Check Your Oil Sir...

Pappy

Pappy

Living the Dream
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Moved back to NY from Florida. 🤓 2025
And your battery water, tires and clean your windshield. I use to work for a Texaco station, in the fifties, while station in Paso Robles, CA. (Camp Roberts). We had our regular routine that we had to follow. Full service meant just that. Remember, your can trust your car, to the man that wears the star.

My boss always had a bottle of gin cooling in the coke machine. We were located right on highway 101 and had a very lively business. The most famous person I pumped gas for was Poncho, the Cisco Kids sidekick. There may have been more as Paso is about halfway between LA and San Francisco.

we came back home in 1958, but I still miss that area. Fun times at the Army base and also my first son was born there.
 

"Hey, Cisco! Wait for me!"

Yeah, sittin' in the car while the service attendent took care of ya. Remember cruising around all night on, "Give me a dollar's worth of regular"? Heck, there we times I only had enough for 50 cents worth and that was no problem.

Now, I often check the other pumps while I'm guzzling up and make note of the expenditures . . . $70, $90 and even over $100 is not all that uncommon...
 
I see Dolly Madison Ice Cream in the background - you probably had enough change left over from filling 'er up to get a nice triple-scoop chocolate cone ...

I remember as a kid hanging out at my father's friend's Flying A gas station. It was a tiny place - 2 pumps and a one-slot garage - but the owner, a certain Charlie Deering, was a perfectionist at mechanics. He could fix something so well you'd never have to worry about it again, and it's probably that perfection that led to his selling the station in the early 70's to one of the Big Boys in the oil business.

I looked at it a few months ago on Google Maps - it's a filthy, nasty convenience store now. The pumps are gone but I could tell by the people in the picture that it isn't the kind of place you'd willingly spend much time at.
 

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When we (our Gang of Four) were old enough to get our licenses, I can remember pooling our change and maybe come up with a buck or two for gas and cruise all night and still have gas left. Most of us had flat head, V-8 Fords with dual exhaust and would drive up and down our Main Street, which didn't take long in our little town.

DA haircuts, turned up collars on our shirts and cigarettes rolled up in our T-shirt sleeve. We would all gather at the Park in the center of town and watch the girls go by. I can't imagine what we would have done if someone had walked by with their pants down around their knees, like they do today. Probably laughed ourselves silly.....:rolleyes:
 
Last year a guy re-opened an old service station in town. His gas was always quite a bit cheaper than anyone else's in town and they pumped it for you. That was a treat, it brought back a lot of old memories of how things used to be. Unfortunately, he didn't last long, citing he couldn't find help to run it. Funny in an area where there is high unemployment. I suspect that one of the two or three big dogs that run this town had a hand in his closure. They don't seem to like any competition around here.
 
Ozarkgal said:
Last year a guy re-opened an old service station in town. His gas was always quite a bit cheaper than anyone else's in town and they pumped it for you. That was a treat, it brought back a lot of old memories of how things used to be. Unfortunately, he didn't last long, citing he couldn't find help to run it. Funny in an area where there is high unemployment. I suspect that one of the two or three big dogs that run this town had a hand in his closure. They don't seem to like any competition around here.
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That's got to be one tough town if the DOGS are running it! I mean, I've heard of abandoned cities that are taken over by cats and ancient temples where gorillas rule supreme, but I've never heard of an American city run by dogs!

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Gas wars were a big thing in the 50's. which, was a good thing although we never worried about gas mileage then. The bigger the car and engine, the better. Lincoln even had a 12 cylinder engine. The engine actually had a floating dipstick so it was easier to tell oil level.
 
I had a big Chrysler when gas was like 30 cents a gallon but later got a VW Beetle. Today I drive a small KIA and it gets great mileage.
 
My dad was a Cadillac and Packard man. I remember a huge 38 Packard that was a monster. I believe it had a straight 8 for an engine. Another poplar car was a Hudson. They also had a big sedan that you stepped down in it and sat in big cushy seats. Rode like a dream. Just reminiscing again.
 
Looks like something from The Great Gatsby!

Beautiful, beautiful automobile (I won't call it a car) - from a time when form was just as important as function. That's a lesson these little cheese-boxes zipping around today seem to have forgotten - I'm a bit of an auto enthusiast and even I can't tell them apart anymore. Even my beloved Corvette, of which I've had the pleasure of owning 3, looks much like all the other high-end sports cars now.

Automobiles had character back then, a soul, that modern cars seem to lack.
 
Wow, that Packard is awesome ! I don't remember ever knowing anyone that owned a Packard.
My folks had a 53 Buick Special, and it went everywhere. On weekends, they tied the old wooden boat on top, and we putted up some narrow dirt road to a little trout lake way up in the hills, and spent the weekend fishing.
One nite, it was late, and they missed the turn for Solomon Lake, and a couple of hours later, we ended up at the top of the mountain, and spent the nite camping at Solomon Lookout. The roads were too narrow to turn around once you got started up them, so we had to make it to the top.
I don't know that the newer cars of today would begin to compare to that old Buick.
I actually don't remember the old Corvettes too much, but I do remember that Thunderbird had that little tiny one for a year or so. I always thought they were awesome, but have never ridden in either that or a Vette. The closest I came was my 73 gold 280Z, and I did love that little car !
However, they are just NOT meant for hauling hay or farm life, so I traded it for a little pickup instead. ( A pink Ford Ranger...... That was SO me ! )
 
R. Zimm said:
I had a big Chrysler when gas was like 30 cents a gallon but later got a VW Beetle. Today I drive a small KIA and it gets great mileage.
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After that @#%^&*! gas crunch that had us sitting in long lines in '73, I went Japanese and haven't looked back. Started with Honda and finally started driving Toyotas.
 
One time, when I was a little guy, Dad let me sit on his lap and let me steer it around our little fair grounds racetrack. I was having a great time until a grounds keeper came out and chased us off.
 

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