By Ron Hayes
OCEAN RIDGE — The gas station was closed that Monday morning, with a sign on the door to tell you why.
“VINNY’S GONE FISHING”
This wasn’t news. Vinny went fishing every chance he got. The news was below.
“11/30/55 – 9/18/23
Love You Forever”
Gulfstream Texaco is the only gas station along State Road A1A in the 47 miles between Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, which makes it unusual.
For almost three decades, Vinny Dinanath made it more than a gas station.
When he died in his wife’s arms, at home in Wellington shortly after midnight the morning of Sept. 18, his family lost a husband, father and father-in-law, the gas station lost an owner, and his neighbors lost a loyal friend, an honest mechanic, and a magical fishing buddy. He was 67.
“He could talk to you about anything — geography, martial arts, history and science,” his wife, Gemma, wrote on Facebook that same afternoon. “He taught so many people how to fish, how to make jigs, how to fix their cars.
“He helped people be better. He loved his family more than anything, and he had a special relationship with animals, especially cats. He worked hard and took pride in everything he did. He was strong, sincere, honest and kind.”
Vinoo Dinanath was born in San Fernando, Trinidad, an industrial city on the island’s southwest coast. In 1985, he and Gemma came to New York City. He worked for Pep Boys. He worked for Firestone. He worked as a mechanic for an Exxon station in Queens.
Eight years later, they left the New York winters behind and came to Florida seeking what so many seek here —independence, warm weather and fish.
“He didn’t want to work for someone else who’d be pressuring him to charge for more hours than it took to do a repair,” Gemma said. “He couldn’t help people that way.”
He found work at a gas station between Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes that had opened in 1948 as a Marathon station, spent time as a Gulf station, and then was born again as a Texaco station.
When the owner gave up the lease a few years later, the Dinanaths took it over.
“The station was Vin’s dream,” Gemma said, and for the next 28 years, they made the dream come true.
Marie Speed, the longtime editor-in-chief of Boca Raton magazine, was already living just across the road when he arrived.
“When you’re a single woman and you have to see a mechanic, you’re filled with dread,” Speed said. “Two guys told me I needed new tires. I went to Vin and he came out and looked at them and said, ‘You don’t need new tires. I’ll tell you when you need new tires.’
“I felt like he was my protector in some way.”
Richard Jones was Ocean Ridge’s police chief from 2014 until this past March, when he took over the Gulf Stream Police Department.
“When I started in Ocean Ridge, Vinny was taking care of all our vehicles,” Jones said. “You could take anything to him, a department vehicle or a personal vehicle. Vinny was our go-to guy.”
In time, the station became a kind of club, a gathering spot for neighbors and friends.
Most afternoons, the men — mostly men — would wander over and claim a lawn chair outside the office to watch the world pass up and down Ocean Boulevard.
“The main rule is, no drugs,” Vinny would tell them. “If you’re a druggie, you can’t hang out here. Also, no idiots. We had one guy that was an idiot, so he got a 99-year ban.”
They told jokes, sipped beers, smoked and chatted with Vinny — mostly about fish.
“Vin was about as serious a fisherman as there is around,” said Charles Kittler, who knew him since moving to Ocean Ridge 20 years ago. “When he wasn’t working, he was either thinking about fishing or fishing.”
Kittler had fished back home in Illinois. Vinny taught him how to fish in an ocean. Later, they fished in Colorado together.
“He loved to drift fish, and he was a good captain on his boat and a very honest gentleman,” Kittler said.
Vinny fished in Cape Cod, Alaska, Colorado, Lake Tahoe, Montauk, Staten Island. To hear his fishing buddies talk, you’d think his way with a fishing rod transcended talent into something almost mystical.
“He’d say, ‘What do you want to catch today?’ and he’d catch it,” said Tyrone Halfhill of Briny Breezes, who fished with Vin almost every Wednesday for years. “He called it dumb luck, but it wasn’t dumb luck. I use the same equipment. He just did something a little bit different.”
They used to fish Lake Okeechobee for crappie, Halfhill remembers.
“He’d get 50 per person and have a big fish fry at the station with anywheres from 20 to 50 people stopping by. Ocean Ridge cops and stuff.”
Bill Armstrong, Ocean Ridge’s public works director, knew Vin for nearly two decades. They fished together on Lake Okeechobee and worked on cars at the station.
“He could fish the sun down,” Armstrong said. “He taught me how to fish for yellowtail snapper. He was kind of like a mentor to me. He was quiet and soft-spoken, but also right to the point. He was a man that words can’t describe.”
A few years ago, when heart and respiratory problems emerged, he stopped working on cars.
Now, his friends wonder, what will happen to Gulfstream Texaco? With Vin gone, will the station go, too?
No, Gemma Dinanath insists. The whole family worked at the station. The station will remain theirs.
“He got everything he wanted,” she said. “He wanted this station, and he wanted to fish, and he wanted to die at home. He knew, and he refused to go to the hospital. He was holding me when he died.”
Vin and Gemma Dinanath were together for 48 years. In addition to her, he is survived by his son, Darryl, of Wellington, and his daughter and son-in-law, Janelle and Miles Hamrick, of Atlanta.
A celebration of his life will be held at Benvenuto Restaurant & Banquet Facility in Boynton Beach on Nov. 29, a day before what would have been his 68th birthday. The celebration is by invitation only.
Comments