WOW A RETURN TO THE PAST in a nice way

I know this has nothing to do with PCa but a couple of local gas stations are now pumping your gas for you, could this start back up a tradition that was lost in the 70's? I know I have read reports where pumping gas is one of the worst ways for catching the virus. Cheap gas ( well by today's standard ) and then get it pumped for you one of the bright spots for today! I told my grandson we would pick one positive thing a day, and this is mine!

Larry

Yes, service at the pump is being offered at some gas stations here in the Midwest, once again!

I definitely remember full-service gas stations. There was one on the corner, down the street from my boyhood home.

Remember the gas attendant asking how much fuel you wanted?

The common phrase was, "Fill 'er up, please!"

While you were waiting, the gas station attendant washed and shined all your car windows and would occasionally check your tires and oil levels, under the hood.

Being a gas station attendant was a "first job" for a lot of teenagers, back in the day.

Before my time, one of my grandfathers owned two filling stations, one along the historic Lincoln Highway.

As kids, my mom ran the cash register and sold bottles of soda pop and candy bars to travelers -- while my teenaged uncle pumped gas --- in their father's gas station --- when they were kids, growing up in the Midwest.

From those days, my mom had an awesome coin collection --- saving coveted coins from the cash register.

My grandfather had HUNDREDS of very old silver dollars -- tucked away in empty cigar boxes --- saved from the cash register at his two gas stations. I still use the Lincoln Highway when driving back to my hometown.

In my hometown, they also handed out S & H Green Trading Stamps, with every gasoline purchase -- which families would collect, and redeem for household goods. The grocery store handed those prize stamps out, too.

Definitely remember FULL-SERVICE DAYS at the gas station! You often see it in the plots of retro TV shows and old movies. Welcome back to Mayberry ---Sheriff Andy Taylor, Deputy Barney Fife, Opie, and Aunt Bea!

History repeats itself!
Cyclone - Hoping Iowa State University Will Play Football This Fall !

Post Edited (Cyclone-ISU) : 4/11/2020 11:38:13 AM (GMT-6)

It's easy to sentimentalize about the past, about how much better things were years ago in certain ways, but here's an area where it's true.

Cyclone is entirely right in his description of gas station full services in the past, and I also remember them as a kid in the 1950s.

I even remember a station in town back then where the attendant would offer to pull out a small whisk broom and pan he carried, and sweep out your car floors if you requested it! Really!

Ah, yes, the good old days that, in this way anyway, actually were that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpeyfdhldoe

(BTW, those of us with even a little experience in auto mechanics have to snicker at a distinct flaw in the above commercial, when the attendant so casually unscrews and removes the radiator cap while checking under the car's hood. Good way to get a face full of boiling water if that car's been driven for even a short while!)

So what happened to change things, what happened to get us to the point where we both have to pump our own gas as well as clean our own windows and check our own tires?

Here's an article that talks briefly about the move to self-service, but the operative info from it being

" ... The oil crisis of the 1970s marked the beginning of the end for the full service station. Oil companies figured that customers wanted to pump their own gas in exchange for saving a few pennies. Pretty soon, the attendants were no longer needed. Also, the process of getting gas at a full service station took about 10-15 minutes, which sadly is considered too long in today's high paced, impatient world."

https://www.goretro.com/2011/07/whatever-happened-tofull-service-gas.html

By the time I was in high school, the very first self-service gas station opened in my hometown --- as full-service stations began to fade away.

To earn money for college, I got a job running the cash register at the self-service station and convenience store.

Every once in a while, though, an elderly citizen would stop inside --- often an old friend of my grandparents, and meekly ask if I would come outside the store and pump gas for them, since they had never pumped gas before!

A few of these elderly townspeople --- less meek and timid --- would ask me to teach them HOW to pump their own gas!

Oh yeah --- I should mention ---- I only got paid about $3.00 an hour, which my dad wisely invested for me --- to put away for college, but the owner of the new convenience store and self-service gas station certainly made a small FORTUNE, over the years!

Stocked with groceries, beer, cigarettes, pop, and candy --- and open morning, noon, and night --- it was a small town version of a GOLD MINE !

But, hey --- I ended up through college without any loans, so I guess $3.00 an hour adds up.

I could write a BOOK on all the experiences I had, working at the gas station in high school!

Trust me -- every segment of society comes walking in those doors, day and night ... even in a small Midwestern town.

Ah, nostalgia!
CYCLONE

Pratoman said...
In New Jersey, it’s illegal to pump your own gas. Not because of Coronavirus, it’s always been that way.

Similar in Oregon although that changed last January for some stations.

I did a long drive in a vintage car (1972 Volvo 1800E) a few years ago and when I went through Oregon they let me pump my own. They said they never want to take responsibility for improper filling or spilling on vintage cars or any motorcycle.

In NJ, yes they pump your gas for you (state law), but you have to check your own tires, clean your own windshield, etc. In winter or in nasty weather..it's kind of nice having to only slip your credit card through the window to get your tank filled. (and gas in Jersey is 10-15 cents cheaper than in PA).

I remember an ad for a gas company back in the full service days.....a guy pulls in and asks for a very small amount of gas--50 cents worth I think. And then the attendant pops the hood and checks the oil, takes out his tire gauge, washes the windshield, etc. All the while the driver is tapping on the window saying 'you don't need to do that, it's ok,", etc.

I'm tired of pouring a thousand dollars into my vehicle every time something goes wrong with it. I've been doing a little shopping for a pre-1980 vehicle so that I can work on the dammed thing myself - parts are Much cheaper too. I've found that such vehicles are few and far between. Those that are still left are often jacked up in price - I guess they are collectable now.

I pumped gas nights for a year after the Navy while doing my junior year in college. Between 10 and midnight business was slow enough that I could get in a couple of hours studying while worrying about getting robbed. The good news was the station was never robbed on the nights I was on duty. The job was safer than a job I turned down. A guard agency offered me a gig guarding a liquor store that paid an extra 50 cents per hour because I'd have to be armed.

mattam said...
I'm tired of pouring a thousand dollars into my vehicle every time something goes wrong with it. I've been doing a little shopping for a pre-1980 vehicle so that I can work on the dammed thing myself - parts are Much cheaper too. I've found that such vehicles are few and far between. Those that are still left are often jacked up in price - I guess they are collectable now.

sounds like you are driving American cars? I know it's fun to wax nostalgic but two things I don't miss are old cars and film cameras

Mumbo, yes wasn't that great stick 3 dollars worth gas in car, buy a pack of cigarettes, drive up and down main street all night with the 8 track or WLS blaring on the radio all night, once and a while make a detour to a side street to sneak in a beer then back to the drag around and around always wishing I owned a better junker than my 62 Chevy Nova that I bought for 25 dollars. It didn't impress the girls too much! LOL mmmmmm wished I owned that now 🤷‍♂️

Friends and I put 5 gallons of regular in my 1962 Plymouth Valiant for $1.00, then we would cruise Sunset Boulevard until the wee hours with the radio blasting, smoking cigarettes, hooting and hollering at hippie girls.

Tuesday nights it was the Doors at the Kaiser Dome in San Bernadino. Admission was $1.25/head. Morrison bounced an empty Budweiser can off my head one night. *wipes away a nostalgic tear*