Well since I havn't really seen anything on the subject, i was wondering... has any one of you guys out there managed gas stations or worked in them and seen something entertaining or just some guy being a retard on your shift? as always, i greatly enjoy and thank you for your input.
Should be lotsa good pump jockey stories. How bout the hole in wall under the towel inrack in the ladies can? Or fightin to wash the windshield of the babe with the mini skirt. Lotsa bench racin and everybody would stop by to see where the parties were. 18 cents a gallon for gas but a lot of guys got a buck at a time.
How bout the guy priming his carb with an oil can full of gas. The motor back fires catches the can of gas on fire. Then the genius throws the burning can of gas across the island and sets the whole thing on fire.
My dad's friend worked at a gas station in England back in the 60's. Some hot chick was pumping her E-type with a lit fag (hehe) in the same hand as the pump nozzle. He walked over to her, told her not to move and gently took the cigarette away from her before railing on her ass. She just stood there and trembled when it finally occurred to her what could have happened. Yep. She was blonde. -Chris
When I was a kid, I lived in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. That was right on route 66. My Dad managed the Rio Pecos Ranch truck terminal. It was kind an icon due to the huge sign shaped like an 18 wheeler with a cowboy hanging out the window saying "Howdy"in neon. As a kid I spent most of my time during the summers washing windshields and pumping gas. I remember TV Tommy Ivo coming through with his TV Truck. It was built to look like a television set with his dragster and a vette inside. The drag-on lady drag car came through once. I didn't know these guys at the time but, Man, was it cool! Elvis came through on his bus, and one day the Barnum and Bailey circus was there and let all their Elephants out to exercise and water. always something on route 66! Some of the local hot rodders had some bad ass cars as well. My brother bought a 66 Ford pick up from a guy that was claiming to be on hard times. The guy promised to mail him the title. A few days later the Sheriff showed up. Seems the truck was stolen. My brother lost the truck and his money but by some stroke of luck the Sheriff managed to wind up with the truck......go figure....One of my most frightening experiences came when I was cleaning the men's room and as I walked out I was met by two heavily armed men with a prisoner in shackles. He was hand cuffed and being held tight by both arms. Scared the piss out of me! I always wondered what that guy did to warrant that much security????
Worked a couple of nights a week in a gas station to help with my tuition in college and my automobile addiction in the mid 60's. I hated the job but it helped pay bills. One extremely bitter cold February night a complete dickhead pulls up to the gas island, opens his driver's window and asks me to pour STP in his engine for him, too freakin' cold for him to get out of the car and we did offer complete service, windows, check tire pressure yadda yadda. He handed me "his" can of STP thru his open window and popped the inside hood release of his Mercedes diesel sedan. I asked him to please shut off the engine, he replied he wanted to keep it running so he wouldn't get too cold. "Fu%&*ng DICKHEAD I muttered under my breath to myself as I stood outside his open window, freezing my tootsies off. So I lift the hood, unscrew the oil fill cap of this beat to death hi mileage diesel, and feel with my hand tremendous blow-by pressure spewing out of the cam cover. This is going to turn very ugly in a moment I'm thinking but I'll let the customer have it his way. I invert the can into the hole and moments later the blow-by is shooting strings of the motor gunk every direction possible, on me , on the fenders, all over his windshield. This pile is covered with this gunky crap. The funny part was watching him (outside in the cold now) trying to wipe the goo off his windshield with the equally oily rag he snatched out of my tightly clenched fist. Never saw Mr. Dick Head drive in for freebie service again.
I grew up in Northern Virginia. Before I knew anything about football, I worked at a gas station as a full service attendant. There was this guy who always came in in an old Rolls. It was a redish color as was his face/nose. Later, I found out it was Sonny Jurgensen. Some kind of Redskins quarterback or something like that.
When I was in school a group of us drove up to Lake Tahoe in my girlfriend's mom's wagon to go skiing. It was long after dark when we arrived. We pulled into a wet, slushy gas station to fuel up. Back then, there was "Full Serve" and "Self Serve." Self serve gas was cheaper and catered to us students, working folks and cheap skates. I was filling up the wagon when this new Porsche roared in behind us. Out of the car climbed a total asshat: sheep-skin lined buckskin jacket, Hollywood cowboy boots, the whole shiteroo. He glanced at me, snarled "fill her up, kid -- premium," and strutted into the building. I popped his hood, stuck the diesel filler into his tank, and set the handle on go. We kept our eye out for the guy all weekend, but never saw him again. I don't think I'll cross paths with him here on the HAMB, but I'm sure he remembers that snow trip.
In the late 60's had a Major come in every night for 72 cents of regular gas in his Chrystler Imperial This guy always upset the other guys on the shift he was a tight wad MAJOR Janbaz. So one day they did not want to weight on him so i did as i walked out there i made squeaky shoe noise i put in his 72 cents exactly 2 gallons after washing the wind shield he handed me his Chevron gas card i filled it out squeaked over to have it signed after i said to him why don't you fill it up are you that much a tight wad. His reply you are the only one here that does your job properly at night i watch you i only put enough gas in my car to get to work and back because in Hunters Point SF it will be siphoned. The next day he came in with his VW for gas his tires were bad i told him that they were dangerous he said i am not worried about them if it blows. i told him i wasn't worried about him ether it was the poor person he may kill. Next question do you have any tires to fit i said yes after looking installed 4 on the groung and a new spair. He told me no one would stand up to him like i do and handed me $50.00 tip that was a giant tip then i allways gave him a hard time just for fun the other guys were still not willing to weight on him they wernt there when i did the tires and got the tip At christmas he allwayse gave me $ 25.00
aw heck okay ,in the early 70.s i worked at a station in sonoma and there was this guy who would come in with this blow up doll all dressed up yep make up and all ,nobody ,would wait on him but i would get a kick out of him so i walk up to the car and ask him what willit be he turns to HIS GIRL AND SAYS YOU WANT IT FILLED? then he turns back an says yup an she wants ya to check the oil too,yes sir i say trying my dambnest not to laugh my ass off yep he was a regular customer always great to pass off on a new guy especially when you told the new guy that you dien,t know what he was talking about.....
Working at a gas station at Middletown KY on US 60 when I was a student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville in the mid '70s. Late one night, a young girl who looked to be 18 or 19 pulled in driving a '64 Bel Air 4 door, rod knocking like it was about to blow, I heard it knocking probably a couple hundred feet before she turned into the driveway of the station. I ran out and hollered at her to shut it off, told her she was about to throw a rod. She said her oil light had been on all the way from Louisville (about 15 miles) and asked me to check her oil. You couldn't tell from the dipstick that there had ever been any oil in it. I showed her the dipstick. Her response: "Will it hurt to drive it home like that?" I told her that the engine was probably toast, but if she wanted to stand a chance of getting there without it seizing up on her, she needed to put oil in it. It held 4 quarts and was still knocking when she drove away. She wasn't blonde.
i worked at a fool service station during high school,this bitch pulls up to pump one day and asks if i could loosen her gas cap,i did,then she drove across the street to buy gas at other gas station.
I own/work at a full service station now. I have a million stories. I love going to work everyday, there are a lot of idiots out there. Here's 2 that come to mind: First one, it was a hot summer day a couple years ago, a good looking blonde pulls in with her car overheating, hood steaming. She pops the hood and jumps out. I told her to give it a minute and let the engine cool a little. Damn if I didn't look over 30 seconds later and she's got her shirt off, over the radiator cap taking it off. The kicker, she wasn't wearing a bra, nice perky boobs just hanging! I thought I was on some hidden camera show!!! Second good one, a guy comes in, said he needs some air. My hands were full, so i point over at the "green" hose by the middle bay. I then watch him go over pick up the hose, put it down on the valve stem and pull the trigger. Guess what? Water shot out all over him!!!! Wrong "green" hose buddy. Now it takes talent to be that dumb!!!!!! Who doesnt know the difference in a water hose and an air hose!!! I've got a ton more stories.
Our Dad owned a Champlin station. Remember Champlin? Anyway, A guy came in with a pontiac and wanted the oil changed. Dad told him how much, he said, too much, how much to rent the lift? Dad said, 2 bucks. The guy drained the trans and added four more qts to the engine. Evidently this thing had a trans drain plug. They let the thing down and it wouldn't move. He ended up paying anyway. Lippy
I worked 11-7 graveyard weekends at a gas station by my house years ago, the people that come in on those hours we're wacko! Sometimes I would have to ring up 2 "lottery tickets" so people who wouldn't leave would just get their beer and get the hell out!
A couple of "Sorta Funnies" come to mind, and they all revolve around the same corner station back in Minnesota I can remember back in the 60's sneaking a quarter out the old man's change dish, and then pushing the family mini bike up the street (going stealth mode)for a fill-up, the owner was a friend of my dad, and would always ask me "Does your dad know ya got the mini bike out?" (I was only 8 or 9 at the time). He later told me that he always liked to see me squirm and turn red in the face when I told him "Uh, yeah, sure." Later in the 70's I ended up getting a job there while in high school. One afternoon the owner asked me to grab the tow truck (the "New" dually with all the bells and whistles) and go pick up a customer's car from their driveway. Easy, simple, about a mile or two, at the most, roundtrip. I grabbed the keys, opened the door... and s%#t, every kids nightmare... a stickshift! Not wanting to appear retarded (in the world of "guys can drive anything"), I shoved in the clutch, and with a leg shakier than the 1901 earthquake in San Francisco, I weinered myself and the tow truck out of the station and off to the customer's house. Of course, there has to be the prerequsite hill in every "clutch retarded" kids nightmare, and mine was at an intersection about a block from the customers house... (goddam burnt clutch stinks). To wrap it all up, 3 days later when I came to work, there was the "new" tow truck up on the hoist. When I inquired what happened, the boss blamed "that freeking dumbass-burnout Ricky, (our nightshift guy) did a ditch tow, and burned out the brand new clutch". Honestly, when Ricky came in later in the day the guy really thought he had done it, even fessed up to it ("Hey sorry man, but that dude was really hard to get out man, I think you just got a bad tranny from the dealer"). I immediately went out to my uncle's farm and had my cousin give me a crash course in clutch application techniques..., especially on hills using the emergency brake technique.
Mid 90s a woman comes in with a new Chrysler and said there's a light on her dash and pointed to the seat belt light. Then asked how to make it go out. I told her to put her seat belt on
I worked thirds in a gas station about 10 years ago, although of course by then all I did was stand behind the counter and sell crap. Never really got too many wierd people. People would prepay gas and drive off and leave a few bucks, not paying attention that they have money left on the pump. Guy came in one night, truck steaming where he'd just hit a deer. Once in a while someone would try to buy beer after 2 - in New York they leave it up to each county to decide when last call is, so a guy from like Buffalo doesn't stop and think that he can't buy until 6:00 in Syracuse. And I sold more Marlboros than anything else, for as much as they stocked - and always singles, never a carton, thanks Albany and your taxes. I left not long after the assistant manager had to hire back a girl they canned because the girl lived near her and could give her a ride to work. Seems instead of paying her car insurance for like six months, this assistant manager had spent the money on pot, and when the state catches you doing that you can either pay a $8 per day of no coverage fine, or you wait the same number of days to be able to register a car again. I should add she was like 42 (although she could have passed for mid-50s) with kids just about old enough to hire on in there, not some college kid who might not know any better. So then I went in a few weeks later and told the new guy how to shoplift beer out of the store. The bathroom door was a security camera blind spot, and in that little corner also was a hallway behind the john that went to an office on one side and into the walk-in cooler on the other side. So you took a case out of the cooler, put it in the trash bag in the john, then walked out with the "full" trash bag to the dumpster, set the beer aside and threw the empty bag away. They never kept track of the inventory, so they never knew they were missing stuff, unless you made like a 12-pack of the same thing vanish every night. Which is how the other guy they'd had on thirds when I started got caught and busted. I only did it once, but ended up wishing I'd done it more.
OH boy, I have lots. Scariest was one night while filling a customer's tank, a ball of fire disguised as an old VW Bug comes rolling into the station. This was my face----> I was shocked that anyone could be that stupid. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to jump into the tow truck and push the stupid thing out onto the road away from the GASOLINE PUMPS! The lady said she figured we knew best how to deal with fire, so that's why she pulled in. Yikes.
I'm pumping gas in a local place around 1975 or so. This guy comes in for gas and leaves the car running, which I'd normallly bitch about, but it was winter and I know people are hesitant to shut their cars off. This was a '64 or so Caddy. The guy gets out and pops the hood and looks at the running motor. I see him reach in and I hear a "zinnnggg" noise. I look and he's cradling his hand in his armpit and there's blood all over the place. He pays up with his good hand, professes that he's ok and drives off. That was freaky as hell, never found anything on the ground aside from some spots of blood.
I worked one shift in a full service station when I was in college. After telling several customers to put out their cigarettes when they said what they wanted, I had one dickhead pull out a cigarette and light it while I was filling his propane tank! You can imagine my reaction when I heard that zzzipppp noise from the guy standing right behind me, yeah, he'd got out and was standing next to the pump! Went to work in a bar instead...
thanks man, that is what i was hoping to hear, or at least some thing like that. the older HAMBers always have something interesting to say.
I worked at the Standard Oil station around the corner from my house, and since I was only 16 I "got" to work from 7 am to 11 pm! All for $1.25/hr.... One afternoon a newish Buick came rolling in, the boss said he'd take it and went out, filled the tank, checked all the tires, oil, did the windows etc. The customer paid on his charge card (the station made more when they charged it - some kind of kickback from the company I guess) and when he drove out my boss whooped it up! 26 gallons of gas he'd sold the guy, a new record for one fill up! Total cost? $6.36 Gas was 24.9c for premium then....... Those were the days!
that is funny. some people should not drive. they don't let me drive do to my sight, [but i do any way] shhhhhhh
wow. i thank you for posting that story. both you and to many projects always make a thread more lively.
I worked in an all night Shell gas station,in Cincinnati, back in the early '60s. One night a guy pulls in and asks how to get back on I-75. Iasked where he was going , and He says " too li do". I had him show Me on a map, He pointed at Toledo
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