Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South

This photo tour of gas stations from Apex, North Carolina to Yazoo County, Mississippi includes places with names such as Bahn Mi Boys, The Church of God No. 1, and Saint Louis Saveurs. It’s the work of visual journalist Kate Medley, raised in Jackson, Mississippi, and published by our friends at Bitter Southerner, who are also responsible for books such as Waffle House Vistas and Food Stories.

With less narrative than a book like Craig Mod’s Kissa by Kissa, it’s still a fascinatingly evocative conjuration of aspects of everyday life, mostly in small towns or at rural crossroads where gas stations are community hubs. Retirees sit outside to pass the time of day with neighbors; the mechanic who repairs your car may have fixed your granddaddy’s, and you may find Little Debby snack cakes for sale alongside local produce, freshly made tamales, smoked jowls, homemade chowchow, and bottle of Coke fresh from an ice chest. Maybe live bait.

Medley spent more than a decade documenting these places. “The stations I stopped at compelled me to wonder: who lives here? What to they do for work? What do they eat? What do they believe? What is the pace of the day? What is important in their America? Their South?”

Her photographs are rich with enough revealing details to make you ask them same questions about the people and places she depicts.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.