This important quote comes from the second stanza that
introduces us to the character of Flick. It is important to read the quote you have singled out
in context of the whole poem and the stanza in which it occurs to understand what Updike is
trying to do with this reference:
Flick stands tall among the idiot pumps
-
Five on a side, the old bubble-head
style,
Their rubber elbows hanging loose and
low.
In this stanza, therefore, Updike
is personifying the pumps and making them seem if they were alive and also comparing them to
Flick. Note how the alliteration of "loose and low" and the description makes them appear as
basketball players themselves. Updike seems to be reinforcing the theme by focussing on what
Flick has become - he may have had skill once, but now he is nothing more than a gas pump
attendant with all of that skill unused and amounting to nothing.
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