Old gas stations

[Ghostsoldier]

Various.

Rob

 

[3fingers]

Ouch.

Rob

I don't know where the sign is, but the truck is from a little tiny town just east of here. Funny what pops up on the internet.

 

[2jakes]

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Various.

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

That Texaco is a rare style -- it was the last type built in reference to the 30s-50s Teague style, starting in the early sixties, and continuing until the "Matawan" style with the fake stone facing on the front was introduced in the middle of the decade. Compared to more than 10,000 of the original Teague style, very few of these "pylon" variants were built, and even fewer survive even close to intact.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you look up "half-assed" in the dictionary, this is the picture you find.

 

[2jakes]

If you look up "half-assed" in the dictionary, this is the picture you find.

half-assed
Dictionary result for half-assed
/ˈhafast/
adjective
INFORMAL

1. done with little effort or care; incompetent or inadequate.
   "a half-assed attempt to rectify the problem. Example: Exxon Station!

Somebody call Code Compliance......please

 

[3fingers]

If you look up "half-assed" in the dictionary, this is the picture you find.

That is awful. I'd be ashamed to have been involved.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Various.

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

Various.

So, Lizzie, did your family's station give away "free groceries with every gas sale?"

 

[LizzieMaine]

We had a full line of delicious packaged snacks, including Tom's Toasted Peanut Bars, Funyuns, multiple varieties of Andy Capp's Fries, and these individually wrapped pickled sausages made from beef by-products (lips, tails, cheeks, etc.), and coin-op dispensers for salted peanuts and M&Ms (neither of which had been refilled since 1965 because my uncle used to use the key to clean his pipe and lost it somewhere). We also sold Coke, Orange Crush, and S&O'K brand sodas (from a machine), cigarettes (from a machine), Totem brand cigars (3 for 7 cents, for when only the finest will do), pipes, pine tree air fresheners, Texaco Home Lubricant, Wynn's X-Tend, Solder-Seal, STP Oil and Gas Treatment, Shiek brand condoms, and a line of what I presumed to be hot stereo equipment that said uncle picked up from some guy with a truck. And we at one time or another gave away felt Fire Chief hats, regular calendars, marine calendars, printed balloons, and Top Value stamps. But we never thought of giving away groceries. I think we might have missed a trick.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

There is some type of irony in selling sausages and condoms at the same station.

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

To say nothing of Texaco Home Lubricant. We were a "full service" station.

 

[Zombie_61]

To say nothing of Texaco Home Lubricant. We were a "full service" station.

Too...many...jokes...must...resist...

 

[ChiTownScion]

We had a full line of delicious packaged snacks, including Tom's Toasted Peanut Bars, Funyuns, multiple varieties of Andy Capp's Fries, and these individually wrapped pickled sausages made from beef by-products (lips, tails, cheeks, etc.), and coin-op dispensers for salted peanuts and M&Ms (neither of which had been refilled since 1965 because my uncle used to use the key to clean his pipe and lost it somewhere). We also sold Coke, Orange Crush, and S&O'K brand sodas (from a machine), cigarettes (from a machine), Totem brand cigars (3 for 7 cents, for when only the finest will do), pipes, pine tree air fresheners, Texaco Home Lubricant, Wynn's X-Tend, Solder-Seal, STP Oil and Gas Treatment, Shiek brand condoms, and a line of what I presumed to be hot stereo equipment that said uncle picked up from some guy with a truck. And we at one time or another gave away felt Fire Chief hats, regular calendars, marine calendars, printed balloons, and Top Value stamps. But we never thought of giving away groceries. I think we might have missed a trick.

What I remember were those Texaco Fire Chief helmets with the loud speaker. I really wanted one when I was a kid, but my parents couldn't take a hint.

A few years later my dad got me an authentic helmet from his department: one of the old style leather models that he got because they were being phased out. By any objective standard, a better deal for me.. but I still think that I could have had fun with that loud speaker wreaking havoc around the house.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The carcass of one of those helmets is somewhere in my mother's cellar to this day. From what I remember of it, the speaker thing stopped working very very early on. I suspect my mother herself had something to do with this.

Texaco put out a whole series of these premiums around Christmas time, a different one each year. The hat was probably the most popular, but there was also a fire engine, a scale model of an oil tanker, and a couple of different tank trucks. The only girl-oriented thing they ever did was a Barbie-type doll one year, which I thought was pretty lame. Although you could try to make her ride on the back of the fire truck with a little effort.

 

[Fading Fast]

The only gas-station promotion I remember really wanting was the Hess toy tanker truck, which was promoted heavily in NJ at Christmas time.

The one I wanted looked a tiny bit different than this one, but this is the closest pic I could find in a quick search.

The Barbie doll could have been cool had they given her gas-station attendant overalls, etc.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Various.

Rob