I especially like the hand cranked pumps on top of it. I've seen it done. This was long before the automatic cutoffs which sensed when the tank was full. The first step was to determine how much gas would fit. The second step was to determine if the driver could afford that much. Then the requisite amount of gas was pumped (manually) up to the globe, which was graduated so everyone could see how much was being measured out. A valve was opened, and it drained down the hose and through the nozzle by gravity power.
We had one of the hand pumped, gravity pumps on display in a business I owned. Restored by a friend, seemed like it weighed a ton with all the cast iron parts. I can't recall how many lever pulls it took to get a gallon, but it would have been very good exercise! We kept it lighted, and left it on at night. It was a nice a conversation piece.
Has anyone mentioned B-A, British American Oil Company. I worked at a B-A station in a suburb of Winnipeg Man back in the 60's. The name was changed to Gulf, and the only thing that changed was the name. I got a tin Gulf badge to pin over the B-A logo on my uniform. I also remember White Rose, although that may have been a Canada only oil company. Back then "service" stations seemed to cluster at intersections in groups of 2 - 3 - or more. And Competition sometimes resulted in price wars. The sale price would sometimes be lower than the cost, and the gas from the tanker had to be paid once it was unloaded into the undergrount tanks! Jim
I vaguely remember B-A from way, way back, when I was barely able to see over the window sill in the back of the car. That was in the late 60s, when my Dad had a '56 and then a '65 Plymouth Savoy. We also had Fina. That got absorbed into Petro-Canada, and another lot into Ultramar later on. I don't have many recollections of travels in the '56 except for one time when I heard something flopping about and I stuck my head out the window to look - the right rear tire was flat. I told my dad about it but he ignored me until he realized the car didn't handle quite right. I do remember many travels in the '65, one memory in particular was the price of gasoline at a station near Yamachiche, Quebec - 36 cents a gallon. We aren't even near that per liter these days...
Fuel up in Michigan. They're having ridiculous gas wars. Stations are losing money like a dam burst flood.
Grew up in Los Angeles; the Southern California area had these in the '70s-'80s: Chevron ARCO Union 76/Unocal 76 Shell Gulf Texaco Exxon Mobil The first three were California-based companies. Chevron is still around, ARCO is now part of BP (but the brand name remains) and Union 76 had a complex fate - the oil end merged with Chevron but the gas stations were bought by Conoco/Phillips and just exist today as "76/"
I remember when we took a family trip from Houston, Texas to Colorado. Noticed that the gasoline was way more expensive up in Colorado, in the neighborhood of 35 cents a gallon! Exorbitant! (compared to Texas prices... ... ... then... )
No, it looks like it would have been not very accurate. They are cool looking though. 50-60 years from now kids will be see pictures of a 2016 gas station, while driving there electric, or whatever, cars...and laughing at gas station...maybe. Or modeling them on there "hover train sets"...
Great photo, Russell. Gotta love that Caddy with the fins. Some people would call that a land yacht. I call it an aircraft carrier. Hood big enough to land an F-14 on it. And enough metal in the front bumper to make two Toyotas...
We had a fabulous Amoco . . . . got bubble gum every time i went with my dad. Sadly it got closed a dozen or so years ago and bulldozed (after the tank yank). Now its a CVS.
Humble station somewhere in Texas. Not sure what town this is. The depot in the background is definitely T&NO style architecture.
I remember the typical Midwest staples of Standard, Conoco, Phillips, Skelly, Vickers, Clark's, Hudson, etc. My mother worked for Hudson Oil in KCMO as a receptionist and on some weekends, I would go with her and wander around the facility while she worked. The office, off Southwest Blvd, also housed their oil recycling plant. It basically was a garage-sized facility. The oil was resold at the stations for a whole lot less than the can fresh product. I guess some people actually used it in engines, but a lot was used to kill vegetation along fence rows. When we were packing up to move a few years ago I ran across a book and a bunch loose Clark's stamps. I guess it was their answer to S&H trading stamps. It was one way of buying brand loyalty.
This is what was termed as being "bulk oil". All the stations had it. Essentially it was screened to clean out pollutants, and came out looking like unused oil. It was delivered to stations in drums, or filled into bulk oil tanks with hand crank dispensers. Glass bottles with either aluminum or plastic funnel shaped lids on top were then filled and kept in racks somewhere around the pump island. There were also hinged spout one gallon cans for larger quantity refilling of motors. Generally people with ailing motors bought it, not wanting to waste money on better quality, brand name stuff. It had none of the additives, burned easily. Was pretty much a waste of money, but we sold it steadily. I cannot imagine how many thousands of those bottles I pumped oil into to refill.
Here is an old photo I took in about 1972 in Ottine, Texas. A friend and I were camping at Palmetto State Park and found this old Post Office outside the park entrance. Still selling Texaco gas as well as stamps and various groceries. Something about the musty old smell inside that just spoke of history.
I just thought about this one from a couple of years back: Just east of Ottawa there's a recreated 1920s era village, Cumberland Village, using various historic buildings from eastern Ontario (a bit like Upper Canada Village, but 60 years later). They have some vintage vehicles inside, but the realism is in the smell - it smells like a real garage, not a museum! Gasoline, oil, solvents... the real deal.
