Gas Station Owner, 92, Rejects Talk About Retirement

WALLINGFORD, CT — While most people are lucky to make a career out of their current job, a 92-year-old Wallingford gas station owner has made a lifetime out of his. After working at his job for nearly 70 years, Ray Porto is still serving his community after getting his start back in the 1940's.

“[This job] has been very good to me," Porto said in a phone interview with Patch. "It has to be very good to stick at it for so long, believe me. As I’ve said before, I've lived a charmed life.”

Porto is the owner of Porto's CITGO, a gas station located at 480 N. Colony Road. While he has been working at the station since 1947, Porto actually has been working in gas stations longer than that. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"I’ve been in the gas business [since] I was a kid," Porto said. “I stayed at it as a kid working at [gas stations], and I just took to the business.”

Porto said he got his real start in 1941 at a Sunoco station in Wallingford, before going into service for a few years. After returning home in 1945, he opened another station in Ridgefield.

Then in 1947, his dad built for him the station he is still currently working in today.

Keeping the business a family affair, Porto said his son and grandson currently work with him. He also makes a point to treat all his customers like family, something that has played a major part in him still serving the community after all these years.

“My favorite part has been socializing," Porto said, "going out and talking while waiting on the customers, pumping gas.”

Porto enjoys it so much, he does not hesitate to put down the phone when the mailman arrives just so he can warmly tell him to have a sparkling day, because it is so much better than having just a nice day.

"I can bounce right back and tell them to have an effervescent day," Porto said. "I have an answer to all of them."

While there are many gas station around Connecticut, it is safe to say encountering such warm greetings and genuine interest in who a customer is can be somewhat rare.

“It just comes so easy to me to be nice to everybody," Porto said, "and then I get repaid the same way.”

Having reached an age where most people would retire or already have, Porto shows no signs of leaving his station any time soon. When asked is he had any plans to retire, Porto immediately scoffed at the thought.

“Absolutely not," Porto said. "This is like a marriage; till death do me part.”

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