CARIBOU, Maine – Dale and Scott St. Peter were in elementary school when their parents, Leo and Jeanette St. Peter, took over the Citgo filling station and repair shop on Caribou’s Main Street in 1973.
It did not take long for the brothers to realize that they would continue the family tradition one day.
“We went to school at Hilltop [Elementary, just down the road]. I would hide behind the trees until Mom left so I could skip school and hang out at the shop,” Dale St. Peter said.
He and Scott began helping their father at the shop in middle school and have worked in the business ever since.
The shop became Leo & Sons Citgo in 2003, making Scott and Dale the co-owners. To this day, Leo, now 79, can recall how he first became a business owner.
The then 29-year-old father of four was working at Pat’s Automotive and learned that the shop and gas station, which was not Citgo-affiliated at that time, was in need of a new owner. The station and shop first opened in 1953.
Leo had never been a business owner before but jumped on the opportunity to have something of his own to pass on to his children.
“We started with a 1953 Ford pickup wrecker and a year later we bought a new truck,” Leo St. Peter said. “It was 1995 when we got a flatbed wrecker. We had the first four-wheel-drive wrecker in town.”
The business has been a Citgo-affiliated diesel oil filling station since 1993.
From the beginning, his children learned about work ethic from watching him and the shop staff repair cars, Leo St. Peter said.
“They would get off the school bus and hang out here until we went home,” he said.
Now 58 and 55 years old, respectively, Dale and Scott have seen their father continue to help out even after experiencing health issues in recent years.
“He’s good with vehicles and customers. He still drives the tow trucks,” Scott St. Peter said. “It keeps him going.”
As the sons get older, the business’ future remains uncertain. All three of Dale and Scott’s children have pursued other careers.
But for now, Dale, Scott and their parents remain committed to serving the loyal customers they’ve gained throughout the last five decades.
We’ve got good people who have been with us a long time, so we can’t complain about that,” Dale St. Peter said.
