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Old gas stations

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
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Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
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The Vacuum Oil Company trademarked the disturbing Pegasus logo in 1911 and by the 1930s was marketing Pegasus Motor Spirits and Mobiloil.
 
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New York City
Before Vacuum Oil merged with Socony, Mobiloil was marketed under the brand name "Gargoyle Mobiloil."

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The Gargoyle, which was even creepier if possible than the Flying Red Horse, remained part of the Mobiloil logo into the mid-1940s. Brrrrr.
While I get that they were going for the classic gargoyle leaning over the side of a building, that one just looks like a thalidomide dinosaur who drank too much the night before.
 
Last edited:
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17,196
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Now this is really "disturbing"! :(
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A motorist enjoying a smoke at a rural Shell gas station. 1949

I'm sure Lizzie has plenty of these stories, but when I pumped gas one summer, it was amazing how many customers thought nothing of smoking just like this guy standing next to his car being fueled up.

And let's not forget that, usually, the ground around the pumps has plenty of gas puddles and a general saturation of gasoline and there are oil-soaked rags around, etc. Basically, it's one big tinderbox, but again, despite everything I said to them, some just kept on smoking.

That aside, that is one heck of a cute car.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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33,728
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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
I'm sure Lizzie has plenty of these stories, but when I pumped gas one summer, it was amazing how many customers thought nothing of smoking just like this guy standing next to his car being fueled up.

And let's not forget that, usually, the ground around the pumps has plenty of gas puddles and a general saturation of gasoline and there are oil-soaked rags around, etc. Basically, it's one big tinderbox, but again, despite everything I said to them, some just kept on smoking.

That aside, that is one heck of a cute car.

There was an Esso station up in Hampden, Maine, right across from the Route 1 turnoff that leads to I-95, where some fool lit up a cigar near the pump as his car was being fueled -- and it ended up blowing him thru the front wall of the building. Miraculously, he wasn't killed.

My grandfather and uncle always had a pipe or a cigarette going while they were working on cars. Never had an explosion, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
 
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12,734
Location
Northern California
I'm sure Lizzie has plenty of these stories, but when I pumped gas one summer, it was amazing how many customers thought nothing of smoking just like this guy standing next to his car being fueled up.

And let's not forget that, usually, the ground around the pumps has plenty of gas puddles and a general saturation of gasoline and there are oil-soaked rags around, etc. Basically, it's one big tinderbox, but again, despite everything I said to them, some just kept on smoking.

That aside, that is one heck of a cute car.
It is often enough that I see people smoking while pumping gas. I guess they figure that since nothing bad has come of it so far, it will not happen to them. :D
 

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