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Old gas stations

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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33,715
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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
My grandmother used to have a lady come to the house every couple of months to give her a permanent, in the days when hairdressers made house calls, and I myself am a devotee of the "home perm." But in the natural state we all had dead-straight hair. That forehead on my mother comes from my grandfather's side of the line, his extended all the way to the back of his head.
 
Messages
10,930
Location
My mother's basement
IMG_3361.jpeg
 
Messages
10,930
Location
My mother's basement
^^^^^^^
It’s a handsome structure.

My brother worked in one of those “modern” Shell stations 50 or more years ago. He escaped an attempted robbery at gunpoint there as he was closing for the night. He had a bay door open while he was warming up his Vespa scooter when the gunman appeared and directed him to the back room, where he presumed the money was. My brother instead jumped on his scooter and got TF outta there.

A friend owns a property that started life as a gas station, 60-some years ago, I’m guessing. There’s no point in disguising that it was once a gas station, I advised him. Attempting that would come at a great expense and likely wouldn’t result in better looking building.

His tenants have operated a “dispensary” there for several years now. There are divided windows where the bay doors were and the fixed awning remains over the existing people doorway and wraps around the corner of the building to where the rest rooms used to be. It looks good. Indeed, the best looking converted gas stations I’ve seen made no attempt to disguise their beginnings.
 
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Messages
10,930
Location
My mother's basement
This famous image was created by Ed Ruscha in 1966. He made it in an edition of 50 and has produced other variations on it since. Three years ago I posted in this thread one of those variations, which my source indicated was from 1963, but other, apparently more reliable, sources say that was in error.
I recently bought a 24 X 36 print of it on canvas, made to order in China. Were copyrights violated? I dunno, but I do know that printers here in the U.S. are also producing copies (at much higher prices).

IMG_0149.jpeg
 
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Messages
13,669
Location
down south
This famous image was created by Ed Ruscha in 1966. He made it in an edition of 50 and has produced other variations on it since. Three years ago I posted in this thread one of those variations, which my source indicated was from 1963, but other, apparently more reliable, sources say that was in error.
I recently bought a 24 X 36 print of it on canvas, made to order in China. Were copyrights violated? I dunno, but I do know that printers here in the U.S. are also producing copies (at much higher prices).

View attachment 608090
That is some very cool artwork.
 
Messages
10,930
Location
My mother's basement
This famous image was created by Ed Ruscha in 1966. He made it in an edition of 50 and has produced other variations on it since. Three years ago I posted in this thread one of those variations, which my source indicated was from 1963, but other, apparently more reliable, sources say that was in error.
I recently bought a 24 X 36 print of it on canvas, made to order in China. Were copyrights violated? I dunno, but I do know that printers here in the U.S. are also producing copies (at much higher prices).

View attachment 608090
IMG_3428.jpeg
 
Messages
10,930
Location
My mother's basement
A ‘64 Lincoln Continental under the canopy of the faux gas station at the Motel Eldorado in the Czech Republic, where the theme is 1950s/‘60s Americana.

If it were here in God’s Country I’d avoid it, seeing how it’s obviously not the Real Deal. But I’m glad it exists where it does. Judging from the photos, of the neon sign and the motel structure itself and the diner and all, it appears they got the bones right, mostly. But, as is often the case with such period-themed establishments, they slathered perhaps a bit too much icing on a perfectly good cake.

There’s good reason for the enduring romantic appeal of America at mid-century, the more westerly regions of it especially. Exuberant, it what it was.

IMG_0162.jpeg
 
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