If you grew up in Historic Brookhaven sometime between the 1970s and early 1980s, you likely encountered Brookhaven Bobby. He stood in the Amoco station parking lot at the corner of Dresden Drive and Peachtree Road, waving at cars and greeting customers. The Amoco was torn down and the land is now part of the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe MARTA station, which opened in 1984.

 

Longtime Historic Brookhaven residents tell tales of encountering Bobby while getting gas and then ordering barbecue from his mother, who worked at the barbecue restaurant across the street. Barbecue Kitchen was located on the corner of Dresden Drive and Peachtree Road, where the Waffle House now stands.

 

“Brookhaven Bobby used to stand and wave at all the cars when they drove by,” says West Brookhaven Drive resident Alfie Means. Alfie grew up on East Brookhaven Drive. “I was a child in the back seat of my mother’s Custom Cruiser and we used to wave and say, ‘Hey Bobby!’”

 

Mary Jo Means, Alfie’s mom who along with husband Al raised four boys in Historic Brookhaven, describes Bobby as “sweet to the bone.” She notes he was the unofficial mascot of the Amoco station.

 

“He always wore a big T-shirt, high tops, red baseball cap, and his pants high-pockets,” she says. High pockets is a 1970s slang term for high-waisted pants worn above the navel.  “To know him was to love him. He was a meeter and a greeter. When I was driving carpool and would stop to get gas, he would come to the car window and try to talk to the kids.”

 

Bobby is a popular topic on the “Atlanta History Files … A group for history and great memories” Facebook page. He is fondly remembered in over a dozen posts, some with almost a hundred comments. Several comments note Bobby’s favorite sayings, including: “Boom, boom Ford. Putt, putt Chevrolet.”

 

Bobby had unnamed disabilities. When the Amoco station was torn down to make way for MARTA, Bobby reportedly moved to another gas station in Chamblee but then disappeared from the public eye.

 

Before MARTA tracks were laid, the Norfolk Southern railroad line’s tracks abutted the property of businesses across Peachtree Road from Historic Brookhaven. The tracks are still there, to the east of the MARTA tracks. Prior to Bobby’s day as the Amoco greeter, Oglethorpe University had its own train station across Peachtree Road from the college. That building also was torn down when the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe MARTA station was built and lines laid going north.