From the artist:

"This is a gas station, filling station, in Calmar, a small town in northeast Iowa. My dad, Cel Klimesh, operated it for 37 years and it is where I spent a good deal of my youth in the 50's and 60's. This was before Kwik Trips and self-serve U-Pump-Its. It was Calmar Super Service. When you pulled in you ran over a rubber hose which sent a burst of air to trigger a bell signaling the arrival of a "live one" to whomever was working at the time. Cel or I or one of the local high-school boys who worked for dad would drop what they were doing and rush out to say "fill er up?". While the gas was pumping we'd check your oil, tires, radiator, brake fluid, fan belt, and wash your windows headlights and tail lights.

"After dad died I was cleaning out the drawers in his office and came across a block with a metal printing plate attached. The image on the metal plate, which I used for the silkscreen print above, depicts Calmar Super Service on a summer day sometime in the late 30's or early 40's, judging by the 1937 Lincoln Zephyr at the pumps. Notice the round sign out front on highway 52 that reads "Ladies Rest Room" - back then having a separate rest room for women was rare enough to advertise."

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