To hear Texaco service station owner Reginald “Reg” Baker tell it, his whole life story could be summed up in one phrase: “I’m just a creature of habit.”
Maybe so, but the very fact that this Lake Highlands businessman’s life is so consistent is what fascinates other people – many of whom experienced life as a constant whirlwind of change.
Consider a few Reg Baker statistics that few other Dallas baby boomers can match:
- At the age of 45, he has been working at the same business in the same location for 28 years. Lakeridge Texaco is the only place he has ever worked.
- He has lived in the same general neighborhood for 41 years.
- He is still married to Tanya McGuire, the woman he met while both were students at Lake Highlands High School in the 1960s.
- His oldest son is attending the same high school as his parents, and the younger son is expected to follow in due time.
- He still drives the 1979 Chevrolet pickup he customized before the boys were born and plans to hand it down to the eldest at some point.
“It’s really a pretty short story,” Baker says, laughing. “I don’t know why anyone would think it’s that interesting.”
Actually, there has been at least one substantial change in his career – Baker went from being a station employee to the owner in 1989 when the previous owner, T.L. Nieman, sold it and retired.
Like its owner, Lakeridge Texaco seems to thrive on an “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” philosophy. The station has resisted adopting the latest trends unless they made sense to Baker or the corporate office.
The station has always been at the corner of Kingsley and Audelia, although when it was built in 1963, it looked out over undeveloped countryside. The exterior has been refreshed just two or three times, mainly because of changes in the design of the corporate emblem.
You won’t find a smorgasbord of snacks and fast food here. There is no mini-store and no lottery ticket machine.
“This is still a ‘service’ station,” Baker says. “We still run full-service pumps, and we still have a busy garage. We sell cold drinks, but aside from that, it’s pretty old-fashioned.”
Although our neighborhood has grown tremendously during Baker’s tenure, he still sees plenty of customers who knew him when he was a teenage trainee. And with increasing frequency, he is seeing people in their 20s (the ones who were wearing diapers when he first met them years ago) moving back to the neighborhood with babies of their own.
Although he’s rapidly approaching old-timer status in a community that once was considered the outskirts of suburbia, Baker hasn’t slowed down much.
He still appreciates fast cars and likes to attend auto races, calling himself “just a big kid.” And he still loves to roar around town in his ’79 pickup with the big motor, lowered suspension and loud pipes.
