Old gas stations

[tonyb]

^^^^
It has the two-piece, split windshield, which means it predates the 1954 model year (I think). So yeah, it would be at least 66 years old.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Perhaps this observation might more fittingly belong in the “You Know You Are Getting Old When” thread, but I’m thinking that I’m among many here who remember when these were just used trucks. Not “classic,” not “vintage,” not “collectible,” just trucks you could buy on the cheap.

When we started a fuel-oil department in the '60s, we had two of these types of truck. Somewhere in the family shoebox there's a faded snapshot of me at age three standing on top of one of them.

 

[tonyb]

Circa 1975 I briefly had a ’54 (I think; maybe it was an early ’55) Chevy panel truck, for which I must’ve paid less than a C note, seeing how I had to put a gas tank in it. I recall buying the beer for the guy who sold it to me, although I can’t recall just exactly what I paid.

One night not long after I bought it one of Seattle’s finest knocked on my door to inform me that my truck was at the bottom of the hill, its nose smashed to hell on account of its collision with a utility pole. Somebody must’ve thought it fun to take it out of gear and release the parking brake, just to see what happens. I was relieved that it hit that pole rather than a car or a pedestrian.

 

[Zombie_61]

Perhaps this observation might more fittingly belong in the “You Know You Are Getting Old When” thread, but I’m thinking that I’m among many here who remember when these were just used trucks. Not “classic,” not “vintage,” not “collectible,” just trucks you could buy on the cheap.

And let's not forget the modern euphemism that's so full of manure that it requires a bulldozer for proper delivery: "pre-owned".

 

[tonyb]

And let's not forget the modern euphemism that's so full of manure that it requires a bulldozer for proper delivery: "pre-owned".

Yeah, so good of them to pre-own it for you.

Real estate agents’ property descriptions are even worse, but elaborating on that would be venturing too far afield for this thread, even for me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I miss the days when "patina" was called "rust."

 

[Frunobulax]

Patina is the oxidation of common alloys, such as bronze. Rust is specific to ferrous compounds. Corrosion is the general term.

 

[EngProf]

Patina is the oxidation of common alloys, such as bronze. Rust is specific to ferrous compounds. Corrosion is the general term.

Except when the term "patina" is used by gun collectors - they often call light oxidation/rust on an old gun as "patina". It may not be metallurgically correct, but it's the common usage of the term.
It make a bad situation sound less bad.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Any junky old car nowadays is referred to in cars-for-sale ads as having "a great patina." To the point where some people acutally go to great lengths to cultivate a fake "patina" by deliberately degrading the finish on the car. They could just drive it around for real for a couple of years in New England winters, but that kind of "patina" apparently isn't as valued.

This usage is common in just about any "vintage" type of collectible object. I see radios all the time described as having "a nice patina" when what it really is is a cabinet that sat for fifty years in somebody's shed after sitting twenty years in a living room with a leaky plant pot on top of it. Extra patina points if the chassis is caked in yellow nicotine goo, the speaker is full of seeds stored there by a squirrel, and the wiring has been almost completely obliterated by mouse pee.

I understand there's even gents who sleep in their leather jackets in hopes of cultivating a "nice patina," but I imagine that's a pathology of a different kind...

 

[Zombie_61]

Just wait. Someday soon someone will announce the Oxford Dictionary people have added a new definition to the word "patina" that will be described something like, "An overall pattern of semi-random discoloration caused by usage and/or exposure to the elements."

 

[Frunobulax]

Just wait. Someday soon someone will announce the Oxford Dictionary people have added a new definition to the word "patina" that will be described something like, "An overall pattern of semi-random discoloration caused by usage and/or exposure to the elements."

I've yet to run into a young lady named Patina, but wouldn't be surprised if I did.

 

[tonyb]

Any junky old car nowadays is referred to in cars-for-sale ads as having "a great patina." To the point where some people acutally go to great lengths to cultivate a fake "patina" by deliberately degrading the finish on the car. They could just drive it around for real for a couple of years in New England winters, but that kind of "patina" apparently isn't as valued.

This usage is common in just about any "vintage" type of collectible object. I see radios all the time described as having "a nice patina" when what it really is is a cabinet that sat for fifty years in somebody's shed after sitting twenty years in a living room with a leaky plant pot on top of it. Extra patina points if the chassis is caked in yellow nicotine goo, the speaker is full of seeds stored there by a squirrel, and the wiring has been almost completely obliterated by mouse pee.

I understand there's even gents who sleep in their leather jackets in hopes of cultivating a "nice patina," but I imagine that's a pathology of a different kind...

The prices some old signs are fetching these days have brought counterfeiters out of their rat holes.

I have no interest in acquiring reproductions for myself, but I have no real objection to them per se, provided they aren’t presented as the real McCoy. Alas, they ARE being so misrepresented. And some of those fakes are “aged” or “patinated” in ways that might initially fool even a savvy collector. It’s not to take an unwarrantedly dim view of humanity to suppose that in many if not most cases such deception is deliberate.

To the untrained eye (or one clouded by fond wishes), even a bad fake might be taken as authentic. Such was the case of a phony Route 66 highway sign a friend had brought to my attention.

 

[LizzieMaine]

THat's where it becomes absolutely essential to not buy any vintage advertising/petroliana material unless you're confident of your ability to recognize a modern fake/fantasy item. That means not just being familiar with the general look of a logo but understanding the typography and production methods used in the originals. I've seen modern "patinaed' fakes of Texaco signage that look convincing unless you know that the originals were made from hand-drawn artwork that didn't and couldn't possibly use any sort of modern computer fonts. Very few counterfeiters are capable of that level of mechanical detail in their fakes -- usually they just make them from downloaded images tweaked in Photoshop.

Not. Even. Close.

Not. Even. Close.

Once you've exposed yourself to enough original material -- not just signs and labels, but the whole range of typography of the Era -- you can spot this stuff a mile away. But if you can't don't buy any of it unless you run it by someone who can.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
I'd think that modern digital technology would make the counterfeiter's work easier. If he got his dirty little hands on an original, wouldn't he be able to scan it, and absolutely nail the hand-drawn original typefaces, etc.?

I'm not being disputatious here. I honestly don't know enough about this stuff to have an informed opinion.

Perhaps the materials would disclose the fakes. Paint or porcelain and the metals onto which it is applied change over time, right?

It might not be worth the trouble to make a fake sign so convincing it would fool the cognoscenti. But art forgers have produced fakes that have hung in prestigious museums and galleries and private collections, fakes that fooled real experts, and for which big money was paid.

 

[LizzieMaine]

THere are some who will do that -- and then it becomes a matter of looking carefully for scanning artifacts, which even the highest resolution scan will leave. But even then, these entrepreneurs can rarely resist "cleaning up" their scans, and that adds further artifacts that make the fakes easy enough to spot if you have a good idea of what an actual 80 or 90 year-old sign or other item actually looks like.

But most of the fakers are too lazy to bother with originals, and a lot of their stuff is pure fantasy, using designs that were never actually used. There must be a tremendous appetite for phony advertising stuff, because it far outnumbers the amount of original material that exists.

It's not just "petroliana" that suffers from this problem, either. Coca-Cola and other "country store" type artifacts are even more commonly counterfeited -- especially items that fall under the "Black Americana" category. The latter material -- especially the overtly-racist stuff -- is being mass-produced overseas for resale by eBay and flea-market operators, to the point where you'd be safe in assuming that *any* such material that you see in such outlets to be fake.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
That last graf has me thinking that the blatantly racist Bull Durham print ads I came across in an antique emporium may well have been fakes. I can’t say with certainty what prices they were asking (it’s been several years), but I’m thinking it was something like 35 bucks, which seemed reasonable, provided they were genuine, of course.

As to the “vintage inspired” signs and such, the stuff cooked up in some person’s head in more recent times, and to the appetite for it ...

No matter how we may differ on most other matters, the people found in this place would far likelier know and care about authenticity than would most other people. By a country mile, I’d bet.

If someone wants a recently made Coca-Cola sign in colors never before seen on a Coca-Cola sign but which still looks enough like a Coca-Cola sign from 80 years ago that lotsa people might think it actually is, well, okay, provided that sign isn’t portrayed as anything other than that.

 

[dh66]

I was rolling by and didn't get a chance for a closer look, but that might possibly be the skeletal remains of a pump out front. If this place wasn't a gas station at some time past, it sure missed a good opportunity.

 

[BobHufford]

 

[Zombie_61]

Filling your tank with one hand, picking your pocket with the other. Damned gypsies.

 

[1930artdeco]

Is it my imagination or is that hose excessively dripping fuel?

Mike