Mark shares growing up at his family’s Union 76 service station, early Jeeping and Baja Bug adventures, club rides every Sunday, and a childhood shaped by mud, mountains, and motors.
State Senator Maynard has a storied history in off-road, including wrenching at NHRA, Gravelrama memories and fighting for expanding OHV opportunities. Fighting the good fight in the state of West Virginia, Mark supports private parks, national advocacy and lessons learned everywhere being shared with all.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:12.180] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I’ll be talking about life, politics, and off-road with West Virginia Senator Mark R. Maynard. All right, Mark Maynard. So good to have you on the podcast.
[00:01:27.650] – Big Rich Klein
I’m looking forward to this. We first met a couple of years ago at the ORMHOF Gala, and we had some conversations about off-road and legislation. And it’s good to have you on the podcast.
[00:01:40.660] – Mark R Maynard
It’s my pleasure, Rich. I’m looking forward to this.
[00:01:43.840] – Big Rich Klein
So the first question Where were you born and raised?
[00:01:47.720] – Mark R Maynard
Well, I was born in Huntington, West Virginia. That’s the big city near me, a population of about 50,000. And my mom and dad lived and still live south of there, about a half hour, a little south of a town called Wayne. It’s got a population of about 2,000. My mom and dad operated a Union 76 service station at the time. We still have the business, but we no longer sell gas there. I grew up as a kid at this two-pump full-service gas station that my dad usually had one employee and did service work and had a car lot, salvage yard, and a towing service, and anything automotive, they did it.
[00:02:33.040] – Big Rich Klein
I would imagine that automobiles was in your blood from early on. I can remember working while in high school at a full-service Chevron station in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cars would come in, wash the windshield, of course, put the fuel in for the people, check the air pressure, ask them if they wanted to check the oil and all that stuff. It was a different What time?
[00:03:01.380] – Mark R Maynard
It was. It was the good old days that had the little rubber hose that strung out next to the island and had a little bell inside that would ring when somebody would pull across the next to the pump island.
[00:03:14.140] – Big Rich Klein
You had that ding, ding? Yeah. I know it well. I would imagine that you got started working there pretty early.
[00:03:24.780] – Mark R Maynard
Yeah, I grew up, I was doing everything. My dad would let me on cars and progressed and turned wrenches. It was like a manager of his used car lot. I would detail them and get them ready to sell. But before that, though, the drive of the parking lot in the evenings, proved to be a great place for me to ride my big wheel. There you go. So I had a lot of fun. READ MORE
