History remembering SOHIO gas and stations

Hey wondering who all remembers SOHIO gas and the stations? looking for pictures, and info, I know there are fans out there and old employees of the company keeping the history alive. It was one of the things i always have remembered as a kid in the early seventies, It's a big deal when you are a little kid and you get to go with your dad to that SOHIO station. They had a long history and were around many years before finally being bought out by BP and the refinery's closed. It was almost a way of life in Ohio. I have some pictures somewhere but i need to find them. I see a lot of signs and memorabilia for long dead brands, but not so much for this one, even though it too had a long history and a lot of brand loyalty.

 

here's a great old weather sounder with some old SOHIO footage
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My first real job was working at a sohio but even at that time they had been bought by bp but still going by the sohio name.

 

it's strange what something as simple as an old gas station can bring up in memories, I had a lot of relatives who worked for the company and refinery

 

My first paying gig too. Good times.

 

My first real job too. I remember wearing the uniforms all starched and having to provide full service. When the girls came in their mini skirts and hotpants in the late 60's we used to fight to wash the windows!
Corporate office used to send in undercover people to rate our full service.
I still dont understand why a private gas station and garage could not make a good profit providing full service for maybe a penny a gallon extra. It usually provides the profitable mechanical work.

 

It was fine gas too!! I'm a little biased of course having been born and raised in Ohio. I had forgotten all about the jingle " you go or Sohio pays the tow!!" boy that brings me back.

 

grew up in ohio times were better then, used to hang out with my dad and listen to the stories.... first job was at the corner sohio ,full service pump gas ,windows, try to see skirts. used to be safe to hang out at tne gas station ,now just dope dealers and criminals.....


GREAZY HUBCAPZ CC East Tn

 

i remember them. they were called BORON here in PA.

 

I remember them very well and a amusment park a little south of me had car rides and had a miniture Sohio station in it.

 

My first mechanic job also...then came BP. I remember the sign change, went to the sign company and gave the employee a hundred to look the other way when I took a sign. They had to video the breakage of the Sohio signs. Funny thing is the boaters had a fit, hated the green and yellow at their docks. Boycotted the fuel until the Sohio RWB signs were put back up....They are still up at the marinas today!

 

I grew up in Toledo Ohio and as a kid used to go with dad everytime he went to go fill up the car at SOHIO because I thought it was cool. Remember the "ding ding" sound you would get when you drove over the black cord that ran across the entrance and exits? How about the sound of the pump resetting the dollar amount wheels when you flicked the lever on the side of the pump to turn it on? Or how about the carbon copy receipts you would get if you paid by credit card?

I remember when the signs changed to BP and the colors changed to green and yellow. It just wasn't the same anymore.

One more thing, remember the cool gifts you got if you filled up with premium? I remember the marathon man glasses and coffee mugs and one of the stations had a book with all the best football players (for the time) and when you filled up you got a stamp with the players face on it to put in the book. It was a good time to be a kid.

 

SOHIO staions are a memory for our treks across the state on the way to Indy for "the Nationals" in 67 & 68.

 

If I'm not mistaken, I think they used the "Iceguard" slogan when they advertised their winter "brew".

 

The year was 1944 or 1945 in Dayton, Ohio. My mom didn't have a washing machine so every Saturday we went to my grandma's house on N. Main street. There was a school a block away that had a great playgound that I would walk to. Had to pass a Sohio Staion on the corner on the way to the school. I was born in 1938 so I would have been about 6 or 7 years old.

This was during WWII and most stations had scrap barrels for everyone to put their scrap metal in for the war effort. Included washed out canned goods cans. I always looked in the trash drums for goodies as I passed the station.

One day as I passed and looked in a scrap drum I spied a early Ford Model T steel model truck. I just had to have it so I scarfed it up and took it back to grandma's house. It had a tailgate that dropped, steering wheel that turned the front wheels. The wheels were spoked and may be made of aluminum.

I still have that truck today and it sits in the entertainment center in our family room. I have 13 grandkids and all have enjoyed that truck as the were growing up. It was appraised by a toy appraiser to be worth around $2K about 5 years ago.

Hope I didn't hurt the war effort and this is my first written admission of the event.

I'll take a pic of it tonight and add it to this post tomorrow. Here you go:



Jim

 

I guess I should have checked out the YouTube video before I posted before. Already stated. Oh well....

 

There was a Sohio station in Zanesville Ohio that retained the Sohio name for some time after the color change,it was on the corner of State and Jackson. Does anyone remember this or know why ?

 

It was Esso here-before the big rename to Exxon.
Give me Esso over Exxon anyday.

 

I remember SOHIO gas, use to go all the time with dad and his buddy use to have one and another buddy had a GULF, there use to be one at the corner of RT 3 and I-71 back in the 70's and can't remember when but there was a big boom in the one bay and burned the place down and one guy died and it was shut down and then tone down and the lot is still M/T today and every time I go by I can still see the old neon sign in the air at night. Does anybody from OHIO know of this sohio or have pics.

 

Oh my dad gave me a box full of old sohio gas maps he had in the attic. LOL

 

Sohio gas stations were responsible for my future!!! Worked at the one here in Lebanon, like 20 sum years ago, transfered to the one in Bellbrook Ohio while the the whole BP name change was goin on. There during the remodel from service station to quick mart, I ran into a contractor installing tile floors. He offered me a job making pretty good money, I was sold!! His son and I installed the tile floors where the garage used to be,(Still the same tile and looks great BTW!! LOL) From there I went on to learn many different trades in construction, now I own my own Business!!! Cant believe I actually forgot where my start actually came from!! Great thread!! Lots of good memories, hanging out in the garage and using the lift to work on my 69 El Camino!!! Thanks for the memories!!!

 

Anybody have any pictures of an Octron pump. Not the glass globe type but the flat top style of the 70's with the word Octron on a glass panel at the top. Picked up a Bennett gas pump and I'm looking for reference pic's to do it up like a Sohio Octron pump.

 

S sold
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Later,Bill

 

I realize this is an old post but thought I would offer info. That area now has a state Highway patrol post, however in the little town of Weymouth, there is an old gas station there that is now converted to a little peice worl shop. I deliver and pick up there and noticed that when I was in the bathroom, the mirror on the wall said Sohio. It has 1 service bay with 1 hydraulice single post lift as they did years aga...

 

My dad worked at a SOHIO in Brookfield Ohio for years. BP bought them out and he kept one side of that old SOHIO sign. It is in his shed to this day. I cant wait to get it home and hang it on the wall in my garage. I hung out there with him every Thursday and Saturday night. We had some great times and lots of memories. My sisters first boyfriend was an attendant there. He had an off topic chrysler product, but was cool enough to take me with him (I was 13 and he was 20) to downtown Niles and cruise the strip on Friday and Saturday nights.

Thanks for bringing al those memories back!

 

I filled up once at that BP. I went to the truck dealer in Brookfield lookin at an F250 camper special out of Montana. For what its worth I also have family in Martinburg WVA.

 

Does anyone recall the contest that SOHIO would hold where a large sheet of license plate numbers were posted? If your number was there you were a winner, never knew anyone that won.
Don't forget the "Atlas" tires and parts.

 

Cool! I still have one of those Atlas tires. My dad bought them in the mid-'60s at the closest service station to our house -- a SOHIO. He ran them on his '55 Firedome. Because it's now quite an old tire, I tubed it last year and it has an honored place as the spare in my own '55 Fireflite DeSoto. Looks GOOD there, too!

The fella who operated the SOHIO had a big ol' RED '55 Diamond-REO tow truck, plus a '41 Zephyr V-12 sitting beside the station. Good memories.

And YES, I remember the fun of driving over those pneumatic black lines that's ring the inside bell for the attendant to come out and service your car!

 

My father owned Eddie And Rays Sohio Station back in the sixties and early seventies, great memories. i remember on the weekends the racers from Cloverleaf Speedway stopping in for gas. remember the Atlas polishing cloths they worked great