I came across this 7 foot tall seal I traded some plumbing working for it as the owner was going to chop it up and throw it away. So I made a few bucks and got to bring this guy home. My wife hate it lol! But I love it. Dose anyone have or know the story behind this seal? Would be interested to find out the history of it. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I apologize for not including a picture. I’m still trying to figure out how to upload pictures. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Harbie was the mascot for Harbor gasoline. There was a Harbor gasoline station in the San Gabriel Valley, in Upland on Foothill blvd, possibly at Euclid. My Mom used to drive a Comet, which me and my older sister used to call the Vomet. Another memory of Harbie was the high school graduating class of my sisters's class (1975) just 1 year before I graduated. The graduating class heisted a Harbie the Seal and chained it to the roof of one of the school buildings. The same graduating class disassembled an airplane and reassembled it on the football field...while this type of activity was tolerated back then, I seriously doubt you could get away with something like that today. This was at Monroe High School in the San Fernando Valley, in L.A. County. I remember sitting in the back seat while my Mom was getting gas at the Harbor station, and gas was $0.23 and 9/10ths per gallon. I have always wondered why gas is taxed .9 of a cent, still to this day. I mean, why not just round it up to the next penny? That was more than 50 years ago when I was sitting in the back seat of the "Vomet" with my sisters, and still to this day we see 9/10 of a cent added to the gas prices. The Federal and State taxes are also in decimal fractions as I recall, I did research it once...and all of this falls back to the days when gas was so inexpensive that fractions of a penny were considered to harm sales by a great deal... There's an old Bob's Big Boy mascot similar to this, in Paso Robles, CA beside 101 at a yard, looks like it's for sale. It's about 20 miles up the road from where the original Bob's Big Boy was in SLO (also beside the fwy, but overtaken by bushes and trees. Mascots were popular in those days. Many restaurants and other vendors used them. I still remember going to the car hop at Bob's Big Boy when I was young. Waitresses on roller skates...those were the days...(I was only in on the tail end of that, car hops were close to dead when I was in high school). HTH (probably more information than you wanted)
My uncle retired from Bobs big boy in Diamond Bar Cal. I remember he had 5 of those big Bobs in his back yard at one time, he was great friends with the owner who happened to own a few other Bobs Big Boy restaurants at the time. He always had a bunch of stuff the owner would store at my uncles house. So I guess this HARBIE is a keeper. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
