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J. C. Countryman, a big, broad-shouldered man who looks years younger than his age of 58, is happy with his job as owner of the Gulf Service Station on Main Street because he is familiar with all phases of the work. Truly a jack of all trades, Mr. Countryman has worked in more different fields than just about anyone in Palacios. In his time he has tried his hand at farming, inspecting new automobiles for the Ford Motor Company, café operating, running recreation halls, helping manage a beauty shop, and roughnecking. When one thinks of a man going from job to job, he usually considers that person a failure, but able to hold a steady position. Such is definitely not the case with this week’s feature personality. All businesses owned by Mr. Countryman have been forsaken because he was able to sell at a profit. Born in San Jacinto County just before the turn of the century and education in the public schools of Maybank in Kaufman County, Mr. Countryman began his working career on his father’s farm. In 1927 he decided farming might be all right for some, but that he did not want to make it his life’s profession. The young ex-farmer took a job as a service station attendant in Maybank. A couple of years later he applied for and received a job with the Ford Motor Company in Houston where he was an inspector of new vehicles. It was Mr. Countryman’s duty to check the new cars and see if workmanship was up to par. He confirms suspicions that “they don’t build cars now like they did in the good old days.” “I wouldn’t let most of today’s cars off the assembly line,” he says. “Hoods don’t fit right, the paint jobs are poor, and the general workmanship is haphazard.” But the auto makers make their share of errors back in the early 1930’s just as they do now. Mr. Countryman recalls that he found a couple of wrenches wedged under the frames of cars ready to be shipped to dealers.
A year later the Countrymans packed up and moved to Palacios where he ran a Humble Service Station for Bill Rioux. From 1934 until 1940 Mr. Countryman ran service stations here and at Kaufman and also found time to sandwich in a couple of years with the McCarthy Drilling Company in Palacios. In 1940 he opened the J. C. Café here and did a fabulous business until he sold out. During the early war years Mr. Countryman worked with the Brown and Root Shipyard in Houston after training in a government shipbuilding school. The doctors killed the shipyard work when Mr. Countryman came down with a bad back. The family one again came back to Palacios in 1945 and returned to the café business. The restaurant trade was still brisk and Mr. Countryman found he had a tiger by the tail. Some nights he would just get the café closed up when it was time to open again. He recalls getting in bed at 3 a. m. and then having to get back on the job at 5 o’clock the same morning. Mr. Countryman decided to try running a tailor shop here after about six months. After the tailor shop came a cleaning establishment in Houston and a beauty shop here called appropriately enough the Chat ‘N’ Curl Beauty Shop. By this time Mr. Countryman thought he was getting tired of Palacios and began dickering on a Freeport deal. In 1949 the subject of taking a permanent business here came up and his family was delighted. With his usually alacrity, Mr. Countryman began negotiations to buy his present Gulf Service Station and was servicing cars less than an hour later. The Countrymans have two children at home. Kenneth is a senior in high school and Suzanne is in junior high. Mr. Countryman has a married daughter, Mrs. Ruth Templeton, who lives in Houston. The Good Gulf man says the job may be his last. He likes the work and knows it inside out. No one has ever named service station work among the easiest jobs around, but if a man like his job it isn’t really work. Palacios Beacon, January 24, 1957
Ad from Palacios Beacon, September 9, 1948 |
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The "Chat and Curl" Beauty Shop opened in September by Mrs. J. C. Countryman, changed hands the first of this month and Mrs. "Babe" Rioux is announcing specials on all permanents for Christmas and invites her many friends also regular customers of the Shop to come in and get fixed up for the Holiday Season. Mrs. Dorothy Smith will continue as operator, Mrs. Rioux states, and for your beauty work call and make your appointments at the same location.
Palacios Beacon, December 9, 1948 |
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Palacios Beacon, August 18, 1949 |
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In
1933 he left his job with Ford and went back to Kaufman where he
married Miss Bessie Buffaloe, a Palacios girl. They started a
confectionery store there.