Did you used to hang out at a full service gas station back in the day?

This picture got me thinking about the Amoco I used to hang out at in the early 80's. It's long gone. I want to say it disappeared in the mid eighties and we started meeting as a club at a body shop down the road.

The photo looks set up - some guys sister - maybe a gal friend, but you can tell by the soiling, it was looked at time and time again. Probably laid next to the register for years & years.

 

Looks better cleaned up a bit...

 

There was a local station that was full service up until 10 years ago. I worked in the shop as a mechanic, but I had a few friends that were gas jockeys. Those guys all had the normal stories of that trade!

It is a fun way to make a buck and there is always something interesting happening.

 

I worked at a full service gas station from 69 to 71. We did the towing for that municipality so all the cops hung out there. I'm pretty sure I got special treatment, but they did wag their finger at me a lot.

 

I've never heard about hanging out at a service station.
Well, maybe only once, in this C.W. McCall song named Crispy Critters:



One day about four or five years ago
We was a-settin' at the Conoco station
Kickin' tires, and swattin' flies
And discussin' the State of the Union

When right out in front of the Baptist church
Come a big old purple school bus
Had astrological signs upon it
And thirty-five hippies and dogs inside

About half of 'em went for the courthouse lawn
And them dogs commenced on the fireplug
Rest of 'em set there starin' at us
And I says, "Roy, go get your Flit gun"

He says, "Which is the hippies? And which is the dogs?"
I says, "Beats the hell outta me, Roy"
What they was, was a bunch a them crispy critters
And their leader was a space cadet

 

Armisto's Citgo, Pleasantville NY. My mom used to drop me off there when she'd come into town to run errands, I was maybe 5-6 years old.

 

My cousin worked at Washington and Lee Service in Cleveland Heights back in the 80’s, I’d go there and hang out in the evenings.
I remember a customer had some kind of 60’s Buick, under the hood I distinctly remember 465 Wildcat on the air cleaner.
Ron Heitman (part owner) did a lot of hot rods, one of HIS customers had a ‘72 chopped top GS (probably Skylark) with a 455 and 4 speed.
Good times for sure!!

 

I didn't hang out much at the stations, probably because by the time I was car crazy, self-serve was sweeping in. I did have friends I'd visit while they were working in my small town that either managed or wrenched at the station(s).

Reminds me of a photo at the local bar. "Buster" owned the last full serve station in town, 1/2 service and 1/2 fishing/firearms (that place i certainly DID hang out at!) The photo depicted his daughter, a long-time employee, filling up a customer's truck in her wedding dress. Fond small town memories.

Devon

 

Before I was old enough to drive, several of the neighborhood kids and I would search under the cabinets and in the garage for coke bottles for the deposits. One family bought the big ones that were worth 20 cents-talk about a gold mine! We’d drag a wagon across Price Road to Clark’s Service Station and trade in the deposits for cokes, peanuts and candy (Kraft Caramels were 3c so you could usually use up every cent of the deposit money). We’d hang around outside, partly because we wanted our 10c back from the cokes we were drinking. Being a service station, we’d use their air hose on our bike tires and watch repairs if they were doing any. It became a ‘convenience’ store by the time I was driving so no reason to hang out any more. Besides, I’d grown up limited to the range my bike provided; with a car I could roam the whole county!
Patrick

 

She DOES look nice

 

She is sweeping the grass, so she's not the sharpest tool in the shed. We hung out in the 7 eleven parking lot.

 

Myself & @jherb worked at the same full service station back in the 80's. I started there as the junior mechanic when I was 19 or 20 but had been delivering parts there prior so knew the guys. Most of us were into cars/partying. It was a wild place & the owner, who was drunk most the time, put up w/a lot of our shenanigans.

 

...that was a '60s thing, went away with self-serve. Close friend was Shell station night manager at Rte 29 and New Hampshire Ave, for anyone familiar with area. Lots happening nights there on weekends, thanks to an interchange and 29 being a straight divided highway. Memorable night had a Corvette owner teasing local police by leading them around interchange and up/down 29. We had a front row seat. Today, development/traffic makes such behavior unsafe, but back then...

...smart lasts, looks not so much...

 

I worked at the local Esso station and my best friend worked at his family's Sinclair. Both were full service and did pretty much everything. Local hangouts were the Tastee Freeze, Dairy Queen and a small burger joint that had pinball machines.

 

I worked at a Sohio Station age 15-20 pumped gas oil and tire changes, remember the rush when all the folks came in for the switch over to snow tires usually the first weekend of snow. The boss trusted us with smaller jobs the more exp we got. Worked there with 2 brothers the older one got me the job. Had a number of friends that would come and hang out especially nights and weekends. The best benefits that job offered were use of the lifts and the older mechanics help when I got in over my head. The younger brother and my best man was a much better mechanic than I was. He made it his career and bought the place from the boss. The gas pumps went away and he just did mechanical work. Eventually he bought a bigger place with auto-body as well. Now he is trying to sell and retire. Great memories and it treated him very well. Employees were always his biggest struggle. No one measured up because of his skill and tenacity.

 

Summer of 85 my friends and I rented a house in Hyannis MA for the summer, I was gainfully employed as a Petroleum Distribution Engineer at the local Gulf Station.

It was a great job, plenty of partying, met a lot of girls on Cape Cod for the summer, gas was $.89 pg, them were the days....

 

When I first moved into Washington Township, NJ in Bergen County back in 69, there was a Flying A gas station down at the end of my street.



In the repair shop was some sort of futuristic car, iridescent painted with a clear glass bubble for a roof. We never did figure out what it was. I wonder if it was some sort of prototype leftover. It then became a Getty for decades to follow until more recently a BP. I remember my buddy pumped gas there for years. Used to put his cigarette on top of the pump while pumping gas for the customer.