Can you remember ?

Ken N Tx said:
FREE!!!!!!
iu
Click to expand...
Yeah, the heck with those for-profit air pumps. I go to a tire shop (anywhere) and ask them to fill my tires for me. I always offer to pay, and they always say no charge.
 

Alligatorob said:
Forgotten about that. Are those gone? Guess some kind of simpler sensor replaced them.
Click to expand...
No, it's now all self service. Pay before you pump!!

Yes, the days of being a gas jockey. Wipe windows , check oil, get yelled at for putting premium in, even though they said do it. We finally beat the jerk out by the owner getting "We refuse service to anyone we choose" signs.

Was he pissed!!!

Then other stations I worked at. and people would say "Get the windshield" I'd point to the bucket "Go ahead!, It's not full service anymore"
 
Last edited:
Here's a funny thing, along two axes...

In college (late 60s), one of my girlfriends had a 63 VW bug. I was able to stand at the front, facing the windshield, bend down and grab the substantial front bumper (has a sort of chrome tubular extension along the top--it was like a bar of a barbell set), and lift the front wheels off the ground momentarily.

The two funny things: a car being that light and engineered with such an odd weight distribution (back end was significantly heavier); and actually being that young where it was possible to do stuff like that.
 
Disgustedman said:
No, it's now all self service. Pay before you pump!!

Yes, the days of being a gas jockey. Wipe windows , check oil, get yelled at for putting premium in, even though they said do it. We finally beat the jerk out by the owner getting "We refuse service to anyone we choose" signs.

Was he pissed!!!

Then other stations I worked at. and people would say "Get the windshield" I'd point to the bucket "Go ahead!, It's not full service anymore"
Click to expand...
Boy, I worked a lot of jobs like that during college summers, and also during school, sometimes.
 
debodun said:
An attendant would pump the gas, check the oil and wash the windows (or at least the windshield). Now every station is self-serve.
Click to expand...
If I recall right (n' I seldom do, these days), if ya pumped yer're own petrol at the self-serve thingy, yer're fuel was a couple cents cheaper per gallon. Wot happened to that? :confused:
 
I can remember when the gas station attendant wore a uniform that often included a hat, and some even had a coin changer belted on so they could render your change on the spot! Theyā€™d clean your windshield and check your oil without being asked, give you a steak knife, salad bowl, or something similar with a fill-up, and road maps were available and free! šŸ˜»
021435FF-08AE-46B4-822C-7F2EC6ED627A.jpeg
 
One of the most insistent instructions my parents drilled into me was: "Never get into a stranger's car." To this day I can remember standing at the bus stop, aged about eight, I was off to see my grandparents, they lived about three miles away on the bus route. Bus crews always kept a watchful eye on children travelling alone, it was a common practice back then.

Back at that bus stop and the weather turning inclement, a car stopped, a fellow probably early thirties, with a reassuring smile, offered to give me a lift and get out of the rain. I shook my head, no! "Come on," he coaxed. No! My parents instructions paid dividends, he drove off. His appearance has seared onto my brain, I can recall him so easy. A fresh face, handsome young man with a friendly smile.

My grandmother was quite shocked when I told her about the man and his car. She made a huge fuss of me and when I left for home a few hours later, grandmother told me to let my mother know. A second huge fuss was made of me. Neither grandparents nor my family could afford a telephone back then but somehow word got through between my mother and her's. My father even reported it at the police station.
 
While on a trip I remember doing that at some Texas gas station back in the 70ā€™s. They still had the old glass top gas pumps which I didnā€™t know how to use. The attendant said pump up how many gallons you want then let her rip. Since I over calculated the remaining ended up in my lap because I was on a motorcycle. :(

GlassTop.jpg
 
horseless carriage said:
One of the most insistent instructions my parents drilled into me was: "Never get into a stranger's car."
Click to expand...
Close to 30 years ago, on Vancouver television, there was an item about 'child luring' - a group of parents, all of whom were convinced that 'their children' had been educated/inured against abduction, agreed to participate in a monitored experiment wherein the faked abductions would be filmed.

The guy, who claimed he could get any child to follow him, showed up carrying a dog leash while the kids were playing outside - he said that his puppy had just run off and asked if they could help him find it. Every single one of them went with him.
 
Do you all realize that we've lived through a period of time in which, as little kids, we'd hear a Saturday morning radio show on which a cereal makes advertised, we could get our moms to buy that cereal, eat it, cut off the box top, fill it out with our name and address, tape a quarter (mostly silver!) to it and put it in an envelope and send it to Battle Creek, MI.

Three weeks later we'd get some kind of small toy.

Can you imagine anyone putting money in the mail like that, it obvious, tactile form? And ever expecting to get anything back?

Heck, I can't even be sure that the mailman (mailperson) won't get held up and robbed while on route.

But really, can you comprehend the erosion in the level of general societal trust within our lifetimes? No more mutual assistance. It's every man for himself in the big cities, make no mistake. I've been living in them since I was 20.
 
Sawfish said:
Do you all realize that we've lived through a period of time in which, as little kids, we'd hear a Saturday morning radio show on which a cereal makes advertised, we could get our moms to buy that cereal, eat it, cut off the box top, fill it out with our name and address, tape a quarter (mostly silver!) to it and put it in an envelope and send it to Battle Creek, MI.

Three weeks later we'd get some kind of small toy.

Can you imagine anyone putting money in the mail like that, it obvious, tactile form? And ever expecting to get anything back?

Heck, I can't even be sure that the mailman (mailperson) won't get held up and robbed while on route.

But really, can you comprehend the erosion in the level of general societal trust within our lifetimes? No more mutual assistance. It's every man for himself in the big cities, make no mistake. I've been living in them since I was 20.
Click to expand...
And all I needed to get my first Social Security card and to register to vote was to fill out little postcards at the post office.
Anymore, you basically need your entire life history in documents for everything.
 
Last edited:
On Monday of this week, I called into the bank to pay my credit card bill. I still do it that way. The bank was deserted. "It's always this quiet on Mondays," the cashier told me, "well," I replied, "there was a time when you gave the bank a miss on Monday mornings." She looked at me quizzically. I continued, "in the days before cards the only way to pay for anything was cash and Monday was the day retailers queued with their bags of coins that had to be weighed." The cashier was too young to remember that.
 
Sawfish said:
Do you all realize that we've lived through a period of time in which, as little kids, we'd hear a Saturday morning radio show on which a cereal makes advertised, we could get our moms to buy that cereal, eat it, cut off the box top, fill it out with our name and address, tape a quarter (mostly silver!) to it and put it in an envelope and send it to Battle Creek, MI.
Click to expand...
Speaking of radio shows long ago....anyone here remember "Lets Pretend"?
 
Last edited:
i remember the loud "ding". I also remember that nobody in the gas station paid any attention to it. The bell was dining its heart out, but everybody seemed to be "on break". And who buys gas by the dollar anymore? Who drives up and gets 2 bucks of gas, anymore?
 
I had a pair of these boots. I think everyone in Atlanta had a pair. My much younger cousin came to see me and fell in love with them. I gave them to her. She still remembers that to this day.

FC4CD6B3-147F-46CB-97B2-E5999533E4BC.jpeg
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top