Got an old brain? I need to pick it!!!!

In the 1950s in rural Alabama, the small store near my grandmother's house still had a wooden wall phone with a crank on the side. Almost no one had a phone in their house.
 
One thing that I recall is pretty much gone these days and that is a sense of pride in running a service station. My father started in sales for the former Texas Company (now called Texaco) at a time when most stations were leased franchise operations. The operators were expected to wear a reasonably clean uniform with a cap and black bow tie and to treat the public with courtesy. This was just after WWII and many of the station operators were veterans that ran their places with the efficiency and precision of a military base. By the time he retired in 1990, my father had said they were lucky to hire station attendants that "could walk and chew gum at the same time".
 
Charles Coe said:
In the 1950s in rural Alabama, the small store near my grandmother's house still had a wooden wall phone with a crank on the side. Almost no one had a phone in their house.
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Sorta the same with the old see-thru gravity pumps, many rural areas didn't have electricity to run the pumps that replaced them so they were used way into the late 40s.
 
31 Model A------ neat set up perfect place to park your Coupe!!

I saw a really nice Sunoco oil bottle rack w/ bottles sell at auction a few years ago. It was illuminated looked pretty cool. Seller said it dated from the early 1930's. Being a Sunoco nut I sure wanted to buy it, but it sold at just under three thousand bucks if I recall was out of my budget for that sort of thing at that time:)
 
BlueSunoco said:
31 Model A------ neat set up perfect place to park your Coupe!!

I saw a really nice Sunoco oil bottle rack w/ bottles sell at auction a few years ago. It was illuminated looked pretty cool. Seller said it dated from the early 1930's. Being a Sunoco nut I sure wanted to buy it, but it sold at just under three thousand bucks if I recall was out of my budget for that sort of thing at that time:)
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Yes, certain things go for big bucks if they are associated with a certain oil company....you can find wire racks with authentic bottles with spouts between $400-$600 bucks that are not associated with a certain oil company. I've come across many in antique shops.
 
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I hear ya..... this one was a blue and yellow outfit that stood alone, about three feet high, big enough to hold around 24 glass oil bottles. It was perfectly restored with Sunoco oil bottles in the stand. The sides had little punched out holes in the outlines of 'Blue Sunoco' so the light bulbs inside would shine out if that makes any sense.

Probably what it was worth as you say they want $600 for the small wire carriers w/ bottles.

Oh well, next time;)
 
Even in the mid-60's we had a see through gravity pump at a one horse garage that I worked at as a teenager. One of my many jobs there was to keep it pumped full during the day so the gas would expand and the excess would run over the over flow pipe and return back in the under ground tank. The old man that ran the place said that was the only profit he made on gas. I done all of the oil changes and grease jobs and helped on the overhauls and clutch jobs. The old man was an expert mechanic but rather talk than work. He also bootlegged wild cat whisky out of the parts room.
 
Gold Digger said:
Even in the mid-60's we had a see through gravity pump at a one horse garage that I worked at as a teenager. One of my many jobs there was to keep it pumped full during the day so the gas would expand and the excess would run over the over flow pipe and return back in the under ground tank. The old man that ran the place said that was the only profit he made on gas. I done all of the oil changes and grease jobs and helped on the overhauls and clutch jobs. The old man was an expert mechanic but rather talk than work. He also bootlegged wild cat whisky out of the parts room.
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LOL!!!!! Great story, great memory to have........:D
 
31 Model A said:
LOL!!!!! Great story, great memory to have........:D
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We got our first electric pump for the Regular, in 1944, got tired of PUMPIN'--Still used an old pumper for the Ethyl.
Once I was fillin' 55 Gallon drums on the back of a flat bed, CLIMB DOWN, PUMP, CLIMB UP, AGIN' & AGIN'!----Sittin' on top of the LAST one, RAN IT OVER!!!--What a MISERABLE DAY!! :eek::eek::eek:
Bill W.
 
Can't really remember the last time I drank a Squirt, way over 50 years for sure until today. Sure brings back my youth, so much that by the time I've drank this case I'll be back in nappies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
1937pickup said:
I remember the smell of the station my dad used to fill up on Saturday.
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OH YES, the SMELLS:D Our fillin' station had smells, like: GAS, KZHAUST STINK, COAL SMOKE, from the pot belly, USED OIL, HOT PATCH SMOKE, sum guy with a CIGAR or a PIPE, ACID STINK from the battery charger area, OLD AIR, wheezing out of an inner tube, FOOD SMELLS frum Richardsons' Café, across the alley, some man that took a "bath" in WITCH HAZEL, Mommas' cheep PERFUME, Chiefs' B.O, that horrible old GREASY SMELL, comin' off a blistering OVERHEATED ENGINE, MANURE SMELL from the guy that kept his car in his BARNYARD, RUBBER SMELL in the tire/tube room, OH! the unusual, indescribable smell of the exhaust from the HYDRAULIC HOIST----------Like a cross of the smell of a cesspool, laced with OLD OIL!!:eek::eek::eek::eek:
BUT, the REST ROOMS didn't STINK, guess who cleaned them?? Chief sed I made them smell like a cross, between a HOSPITAL & a FRENCH HOREHOUSE, don't remember whut I used??? Sometimes, whin sumbody really "BOMBED" it, I'd burn newspapers, FIRST, to "neutralize" that smell, so's it didn't start the paint to PEELING on the walls!!!:eek: And Momma NEVER failed to ask, "Didja' WASH YO' HANDS"?:D
Other smells nearby, TRAIN, POST MILL, where they treated posts with CREASOTE, that old mans' PICKLE factory, in the alley, & that "FUNNY" smell from Highway 70, when it just started to rain & I culd go on & on, but I just BROKE a NAIL on my MAJOR tipin' FINGER:eek:
Bill W.----(I DON'T make up this "STUFF", it's ALL TRUE, I jist have trubble REMEMBERING it all.)
 
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BILL WILLIAMSON said:
Sometimes, whin sumbody really "BOMBED" it, I'd burn newspapers, FIRST, to "neutralize" that smell, so's it didn't start the paint to PEELING on the walls!!!:eek: .)
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You would have been made NCOIC of the morning **** burning detail in Nam with all that kind of experience Paw!!!!

Paw, you know where or who sells Dr Pepper in bottles?
 
Bruce Adams said:
The desk telephone, Western Electric 202 set was developed in 1920 and widely available in the 1930's, known as an "H Set" to Telco people and The FDR Phone to many. The wall set represented with the flip in the coin return was a late 1960s development.
In reference to the ubiquitous slide credit card machine, BANK AMERICARD was the first of the bank cards, available in 1958. Credit cards were unheard of at the Long Island gas station I worked in during the late 1950's and early 1960's. The $ 0.40 oil bottles were refilled nightly from bulk oil containers.
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Bruce, I see you are from Northport. My summer job in 1969 was pumping gas, fixing flats and changing spark plugs at "Country Life" Shell in Fort Salonga. When I have a few minutes I will add my memories to this great thread.
Rich
 
SeaSlugs said:
http://www.vintagesodas.com/where-to-buy-vintage-sodas

where you can buy pretty much any vintage soda (new made glass bottle stuffyou can drink - im not talking 40 year old soda...)

amazon has a surprising amount of old sodas too.

if you google search where to buy vintage candy alot of different websites pop up.
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I do appreciate those links but I found Dr Pepper cheaper here:

http://soda-emporium.com/FRESH-Case...e-with-IMPERIAL-PURE-CANE-SUGAR-P2356971.aspx

But!!!!! You found for me something that I have been looking for since the late 60s. When I would fly into Saigon, I'd walk over the Aussie transport hut where the Diggers would be arriving in and leaving Nam. They had a soda machine in there and there was an orange soda that I'd die for. Here is it...and thanks much, I owe ya!!!



http://www.sodapopstop.com/products/detail.cfm?link=969
 
31 Model A said:
But!!!!! You found for me something that I have been looking for since the late 60s. When I would fly into Saigon, I'd walk over the Aussie transport hut where the Diggers would be arriving in and leaving Nam. They had a soda machine in there and there was an orange soda that I'd die for. Here is it...and thanks much, I owe ya!!!



http://www.sodapopstop.com/products/detail.cfm?link=969
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Just ordered 12 bottles, sorry, for private consumption only!!!! :p but ya all can have a Squirt if ya drop by. ;)
 
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