What kind of gas stations...

No, actually I was mistaking the L for a visor and badge.

Now I think I see an independent who bought his gas from whomever he could--and bought whatever used pumps he could, too.

 

For sure, there are two brands, Texaco and Shell. I think it may have been an independent using whatever it found for globes?

And ya gotta love the classy lines of a B-17. Nothing else like it!

 

Gotta love that car... There's some real class (and the man posing with it seems real proud of it).

 

Now here's a station I'd stop at even if I didn't need gas, standing in the shadow of the DL&W's landmark Tunkhannock Viaduct in Nicholson, PA. Route 11 is seen here is in its new location, having been moved and built atop the DL&W's original route used before completion of the Nicholson Cutoff in 1915. [Postcard isn't mine. From Steve Hagy Collection]

 

That viaduct behind the Esso is impressive indeed. Looks somewhat like a Roman aqueduct Gorgeous is all I can say.

And that Elk Store keeps capturing my gaze. It looks suspiciously like one of Candy's models.

 

I think Tunkhannock stood as the largest concrete structure in the world until Hoover Dam was built in the '30s. The DL&W loved concrete and as engineering evolved, they used it everywhere. Even some company houses in the coalfields were built almost entirely of durable concrete ..... which proved to be a mistake when undermining in the area caused the ground to settle and the heavy homes developed serious structural cracks throughout.

 

When I was a wee lad we moved to San Jose, California. Long before it became the Silly-con Valley, it was an agricultural hub. My Dad worked at a Star and Bar gas station, and was a valued member of the team because he wasn't afraid of bees. Apparently it was common for local beekeepers to pull in with hives in the beds of their trucks, and my Dad would calmly go do the fill up with bees buzzing all around.