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Lizzie will have a more expansive and accurate answer, but here goes mine. The Belt across the chest just looks to me like support for a pretty heavy change dispenser.
As to the tie thing, I pumped gas in the late '70s and T-shirts and jeans were fine at most stations, except (memory a bit fuzzy on this point), Hess stations still had white overalls - not sure about a tie underneath.
That said, from pictorial history (fortunately, I'm not that old), it seems that from post WWII to the late '60s, a reasonable number (but not all) stations - especially many of the national / large regional brands - had their attendants wear ties and, if wearing overalls, to wear them as in your picture.
It was, IMHO, a cultural thing as you'll see taxi drivers, delivery men, etc. also wearing ties in the same time period. Sure, corporations and the Boys for Marketing had an agenda behind it, but still, wearing ties was quite common in the culture even for those not in office jobs.
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