The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion Quiz

Answer: Sarah Jane (Sookie) Poole

Sookie Poole was the daughter of Lenore Simmons Krackenberry, who had Narcissistic Personality Disorder and NEVER let Sookie forget the fact that she was a Simmons. Lenore constantly reminded Sookie that she had been in labor with her for forty-eight hours, and forced her to join different organizations that she thought were what the elite in society joined. "You owe it to the Simmons name to be a leader in society, Sookie!" her mother always said.

She drove poor Sookie to distraction!

Answer: Wink's Phillips 66

In 1908, Stanislaw Jurdabralinski came to America from Poland. He and his wife Linka lived in Pulaski, Wisconsin.

They had five children: Fritzi, Wencent (Wink for short), Gertrude, Tula and Sophie. They bought land, and built a house on one lot and the filling station on the other. Being open twenty four hours, they did a great business, especially when Fritzi and Wink started working there in their teens, attracting the younger crowds.

Answer: Winged Victory

Lenore always wore her hair in a perfect winged-back flip, and Buck said she looked like something that should be on the hood of a car, so they secretly started referring to her as "Winged Victory."

Answer: True

Lenore constantly reminded Sookie that she had been in labor with her for forty-eight hours. With her disorder, Lenore truly believed it. But one day Sookie, who handled all of Lenore's mail, received a packet of documents, including her birth certificate and adoption papers. According to her birth certificate, Sookie's name was Ginger Jurdabralinski, and listed her mother as Fritzi Jurdabralinski, father unknown.

Of course sixty year old Sookie was very upset to learn this after all these years, especially after Lenore's constant harping about her being a Simmons. She decided to try to learn more about her biological mother.

Answer: Billy Bevins

Billy was a skywriting/barnstorming pilot who had a flying circus and was hired by Phillips Petroleum to advertise their filling stations around the country by writing "Phillips 66" in the sky with an arrow pointing down to the station.

After he did this for Wink's Phillips 66, the Jurdabralinski family invited him for lunch. He was attracted to Fritzi, so he asked her out on a date. After that, he offered to teach both her and Wink to fly.

The Pulaski newspaper printed a story about Fritzi when she received her pilot's license. The headline read:

MISS FRITZI JURDABRALINSKI,
PULASKI'S OWN AMELIA EARHART
JOINS FLYING CIRCUS

Everyone in town was very proud of her, except her mother. She was afraid for Fritzi, but accepted the inevitable anyway. Fritzi joined Billy's flying circus as a wing-walker. She was brave enough to go out on the wings and dance, stand on her head and jump through hoops while in the air!

Answer: False

Linka was going to sell the station, as most of the men in Pulaski enlisted, were drafted, or left to work in factories. But Fritzi talked her into letting the girls run it. Gertrude was in charge of changing tires and fixing flats, Fritzi pumped gas, checked under the hoods and drove the tow truck. Tula did most of the mechanical work and Sophie was the cashier.

They put ads in the papers and had billboard ads set up all over Wisconsin that read:

"Is your car ailing? Let us kiss it and make it better.
"Car dirty? Let us houseclean your car.
"The prettiest mechanics in the state of Wisconsin.
"Let us put the spark back in your plugs.
"Fresh coffee, sandwiches, homemade candy and Polish sausage inside.
"Mothers, we'll change your wipers and your baby's diapers."

They also included a kissing booth, and anyone who donated anything to the war effort received a kiss from one of the girls. Being the only all-girl filling station anywhere, business boomed.

Answer: True

The WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program was suggested to the military by two highly skilled American women pilots; Jackie Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love. Once the military agreed, telegrams were sent to a list of women who had pilot licenses asking if they were interested.

Fritzi was thrilled and reported to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas for training. Later, after Stanislaw returned from the sanitorium, the other Jurdabralinski girls followed, except Tula, because she felt someone ought to stay and help run the station.

Answer: No

Sookie finally got up enough courage to call Fritzi after finding out that she had served in the WASPS. Fritzi lived in Solvang, California at the time. She invited Sookie to come for a visit, so she could explain everything to her.

Once Sookie met her, Fritzi dropped a verbal grenade in Sookie's lap:

"Damn, I hate to do this to you, pal, but I'm afraid I have another shock for you. I'm not your mother."

Poor Sookie was floored. Fritzi went on to tell her that her real mother was her sister Sophie, who had fallen in love with a British pilot, and gave birth to Sookie. She had no intentions of ever giving Sookie up after the pilot left her because he was already married. She made Fritzi promise to never shame the family by telling them Sookie was illegitimate. Later, Sophie was one of the thirty eight pilots who died in crashes. So Fritzi took Sookie to an orphanage. They required the parents names, so Fritzi put her name down as the mother, and listed the father as unknown. She wrote down that Sookie's name was Ginger Jurdabralinski, after her favorite actress, Ginger Rogers.

When telling Sookie this, she also told her that Sophie had named her Fritzi Willinka Jurdabralinski, after her favorite sister!

Answer: True

Sookie invented a bird feeder that only the smaller birds could feed from after having problems with blue jays eating all of the birdseed, leaving none for the smaller birds. She named the feeder "Blue Jay Away" and it became very popular world-wide.

Answer: No

Sookie felt that due to Lenore's disorder, she would probably deny the truth since she had convinced herself that she was Sookie's natural mother, so she decided to let her go on believing it.