Along some of the older State Highway across the US you can still find some of these old Service Stations around; like Route 66 I know for a fact still has some oldies but goodies. I've driven it recently. Wish I would have taken pictures; I just took it for granted seeing them. New Mexico is full of nostalgia
Now that's impressive! The B-17 kinda explains the Sky Chief thing... I would have loved to see that bird get hoisted up there.
Gulf Station in Colorado City, Texas. That is along the old Texas & Pacific Railroad between Fort Worth and El Paso.
That's some nice architecture for a gas station! The streetside sign is beautiful with those globe lamps and fluted column. They don't design them like that anymore.
I think the order of the day at that event was "don't sneeze". There's something about the outline of a B-17 that's really pleasing. One other bird that gives me that feeling is the Constellation. They have curves that draw the eye along them, flow along smoothly from nose to tail. Great photo, Russell.
I remember stopping at this gas station in 1970 when traveling with a friend and his family. Surprised that it stayed around on the roof of that station until 2015 ! Glad the plane is still in good enough shape and can be restored to flying condition.
That Signal service station almost looks like a train station with that clock-tower-like structure on top. Very classy. Very affordable service too - 75 cents for a lube job and 50 cents to recharge your battery.
Very--classy and handsome. Not so much. A half dollar was made of silver back then. The dollar was actually worth something in those days--and it took some sweat to earn one. Our wages have not kept up, though. The dollar does shrink faster than we can get raises. Technology should be raising our standard of living, but because the dollar is worth a nickel (or less), our standard of living is actually going down. A sound dollar would be a nice thing to have back... That actually works out to more than fifteen bucks for a lube and ten bucks for a recharge, in today's nearly worthless funny money.
I'd like to get a lube job for fifteen bucks these days... And just getting your battery boosted now, if you're not a member of CAA or something like that, is about $60. Bucking up the 75c or 50c with only inflation is not quite correct. Garage labor prices have gone through the roof. You might get the $15 for the lube itself, but it will cost you another forty or so to pay the guy doing it. Don't forget about quality of service. I saw something the other day about a lady whose father was a Standard Oil service station owner/manager. They did a lot of little things at the time that people appreciated lot, including helping kids with flat tires on their bikes for no charge. Operators got awards for customer service and appreciation, and that encouraged them to go the extra mile for the customers. That's how they built their customer loyalty. Try getting that these days with the inflated prices. Unless it's a family run business in a small town, where everyone knows each other, forget it. It's get the car in, fix it (or at least fix something) and get it out. I used to have that kind of relationship with my garage back when I had my '69 Newport. But even then, it was exceptional because the chief mechanic used to work as a mechanic for Chrysler for 30 years and he just loved going out with my car to "try out the repairs" (basically, he pushed it way up past 100 mph and usually came back from the test drive with a huge grin on his face). When this guy finally retired, it never was the same at that place. Since then I've found another place, 5 minutes walk from home, where they don't BS me and do a good job in a reasonable time. The care that was taken in the image of the service stations at the time was reflected in their personnel. When you have a building that looks like a train station (sometimes the most prestigious building in town), and with the work ethic of that time, you tend to show your pride by being the best you can be. The customers feel appreciated by your service, and they return the courtesy by showing their appreciation for that service. Now, the building is a box with garage doors in it. Where's the pride?
One thing I'm getting is that classic gas stations had real flair and style. It would be hard to overdo the elegance if scratch building.
A lot of architecture at the time had some measure of elegance. Designers wanted to leave their mark. Just look at railway stations - in a lot of cases, the station was the most prominent building in the community, right along with the local church and city hall. The station master was just as respected as the pastor or the mayor. In fact, in general people who worked for the railroad were respected (nowadays it's hard for anyone to get any respect... it seems respect has been bred out of our society). So goes for gas stations. The architecture made you want to go there, to be seen there. And the people that worked there put the service in the service station. It was just as much making the customer feel good, feel appreciated, feel important, as it was for the profit. A happy customer is a repeat customer. And I like that cute little roadster on the right at that Humble station.
Sinclair station in Houston. Tax was a big chunk of the price back then. The old negative is starting to disintegrate at the edges.
Kinda sad to see a landmark disappear on the one hand, but the idea that it will fly again more than makes up for that. I wonder how noticeable the difference between HO scale and a 1/72 B-17 would be. I think I still have an unbuilt kit ....... Hmm. Now if I could come up with a plausible explanation for it being located in Michigan.
