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Station mixes gasoline and fashion
By Nancy Feigenbaum
Staff Writer
The flat, straight road to Cal
vert holds few surprises, but the
next time you stop for gas in
Hearne, look twice at the Tex
aco station just off Highway 6.
Are those dresses in the win
dow?
Maybe not. It could be a
Linda Barrett blouse or a few
designer sweaters. All the
same, not your standard gas-
station fare.
Two and a half years ago Dee
Weatherford, owner of the sta
tion, decided to bring his wife
into the business.
“I got tired of her working in
Bryan,” he says.
So Dee and Ann pushed up
the garage doors, lowered the
car lifts and converted almost
half the Texaco into Ann’s Fash
ion Station, a small boutique
carrying women’s clothing.
Some of it is a bit more expen
sive than an oil change or brake
check.
In the winter the store has
carried fur vests which sell for
as much as $800 each, Ann
says. Sweaters, which start at
$30, are priced as high as $200
for a Colleen Toland, hand-
knitted, mohair creation.
“We don’t buy cheap stuff,”
Dee says. “We buy good stuff.”
tfood clothing is not the only
expensive merchandise sold at
the corner of Market and Third
Street. Just inside the front
door, above the usual selection
of oil cans, hang Polaroid shots
of seven airplanes and a heli
copter. Six are marked “sold,”
including the helicopter which
went to a man in Hawaii for
$25,000, Dee says.
Dee’s planes sell all over the
United States for $15,000 to
$25,000, a price the average pi
lot can afford, he says.
He anticipates aviation will
take over the gas station part of
his business some day.
In case it doesn’t, he can fall
back on the car and boat sales
he conducts from the store’s
back parking lot. Behind a
Buick and an Oldsmobile, he
stocks a pontoon boat with a
black and white striped canopy
that looks like it should be
transporting tourists down the
San Antonio River.
Dee hedges when asked
which part of the store does
better, saying that the business’
diversity keeps it going. The
two businesses are financially
separate, Ann explains.
“The only thing that connects
us is the door.”
The real connection is the
Weatherfords themselves. Ev
erything in the shop reflects the
personal interests of its owners,
from the airplane prop over the
window to the dresses below.
Ann wears the same style
sweater hanging in her display
window, and, like Dee, she likes
to fly the planes they sell.
Dee and Ann have been
known to fill in for each other,
Ann selling gas and Dee cloth
ing.
“He knows the stock,” she
says.
But she jokes that Dee
brought her into the business
because, “he didn’t think he
could sell dresses.”
The store began as a gift shop
for the first eight or nine
months it was open. But Ann
liked clothes and she wanted to
use her experience working at
two clothes stores in Biyan/Col-
lege Station.
Besides, the gift store wasn’t
as successful as the clothes
shop. The reason?
“How much a year do I spend
on gifts?” Ann says. “How