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

We used to go to the Texaco station, was in the late 60’s, and fish out the bottle caps from the coke machine. Used a magnet on a string. At the time there were the presidents on the inside of the cap. The local cop used to come in and buy us all a coke so we could get some more caps.

 

I lived in a small town ('81-'83) so we would hang out in the parking lot of the town Convenient (that was its name) store facing the road. Only one main road through the town so eventually most of our friends would cruise by and stop in. No cell phones so you would just cruise around looking for people. Most of us lived 3-5 miles out of town in the sticks. Warm summer nights, bull shittin, good music playing and sneaking a few cold beers since we were all underage.

 

On Washington Ave? I grew up in Oradell and pumped gas at the Shell on Kinderkamack Rd in 1983... and later had good friends on Lafayette Ave in Westwood.

 

I worked at a full service gas station during my high school years in the evening and on the weekends. When things got slow late at night, I would pull my ‘65 Mustang fastback into the wash bay and get her cleaned up. That was back in 1967.
It was a great way to meet a lot of girls. They were always pulling in and wanting something. Most of the time, it was just a dollars worth of gas. I think gas was around .25 to .30 cents a gallon back then.

 

Here's Bob & Harry's Texaco on S.E. 50th & Division Portland, Oregon
I grew up on 54th & Lincoln.
Harry had a beautiful 1961 Oldsmobile convertible Red that
he always parked out on the corner of the lot. This was my dads exclusive place to get gas in his Buicks. I used to get kids Texaco kites free whenever we would go fill up.
My dad frequently would give me a quarter and would say "Eric walk down to Bob & Harrys and get a gallon of gas for the lawn mower." I would say this was around 1963 when I was 10 years old. I would get a pop too there when I arrived.
You can see the pop machines sitting out front in the picture. And there's my uncle Mertons 57 Chevy in for an oil change and lube.

 

No way! Yes, Washington Ave, right on the corner of Cleveland and Washington. I lived right down Cleveland on the corner of Willow St and Cleveland Ave across the street from Clark Field from 69 to 89. I don't recall exactly which Shell was on Kinderkamack but I'm sure I probably fueled up the GS there once or twice. Ahh good old Lafayette ave. It was a street racer's dream.

 

For about two days - then they hired me as a part-time gas pump jockey. If I was going to hang around, I thought that I might as well get paid for it.

 

My first job was at a Texaco at Denman Flats north of Petaluma, CA. I was 16 and I worked up to 40 hours a week while in high school. I graduated in 1966 and by that time was working at a Chevron on Petaluma Blvd. training was to wash the drivers side of the windshield while asking if they wanted to fill it with premium. Then to the back of the car to the wash the back window and start filling the tank. On around to the passenger side of the windshield. This allowed you to open the hood to check their oil and maybe air filter without them being able to say no. Of course in those days we used a multiple copy credit card document that the customer signed. And, we would look at their tires to see if they needed new ones. When there were no customers at the “islands” we were changing and balancing tires, doing brakes and oil changes. I loved that job.

 

The best shift was Sunday. We worked for 13 straight hours, but the good thing was that we raised the pump price by a penny a gallon and the penny went to whoever was working. The boss was a good guy and if we did a flat repair or replaced a belt or did a number of simple jobs, he always added something extra to the day's pay. Sunday could be a really good day. The boss was OK with our washing our car inside if we hit a slack period.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the station was Highland Gulf in Newton Highlands, MA. It was often referred to as "Corvette Corner" because we had a guy - his name was Ken Barre - who was a whiz on Corvettes including the old mechanical Rochester fuel injection. There were actually a couple of Chevrolet dealers that would send "problem" injected Corvettes to Ken. He never failed, except he drank himself to death. He hit the back of a stopped trailer truck when he was wasted.

 

I couldn't help but notice it normally took the attendant longer to clean the passenger side of the windshield-he was getting a good visual on the GF!

 

In the late 80's-early 90's I worked at a full service Shell gas station and shop, near downtown Clearwater. Worked at a few other Shell stations around the area after that too.

At that time, I think we were the closest full service gas station to Clearwater Beach... That was awesome for most of the year. Met a lot of girls that way. We also had a AAA contract, so I got to run some towing and service related calls, too. Part of our AAA territory was also Clearwater Beach... some awesome memories!

Clearwater Beach was a great cruising/hangout spot too.

 

I spent the a year working nights while I was in trade school, and then the first seven years of my career working for a full/self service Texaco Station in South Minneapolis. A wonderful place to work with a great crew and hands on owner. Terry, the owner, was one of those guys that could tell you anything, and you would believe him, which lead to a lot of practical jokes.

The station was located about a mile away from a very popular lake that kids like to cruise around.. part of the parkway system in MPLS, there was a paved, one way road all the way around the lake, with intermittent parking spaces. I spent more than a few hours sitting on the hood or leaning against the trunk deck of my GS convertible with my buddies, watching swimsuit clad pretty girls drive by.

At least a couple times a summer, a car load of girls would pull into the station, and come in the office and ask " Can you tell us how to get to Lake Nokomis?

If Terry was standing behind the counter, which he often was, and he was in a playful mood, he would get a look on his face of sympathy, and say "Sorry girls, you can't get there from here".

Any of us standing in the office, would be biting our lip to the point of drawing blood, trying not to smile..

They usually would get a look on their face of confusion.. or sadness, at which time he would smile and say "Down 3 blocks and take a right, you run right into it". and we would all burst out laughing.

It certainly was a good way of sorting out the dumb ones from the smart ones..

JW

 

I'll be damned, you grew up just a couple miles from me. I grew up on 44th and Carlton which is 2 blocks south of Woodstock.
I kinda remember that station, but only vaguely.

 

Back in the mid to late 70's when I was a teenager we lived in Mazeppa MN. It was a small town with only one gas station which was owned and operated by Roger Markum and his wife.

It was a two bay station and Roger did the wrenching while his wife manned the gas pumps.

Roger was a good mechanic having previously worked for a Chrysler dealership.

Anyway one Saturday Roger's wife had something going on and he asked me if I would man the gas pumps for the day, of course I said yes.

About mid morning Roger had a farmers 3/4 ton pick up on the hoist to change the rear shocks. The lift was one of those old single cylinder lifts where the cylinder was located in the middle of the bay and went down into the floor.

There was no gas customers at the time so I was standing just outside the overhead door opening watching Roger work.
He had a 2 1/2' to 3' wrench on the lower right rear shock bolt trying to break it loose. He was pushing downward on the wrench with all his strength.
All of a sudden the truck slid sideways off the arms of the lift and crashed to the floor on its right side.
I was shocked and luckily Roger didn't get hurt.
Roger went and grabbed his 5 ton wrecker and we hooked it up to the truck and pulled it out of the bay on its side and then rehooked it and flipped it back up on all 4 wheels.

At the end of the day Roger pulled out my bill (I owed him a good bit of money for fixing the brakes on my car) and he said to me I really appreciated the way you kept your cool and helped me with the truck accident and marked my bill "paid in full"!

I can still to this day remember that incident very vividly.

Roger ended up buying the farmer a replacement truck.


Keith

 

I pumped gas and did brake jobs at Barkers 76 gas station for a year when i was in high school......when i was in middle school me and Leo Miller washed cars on saturdays in the back bay at Rethlakes Marathon

Peace WildBill

 

Can't say I hung out at full service gas stations, but, my second part time job in 1964 was working at Mr. Fishers Esso full service station when I was 15 at 1 dollar an hour.

This was in Alexandria VA on Duke Street. I was a good worker but very immature.
I learned how to drive his 1949 Chevy tow truck. One night he saw me hot rodding his truck and the next day he fired me.
I learned a valuable lesson, I never got fired again.
He was a very good mentor and I learned a lot from him. Too bad I was a stupid kid.

That's one of the reasons I like and appreciate the military, it made me grow-up and be responsible. Vet (Navy)
PS, when you see a friend die in the military, that's a huge wakeup call.

 

My grandfather owned Buster’s Citgo in Central Falls, RI. Used to visit every Saturday. My dad would fill up the tank and talk with Pepere. Had the nut machine with the red pistachios and a coke machine with glass bottles. He sold it in 1975 when I was 13 and still too young to have enjoyed it more.

 

Way! The Shell was/is near the corner of Oradell Ave and Kinderkamack.
And yes, Lafayette... leading into Forest Ave. Got my first ticket there two weeks after getting my license near the cemetery racing a kid from school in a 71 GTO. Kid was more perturbed that the Buick walked him than the ticket.
My friends on Lafayette were into Mustangs in a big way. This is what their front yard looked like on a regular basis in the late 80's.
(apologies for the offensive content in advance )

 

Never hung out much at any local service stations, but did work part time for a Mohawk gas station/coin car wash for about 1.5 years around 75-76. Couple of brothers owned it and they treated employees well. Let us create a charge account for gas which they'd deduct from our pay. Also got free car washes any time we wanted during less busy periods.

We had a massive blizzard in winter of 75-76 which snowed almost everybody in. Owners were phoning every employee trying to get the station opened after the storm ended early Saturday morning. A neighbor with a 4X4 truck created a path out our bay. My younger brother also worked there part time and begged to come along as he needed the cash. The owners were certain it wouldn't be busy, and that I could easily handle things. Said not to open the car wash, just the pumps and store. Told them I was bringing Ron with me just in case, plus he could push if I got stuck.

Jumped into my 66 Galaxie and off we went!! Managed to get there around 0900 to find people waiting at the pumps for gas. Someone had broken into the car wash before we arrived. We had hardly any change, and not much in small bills. Ended up working 12 hours that day and had near record sales!! Owners were most grateful, although I can't remember if the gave us a bonus.

Other than that, used to hang out a truck stops during my over the road days........... Kept away from the lot lizards and pavement princesses though.

 

I did too.... Started probably at 7 or 8, rode my bike down to the Sunoco at the end of my street to use the free air, buy pops, jump on the driveway bell ringer rope, ride around in the back, and check out all the old cars, etc.. Then as I got older and needed more money, I delivered the Plain Dealer newspaper to them again with my bike, riding over the driveway bell ringer rope. When I was 15 in 1981, they hired me on as a full service weekend gas guy and bay/tool cleaner. Eventually doing tires, belts, oil changes, etc. I worked there after school and on weekends until the end of high school. I was able to use the lift at night as long as I cleaned up after myself. I miss those days......