Old gas stations

[LizzieMaine]

I know they went out of style in the gas station business simply because the profit margin of selling gas got so low in the 1970s that most operators simply couldn't afford to participate in giveaway programs -- everything but the bare operational essentials got cut to the bone in those days. A lot of giveaways had to be *purchased from the oil company* by the local dealer to be handed out as traffic builders, but when the energy crisis hit, very few dealers were willing to lay out the cash needed to take part in those kinds of programs. The last thing we gave away was calendars, which we kept up right to the bitter end, but the days of free plastic Fire Chief hats for the kiddies ended in the 1960s.

 

[tonyb]

I recall drinking glasses given away at gas stations ("Free with minimum 8 gallon fill-up"), and "gas wars" that saw prices dip into the teens of cents per gallon.

As a teenager I worked for a fellow who owned a Texaco service station (check the oil, clean the windshield) and a Gull (not Gulf) entirely self-serve station, where I sat in a booth and took in money and sold cigarettes and snacks. I much preferred my shifts at the Texaco. Sitting in that little booth had me feeling like a man in a cell.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Rob

Ah, all mid- to late Sixties, I'll warrant. First pic has a '67 or '68 Mustang, a ca. '65 Chevy Impala, and an early-Sixties "Fintail" Mercedes. (Heck, the car cut off in the foreground might be a "Ponton" Merc, as MB offered a fabric "sunroof" on those.) The second, with .30/gallon for Gulftane, can't be any later than '72 or so. And the third has a ca. '64 Thunderbird and the taillight of a '55 Chevy.

Are all these of the same station at different times? The numbers written on them are very close to being in sequence.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

I believe they are the same station, based on the source.

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

If not mistaken, its held near the end
of May.

If I had my "druthers"...
Little Bohemia! (Dillinger & Co.)

View attachment 77426
I've never been in that neck of the woods.
I hear tell it's nice place to visit.

Me, too.

I visited Crown Point back in 2015, and got some photos of the old jail, where JD escaped using his wooden gun.

The courthouse has some cool JD artifacts in its basement museum, too...including the pants he was wearing at the Biograph, on his last night...still has his bloodstains in them.

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

In a similar vein of automobilia and petroliana, if you guys are interested, I created another thread about tourist cabins and motor courts: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/tourist-cabins-auto-and-motor-courts.90833/#post-2266914

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Hanover, New Hampshire, 1953

Rob

 

[2jakes]

4th OF JULY celebration, St. Helena Island, S.C.
(1940s)

(Color slides by The Library of Congress.)

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[Benzadmiral]

Hanover, New Hampshire, 1953
View attachment 77640
Rob

So, a Packard dealership in the last years of the marque?

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

Rob

My mom used to wear a head scarf like
this lady when doing chores.
With one exception, I don't see too many
wearing them today.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ Note the station's Deco lines and wrap around window - wonderful

⇧ They look great - like they are having fun mugging it up for the picture

 

[2jakes]

I recall the gas station windows, but it was
the downtown Neisner’s Store wrap-around window displays
during the Christmas holidays that are very vivid for me.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

This kid is wearing the “outlaw” jeans with the rear rivets
in the back pockets.

In the 1920s, about the time Lee was introducing the first zipper fly, Levi Strauss was deleting the crotch rivet. Chafed horsemen had pressed the company for years to remove it, but it took a fly-fishing trip by the chairman of the board to do so. As he crouched near a campfire listening to a story, that central copper rivet heated up nicely. The chairman bolted upright—and the rivet went. Later, with the universal acceptance of jeans, the back-pocket rivets that scratched school desks, dining room chairs, saddles and car fenders became extinct.



A couple of years ago, I found a pair of USA made denims
with rear pocket rivets from Cone Mills.
I wear them on occasion and are more comfortable than
the ones made today.

But I’ve been banned from sitting in class at schools!

 

[David Conwill]

Not strictly a gas station, but it appears the Widtsoe Mercantile Company sold Texaco gasoline in 1936.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ "Sinclair Gasoline" but with a long red car - where the heck is the dinosaur?

 

[Benzadmiral]

⇧ "Sinclair Gasoline" but with a long red car - where the heck is the dinosaur?

It was a baby dinosaur. The long red car ran him over.