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Old gas stations

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,766
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
I know they went out of style in the gas station business simply because the profit margin of selling gas got so low in the 1970s that most operators simply couldn't afford to participate in giveaway programs -- everything but the bare operational essentials got cut to the bone in those days. A lot of giveaways had to be *purchased from the oil company* by the local dealer to be handed out as traffic builders, but when the energy crisis hit, very few dealers were willing to lay out the cash needed to take part in those kinds of programs. The last thing we gave away was calendars, which we kept up right to the bitter end, but the days of free plastic Fire Chief hats for the kiddies ended in the 1960s.
 
Messages
10,939
Location
My mother's basement
I recall drinking glasses given away at gas stations ("Free with minimum 8 gallon fill-up"), and "gas wars" that saw prices dip into the teens of cents per gallon.

As a teenager I worked for a fellow who owned a Texaco service station (check the oil, clean the windshield) and a Gull (not Gulf) entirely self-serve station, where I sat in a booth and took in money and sold cigarettes and snacks. I much preferred my shifts at the Texaco. Sitting in that little booth had me feeling like a man in a cell.
 

Benzadmiral

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,815
Location
The Swamp
742748453220f4bf87cba5b0d9f1f775.jpg
3f9c0ed690c51af44df27ffcd8d408f9.jpg
916fca4bd1215ac6b8d8debb7ceda227.jpg


Rob
Ah, all mid- to late Sixties, I'll warrant. First pic has a '67 or '68 Mustang, a ca. '65 Chevy Impala, and an early-Sixties "Fintail" Mercedes. (Heck, the car cut off in the foreground might be a "Ponton" Merc, as MB offered a fabric "sunroof" on those.) The second, with .30/gallon for Gulftane, can't be any later than '72 or so. And the third has a ca. '64 Thunderbird and the taillight of a '55 Chevy.

Are all these of the same station at different times? The numbers written on them are very close to being in sequence.
 

Ghostsoldier

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,410
Location
Starke, Florida, USA
If not mistaken, its held near the end
of May.

If I had my "druthers"...
Little Bohemia! (Dillinger & Co.)

View attachment 77426
I've never been in that neck of the woods.
I hear tell it's nice place to visit.
Me, too. :)

I visited Crown Point back in 2015, and got some photos of the old jail, where JD escaped using his wooden gun.

The courthouse has some cool JD artifacts in its basement museum, too...including the pants he was wearing at the Biograph, on his last night...still has his bloodstains in them.

Rob
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
This kid is wearing the “outlaw” jeans with the rear rivets
in the back pockets. :)
Rivets.jpg

In the 1920s, about the time Lee was introducing the first zipper fly, Levi Strauss was deleting the crotch rivet. Chafed horsemen had pressed the company for years to remove it, but it took a fly-fishing trip by the chairman of the board to do so. As he crouched near a campfire listening to a story, that central copper rivet heated up nicely. The chairman bolted upright—and the rivet went. Later, with the universal acceptance of jeans, the back-pocket rivets that scratched school desks, dining room chairs, saddles and car fenders became extinct.

Screen Shot 2017-06-27 at 10.27.18 AM.png

A couple of years ago, I found a pair of USA made denims
with rear pocket rivets from Cone Mills.
I wear them on occasion and are more comfortable than

the ones made today.

But I’ve been banned from sitting in class at schools! :(
 
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