Folks Of Interest gas stations were around when you started to drive?

We had Esso, Mobile, Sunoco, Texaco, Flying A, Richfield, Atlantic, Gulf, Rotary (where the living quarters for the operator was attached to the garage), Sinclair, Sears, and City Service. I traded at Sunoco, Richfield, and Gulf, and when money was tight, Sears. Prices were 23.9 to 26.9 for regular. Sunoco 260 was 32.9.

 

I worked at a couple Zephyr gas stations. $2.00 worth of gas was generally 5.4 Gallons back then, in the early 70's.

Lynn

 

Yep....worked at Enco just before it went Exxon at 15 when we had full service - wipe windows and check yer oil on the full service side at 21 cents. Station is still there but a tire shop now - went by just the other day to get some air in my tire.

 

Oh....yeah. Good looking girl's windshields really got cleaned!!!!

Lynn

 

Esso, Texaco, Gulf, Sinclair, Shell, Philips 66, Pure & Mobilgas are the stations of my youth here in my hometown, today the only ones left are Exxon (formally Esso) & Shell. HRP

 

Does anyone remember B/A, White Rose, Fina? All Canadian companies long since taken over and dissolved.
When I started driving in the sixties there were 5 or 10 times as many service stations as there are now. Cars burned twice as much gas, they required frequent service and repairs, and a service station could survive on gas sales much smaller than today because the markup was 5 times as much. In 1968 regular was 45.9 cents a gallon and had been for years. Almost all the old gas stations got turned into convenience stores, pet grooming shops and coffee shops in the seventies and eighties. The old 2 pump station is no more, they all have at least 6 pumps and all self serve, no more attendants. Back then there was no self serve.

 

The big green Sinclair dinosaur in the hills along I-90 in Dakota south, thought that was pretty cool.

 

Shell, Texaco, Union, Signal Gas, Chevron, Mobil...60's hometown Oregon.

 

My 1st job was at a Mobil gas station, back in about 1971. Full service gas (the only thing available) was 28 cents a gallon. The Mobil gas station I worked at was a major auto repair shop in our town, and it was one of the highest volume gas stations in town. I worked there through the "Gas Embargo" of 74, and saw the price of gas go up past 99 cents a gallon before I left there 7 years later.
Besides the 3 Mobil stations, there were Texico, Shell, DX, Standard, Clark, and several independent stations. Most the gas stations had at least one repair garage stall, except the Clark and a couple of the independent stations were gas only.
When I started at Mobil, my boss told me he made 4 cents on every gallon of gas he sold. The gas sales covered all the overhead, and the repair shop was where his profit came from. Just before I left, he told me he was still making the same 4 cents a gallon from the gas, even though the price had jumped 4 times as much per gallon. A couple years after I left, he sold the station and opened a repair shop. According to him, the money he was making off the gas wasn't worth all the problems associated with the gas sales. Gene

 

Half of us old guys would never have had a chance to have a decent car without the help of a friendly gas station owner or two. You started when you were still riding your bike, & just hung out without making any noise. You'd do anything the owner needed done, such as busting down tires, taking out the garbage, wiping windows, even waxing the building - remember, the franchise stations were usually covered with baked enamel or porcelain steel panels. When you made it to 14 or 15 and got your car, you made it into the flock of regulars, were allowed use of the tire equipment, tools, parts house discounts, the all - important rack, & an inside track on what the hot shoes had under the hood. Only a few of us actually were hired, but always had a friend on the closing shift. If nothing was torn down on the racks, you could pull your outfit in & wipe down the undercarriage with solvent, scrub the inside of the wheels & tires, paint the chassis, and do anything that you could finish an hour before closing time, when you pulled out & scrubbed down the floor & squeegee it dry, read the pumps, & help lock up ...

 

When I was 11-12 years old, my Dad had a friend who owned a Getty station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I used to ride my bike up there and hang around for hours. It was a two bay shop with 4 pumps. He also had the old kind of pop machine that had the long vertical door, put your quarter in, open the door and pulled out the 10 ounce bottle of your choice. Almost always a Pepsi, but occasionally an orange Nesbit. I thought that place was heaven on earth. Those guys let me poke around and watch everything they were doing. Gee, I wonder how I wound up as a mechanic? Thanks Glen, Butch, and Lyle, and May all three of you guys Rest In Peace. Thanks for this thread, I haven’t thought of that place in years.


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Norwalk, Beacon, Richfield and Gulf were usually the stations of choice in Dinuba/Reedley area in central Cali.. Normally gas was 25 to 30 cents per gallon. Occasionally price wars under 20 cents.

 

Shell, Chevron, Hess, Texaco, Esso, Getty (Flying A), Mobil, Tulsa, Gulf, Sunoco, Phillips 66 at least half of them had some kind of race car since the drag strip was only 7 miles away. Started working at the local Hess station in 68. Gas was 29 to 32 cents a gallon. My 55 Chevy at the Hess station in 1970

 

nobody remembers Hancock?

 

Here in S.E. Wisconsin we had Sinclair, Shell, Union 76, Pugh,
Cities Service, Wisco 99, and ENCO just to name a few.
At 16 I started working at the local ENCO for $1.10 an hour, full service at the island and grease and oil in the service bay.
I closed almost every night so I would wash my ‘32 Vicky in the wash bay between pumping gas, then after closing for the night I would leave the car inside and walk home. The next morning I would walk back to the station to take the Deuce out of the wash bay before the owner opened up for the day. I always drove a clean car to school.
So now I have these in front of my hobby shop:

 

Farmers CO-OP has memories for me. Central Iowa. My Dad was a member. Worked there for awhile. Always some good stories and BS going on.

 

Most of our shops supported sponsored or ran dirt track modified cars. Drag strip didn't open till 64 or so. There were three dirt ovals on the weekend circuit, quarter mile, not quite a half mile and a five eighths with high banked turns. All us junior grease monkeys went and cheered for our favored stations. Some time pit passes were handed out if the driver was high in the season points.

 

I grew up in the 50's and 60's in Ohio. We had Sohio, Gulf, Texaco, Sinclair, Shell, Pure, Marathon, Clark, Certified, Hudson, Sunoco, Mobil, Quaker State, Humble, Star Fire, Ashland and probably some others that slip my mind. Sohio was always my favorite (Standard Oil of Ohio) as my uncle had a Sohio station on the east end of Logan and my cousins worked at one on the west side. I grew up hanging out at both of them every chance I got. During and after HS I worked in auto parts for a couple years until I done my Army service, then got back into the parts business after that for about 20 years so I worked with the stations then. I really miss the real "service stations" of days gone by.

 

I worked at a Texaco station in Chauncey, Ohio, back in the late '70's. The rent was 2 cents a gallon on every gallon sold. Bazell Oil Co. from Logan was the local Texaco distributor. There was no self-service in Ohio, by law, until 1976 or so, and it seemed there was a gas pump or two everywhere.

 

Gulf was fairly close to my house in the 1950s. It was were I filled my hot rod at in late 1959 first time. Mom liked the plates an cups, dishware they gave away with a fill up. The same gas station is still selling gas,but it has been a few def. brands over the years. Stop by it some times with my same hot rod if I'm driving near by,but live over 20miles away now. It is a artdeco design that was built in the 1930s Miami Fla.

http://www.historicpreservationmiami.com/pdfs/Gulf Gas Station.pdf

 

I remember Fina , BP, Sunoco , Esso, Shell, Texaco and Co Op which was like an Ace Hardware had pumps at some Co Op stores.

 

I remember Dad would pull into a gas station and fill up the dirt track car heading to Humberstone Speedway (Sundays or Merrittville Speedway (Saturday night) in Ontario or heading to Ransomeville Speedway in New York state on Fridays. Great times as a kid.

 

My home towns major stations were Standard, Mobil, DX, Phillips 66, Sinclair and Texaco. I worked at three different ones in my youth. Phillips66 then Sinclair and lastly a Mobil Station. This is the station I started working at in 1973.

 

In the mid 60’s, service stations were on every corner,no self service either,all had attendants.Most had a race car ( drag racer, circle tracker), I remember a lot of 55-57 Chevy’s. When they opened in the morning, the race cars would set out buy the curb,when they closed they were put back in one of the bays. Great times to be a teenager!!

 

Has anyone mentioned Cities Service? At one time they were big in the eastern US and Canada.

 

I remember all the big name brands mentioned. I lived near Chicago/O'Hare Airport. They were all of 'em in the area somewhere. There was one independent named Road Pilot in town that was really aggressive with marketing and pricing. You could take their stamps to save for premiums or have 'em put the stamps in the tank. It was '61 and gas tax was pretty high in that part of the US, but my brother and I took a road trip in his '59 283 Corvette that summer on state roads (no I-75 interstate yet) to Florida and we found a couple of stations with 19.9 prices away from Chicago.

 

Most of the brands that were around when I first started driving are still around except Exxon and Texaco (Shell, Chevron, 76, Arco). I worked at a Texaco station off and on in the late 80's until the late 90's, I have old 60's uniform patches and a service hat. I was even odd back then . The gas was 89 cents a gallon when I started driving.

Here's the uniform patches and later had it on business cards when I was working on cars there:

Check out the gas prices.......this was mid 90's and those where some customers cars.

 

I worked at a Conoco service station in the mid 60's and I do remember 19 cent gas during the "gas wars".

 

All the big names plus Fina and Hancock. Hancock had the mixing pumps where you could choose three different blends between regular and premium.

Pumped lots of gas at 21.9