Old gas stations

[gear-guy]

Travel Route 66 and you can still see some of the old stations.

 

[dh66]

Excellent! I am a fan of all things rt.66 (go figure).


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[Atticus Finch]

This thread needs a soundtrack...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPfEgQPpIRc

AF

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Sorry..I can barely understand some of the words....[huh]
HD

 

[Stearmen]

This should do for a theme song! [video=youtube;UCeGi6a-eK4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCeGi6a-eK4[/video]

 

[Ghostsoldier]

This old Gulf station is on US 17 in Midway, Georgia...



Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

This one is in Washington, NC....



This one is in Georgia....



Rob

 

[dh66]

Good ones Rob!!!

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[Ghostsoldier]

I'll start scanning my others now, to add here...

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Another one, here in Florida, IIRC....looks to be 50's or 60's...



Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Here's a few from the Gulf coast of Florida...











Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Saw this one in St. Augustine; not sure what kind of station it was originally...





Rob

 

[hatguy1]

Came across this one while in Wichita, Kansas recently. I was told it used to be a Texaco station and is Now is a cigar bar.

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[hatguy1]

I took these with my new company iPhone (a 4s). Wow! Big difference between the 4s camera and at of my iPhone 5.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

This one is located in Orange, CA

 

[The Reno Kid]

My very first paying job was working as an attendant in a full-service gas station (Chevron). In those distant days, customers weren't allowed to pump their own gas. We washed the windows on every car that came in, as a matter of course. We also offered to check the oil (the answer was almost always "yes"), the tires, transmission fluid on automatics, and anything else the customer might want. In addition to pumping gas, we also performed minor mechanical duties, such as fixing flats, mounting and balancing tires, changing oil, and doing lube jobs. I have nothing but fond memories of the entire time I worked there. I made only minimum wage when I started but at 16, it was like discovering that I was suddenly rich.

 

[hatguy1]

My very first paying job was working as an attendant in a full-service gas station (Chevron). In those distant days, customers weren't allowed to pump their own gas. We washed the windows on every car that came in, as a matter of course. We also offered to check the oil (the answer was almost always "yes"), the tires, transmission fluid on automatics, and anything else the customer might want. In addition to pumping gas, we also performed minor mechanical duties, such as fixing flats, mounting and balancing tires, changing oil, and doing lube jobs. I have nothing but fond memories of the entire time I worked there. I made only minimum wage when I started but at 16, it was like discovering that I was suddenly rich.

Yes, I too remember those stations, but I was a bit younger so they were largely gone by the time I was able to work at one. But, those were the days. Back when customer service was an expectation not an empty buzzword and rarity as it is today.

 

[Fading Fast]

Yes, I too remember those stations, but I was a bit younger so they were largely gone by the time I was able to work at one. But, those were the days. Back when customer service was an expectation not an empty buzzword and rarity as it is today.

Emotionally, I agree with this. I grew up in the tail end of that era where it felt as if the gas station was competing for your business by being nice to you and offering you more services. Now, when I look back and go, "what happened," I realize that having an army of young people run out to each car and offer to check this and clean that costs money; hence, the station would have to charge more per gallon of gas or they'd go out of business.

And that's the rub - why is that service gone? If a gas station could charge more for that service via higher-priced gasoline, there is no doubt that we'd have stations offering that service, but since they don't exists, my guess is that, while most people would like the added service, they won't pay for it. In the end, people shop for gas by price and not by service. I think a similar phenomenon has gone on with the airlines. We would all like the old services to come back, but airline travel (adjusted for inflation) has become much less expensive per mile than it was when all those old services existed. Once again, the airlines would offer those services (and do, in a way, in business and first class), but the average American shops for the cheapest fair not some fair/higher service trade off price.

We - Americans - have the gas station service and airline service that we (collectively - what most economy class drivers and fliers are willing to pay for, consider valuable) want. While "we" pine for the old days of better service and options, "we" have voted with our pocketbooks for the cheapest price with the least service possible that gets our tanks full or our bodies from point A to point B in a plane. Interestingly, the airlines are now trying to offer everyone the level of service they are willing to pay for which is why the bare-bones ticket costs the least and then you pay for each additional service (extra-bags check, a wider economy seat, earlier boarding, etc.) you want, which is really just a way for the airlines to customize the service and price to each individual flier.

 

[LizzieMaine]

To me, having grown up in a small-town gas station family, the biggest advantage to the old places was their value as centers of community. Service was only a very small part of the deal -- the real strength was that you were doing business with someone you knew personally, someone who would look you in the eye and tell you straight what needed to be done to your car, and who wasn't just trying to pad your bill with things you didn't need. And if you needed some time paying, well, that could be arranged. (A lot of people in our town died owing us money. I did the books, and I knew who they were.)

But it wasn't just a business relationship. People didn't just come in to buy gas, they came in to have a Coke and stand around listening to the ball game for a while, to catch up on the town gossip, and to really feel what it was like to be a part of a community, not just live in it. Mothers would leave their kids to wait at the station while they did errands, and they'd poke around in the junk out back and eat candy bars from the vending machine, and nobody worried they were going to get killed by an exploding tire or fall into a grease pit.

The neighborhood gas station was a vital center of community living -- and an electronic pay-at-the-pump gas-n-go system is a far cry from that. A convenience store with the clerk hiding behind a glass window is an even further cry from that.

 

[Stearmen]

I just remembered, my very first set of drinking glasses came from the Enco station. Remember those days? With each fillup you got a glass, by the end of the month, you had enough for two people.