

I don't think these are at all interchangeable.  (I know you didn't
say they were, but that was my first reading.)  Also, I think the
"turf", ceded or not, varies depending on whether we're talking about
printed signs or ordinary conversational reference, where "gas
station" continues to reign supreme (and regular), although other
variants (filling station for one) is widely distributed.

>I wouldn't be a bit
>surprised to see the import of "petrol station" in highbrow areas,
>say, the more white European parts of New England.

I would.  I've lived in New England for many years--although I'm not
sure whether in sufficiently white European or highbrow areas,
whichever areas those are--and I've never heard "petrol" or "petrol
station" stateside.  It's called *New* England for a reason.

larry