I believe those stacks are of tires wrapped in paper. Third from the top on the left side you can see the paper is pealed off revealing tire tread. They used very impressive machines to wrap tires for shipping. Here is one doing a large truck tire.
Now days instead of wrapping tires in paper, most manufactures have gone to large sticker labels. If you sell enough tiers you can make a big sticker ball.
I never knew my grandpa but apparently he was good at patching inner tubes. I guess back in those days you had to be.
In south Jersey nearby the Delaware River across from Wilmington, DE is Deepwater, NJ. There's a big I-295/Jersey Turnpike/US-130 Exit interchange at this spot today.
Paper wrapped, as already noted. This was the common way tires were shipped. I remember we used to drop or bounce them as hard as we could, which would pop the paper open. Much easier and quicker than cutting or trying to unwrap.
The stray dog is a nice touch to that photo. It must be thinking, "where did that car I was chasing go?" You and me both. That's one classy ride. Especially those gorgeous teardrop taillights. Let's go boulevard cruisin'!
They took it down to restore it a while back. Never heard if they got it flying again. https://www.trainboard.com/highball...kind-of-gas-stations.86175/page-9#post-988112 https://www.trainboard.com/highball...kind-of-gas-stations.86175/page-8#post-987850
Love it! I'm guessing a lot of surplus war material ended up like that. I remember seeing a picture of a P-40 on top of another gas station. My barber (retired now) used to lament not buying a P-51 back then. Would have cost him somewhere under $100.
I saw somewhere that underwing fuel tanks were also widely available for cheap, used by amateur enthusiasts for car bodies at Bonneville.
When we were 16 we bought 12 HD dispatch bikes in crates. 45cid (750cc) with foot clutch and hand shifter. We dismantled and reassembled (to the best of our knowledge) 4 stripped down versions. We kept 2, sold 2 and scraped the rest. Such fun! For a short time.
One of my uncles had a Chevy like that (a 1959 model) when I was a kid. Another uncle (my dad was one of 16 siblings growing up on a southern Michigan farm) had a '60 I thought was better looking. Of course, the '60 was a white 2 door HT with a red interior, so I may have been just a little biased.
I actually started out to post this photo before being distracted by the Chevy. This Standard station that stood in Luzerne, MI, first operated by Pete Palmer and shown here in the 1970's, dated to before WWII. It was a full service garage common in "up north" Michigan. Unfortunately, it buned to the ground in the 90's.