You know you are getting old when:

[HudsonHawk]

One summer I worked pumping gas for a family-owned gas station. The owner made all his money - so he told me - on repairs (he had three bays, I think) and viewed selling gas as a necessary annoyance to bring in repair customers.

Most stations today make their money at the convenience store. They sell a lot of fuel, but the profits on gas are razor thin. Junk snacks on the other hand...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Up here it's beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets. Those are also the items most frequently stolen in convenience store burglaries.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The Gulf brand was owned by Chevron and licensed to Cumberland Farms, jobbers out of Massachusetts. In 2010, Chevron sold the name outright to them and I think just last year Cumberland Farms sold the name to someone else. The Gulf stations you see now have no connection whatsoever to the Gulf company from 40 years ago.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Cumbies" has always been a major player in the gas-beer-cigs-lotto game in New England. They also make decent pizza.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Cumbies" has always been a major player in the gas-beer-cigs-lotto game in New England. They also make decent pizza.

Drank their milk growing up and, at one point, they made a quite tasty cheese danish that they sold out of a small bakery case.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Are the gas-stations in the US offering these great priceworth Brasil-cigars, too?

 

[2jakes]

^^^^^
Gas stations in my area do not sell cigars at all.
At one time these places did have cigarette vending machines.
But like the soda water vending machines,
they have “gone up in smoke”.

 

[2jakes]

You know you are getting old when:


I recall the “Cuban cigar” as being the holy grail of smokes
when I was growing up but was not available in the US.

The cigar experts would probably know better & say
"I’m full of smoke”

 

[LizzieMaine]

At our station, we sold "Totem" brand 3-for-a-quarter cigars, made in Boston from ground-up bits of old rope. Or at least that's what they smelled like.

We also had a cigarette machine that was usually empty, a Toms candy bar machine we had to get rid of because it couldn't price higher than a dime, and a pair of gumball type machines containing bulk M&Ms and rancid salted peanuts. We had long since lost the key to open the globes on these machines, so they could never be refilled, but somehow they never were empty, either.

My uncle was a mark for every traveling salesman who came thru town, so we ended up carrying all sorts of other odd merchandise, including pipes, pine-tree air fresheners that smelled like cleaning fluid, Andy Capp's Hot Fries, condoms, and a line of pickled sausages made from beef lips. He also got into a deal with some shady character to sell "discontinued" stereo equipment that I always figured was actually fenced.

 

[2jakes]

^^^^^
As kids we used to buy “Trojans” that were available in the men’s restrooms.
They were like a “badge of pride” that we kept in our wallets among the gang.

But that’s as far as it went.

 

[tonyb]

Are the gas-stations in the US offering these great priceworth Brasil-cigars, too?

The cheapest gas near me (aside from what I might get at a discount at the fuel stops attached to supermarket chains, where I "earn" a dime off per gallon for each hundred bucks I spend in the store) is at a place that sells lots of tobacco products. They even have a humidor, which they promote on their roadside signage.

I don't know how that compares to what you refer over in your fair land. And this gas station near me is the only one of its kind of which I am aware.

 

[2jakes]

You know you are getting old when:

You get pleasure from things that you find from the past.
More so when they are still in the box with original price tag & instructions.

 

[HudsonHawk]

You know you are getting old when:


I recall the “Cuban cigar” as being the holy grail of smokes
when I was growing up but was not available in the US.

The cigar experts would probably know better & say
"I’m full of smoke”

Cuban cigars are still not available in the US, at least not legally. Their top of line smokes are still considered the best in the world, but due to the embargo many fine cigars are being produced out of other places such as Honduras and Nicaragua.

And speaking of cheap cigars...I remember the days before cable and satellite TV and the only sports you ever got to watch was one game on the weekend. I remember Dutch Masters cigars sponsoring the NBA game of the week. Red Auerbach did a halftime deal chomping on his big stogie.

 

[2jakes]

Cuban cigars are still not available in the US, at least not legally. Their top of line smokes are still considered the best in the world, but due to the embargo many fine cigars are being produced out of other places such as Honduras and Nicaragua.

And speaking of cheap cigars...I remember the days before cable and satellite TV and the only sports you ever got to watch was one game on the weekend. I remember Dutch Masters cigars sponsoring the NBA game of the week. Red Auerbach did a halftime deal chomping on his big stogie.

During the “western” movie craze of the late 60s,
I tried the little cigars just like “Clint Eastwood”.

But not being an aficionado of tobacco smoking, I got sick
and soon after, gave it up!

Years later a friend offered me a Cohiba cigar,
but it was a waste as I did not find it very enjoyable.
Like wine, it probably takes time to develop a taste for it.

 

[tonyb]

I was a heavy cigarette smoker for many years. Never was a cigar smoker, really, outside of those rare and largely ceremonial occasions when a cigar was a central component in the ritual. Too strong, too harsh.

But even I understood why Cuban cigar were much coveted, having puffed on a few illicit examples which found their way into God's Country. (That border between British Columbia and Washington State is quite porous, or was, anyway. U.S. citizens bopping up to Vancouver often returned with Cuban cigars and codeine pills.)

 

[Stearmen]

During the “western” craze of the late 60s,
I tried several of the little cigars just like “Clint Eastwood”.

But not being an aficionado of tobacco smoking, I got sick
and soon after, gave it up!

Years later a friend offered me one, very expensive,
but it was a waste as I did not find it very enjoyable.
Like wine, it probably takes time to develop a taste for it.

When I was playing Little League Base Ball, a friend got a cigar and some chewing tobacco, not a good combination for an 11 year old! Needless to say, we spent our time behind the backstop. On the other hand, one of my beast friends father was a Lutheran minister and he smoked a pipe with the most pleasant smelling tobacco. Not sure why I never took up the pipe, I most certainly know why I never smoked cigars or chewed!

 

[Trenchfriend]

The thing is:

In Germany, the famous industrial "Tropenschatz Brasil" shortfiller-cigar (Mata-Fina Brasil) is still available, cheap and successful, because it's just a good warm taste for such a cheap cigar. And it's advantage is, that it's available in really every german gas-station, so everyone can get a cheap shortfiller-cigar, which is curiously tasteful.

The trick is always, to get new delivered ones, because their not welded in plastic-foil. But, if you know how to smoke it, their really nice. That's, why they are still so succesful.
And I think, the Mata-Fina Brasil-tobacco isn't bad.

 

[2jakes]

When I was playing Little League Base Ball, a friend got a cigar and some chewing tobacco, not a good combination for an 11 year old! Needless to say, we spent our time behind the backstop. On the other hand, one of my best friends father was a Lutheran minister and he smoked a pipe with the most pleasant smelling tobacco. Not sure why I never took up the pipe, I most certainly know why I never smoked cigars or chewed!

In my early twenties, I bought a Missouri meerschaum corn cob pipe.
The pipe tobacco I used was called “Cherry Blend”.
The aroma was pleasant but the smoke was very sweet.

After a week or so, I gave it up because every morning I’d
wake up with my mouth very dry & felt like I had swallowed
sand with camel droppings.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Old old Germany:

1. Apple pipe-tobacco
2. Cherry ...
3. Vanilla ...

And of course, it have to be the cheapest crap of massmarket, woohoo.

 

[2jakes]

Old old Germany:

1. Apple pipe-tobacco
2. Cherry ...
3. Vanilla ...
And of course, it have to be the cheapest crap of massmarket, woohoo.

Und darf ich hinzufügen...

No excuse... but as a novice with no knowledge or experience in this field.
If you were to offer me an expensive blend of fine tobacco...

it would still taste like...

and I quote the great L&M....

“Ground-up bits of old rope.”.