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Remember When Service Stations Gave Service
What a quaint concept!
Imagine paying 20 cents and getting actual service, too. Today,
it's as bizarre a notion to anyone under 40 as a gentleman's
tipping his hat to a lady.
About 40 years ago, both were part of everyday life in America.
Then in 1973, OPEC and Big Oil turned a screw creating long
lines and high prices at gas pumps, prepayments to grim
strangers behind bulletproof glass, and, most shocking of
all, forcing ladies dressed in their finery to pump their
own gas, wash their own windshields, check their oil and
fill their tires with air, "free air" now costing two bits.
It was the end of a great era.
Older
Suddenly Seniors will remember its beginning in the '20s
when gas stations popped up all over postwar and newly
prosperous America. Some stations even had indoor toilets.
In those days, filling a typical car's five-gallon tank took
eight minutes. To keep customers' minds from the clock,
attendants cleaned windshields (sometimes inside and out),
checked oil and water, even cranked engines to get the old
jalopies back on the road again.
The Depression saw stations built to resemble teepees,
castles, dinosaurs, even pyramids - anything to attract
scarce dollars. One of Gulf Oil's outlets was built in the
shape of the Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh's famous
airplane.
Slowed by gas rationing during W.W.II (remember the A, B and
C decals?), service stations mushroomed in the prosperous
1950s, marked by a huge expansion of motorcars and highways.
Service stations sprouted from every corner, competing by
giving away drinking glasses, trading stamps, maps, and car
washes. And a tsunami of service.
"Regular or Ethyl?"
So fierce was competition that gas wars broke out, at least
once pushing the price down to 12 cents a gallon in my
suburban Chicago neighborhood.
Suddenly Trivia: How many American service stations
were there in 1969?
a. 78,500 b. 156,000 c. 239,000 d. 468,900
Even car dealers put pumps out front to get some of the
action.
About 1950, I worked a summer at Ladendorf Oldsmobile in Des
Plaines, Illinois, about a block from the world's first
McDonald‘s.
(Who
knew? Ray Kroc’s first franchise opened April 15, 1955 - 50
years ago - and is now a museum. Today’s McDonald’s has
30,000 restaurants serving 50-million people day.)
My job was changing oil, lubing, and undercoating.
And pumping gas.
When the tire bell rang, I'd quickly throw on an ill-fitting
jacket and cap, run out, pump the gas - usually a buck's
worth, but occasionally, "Five dollars or fill, whichever
comes first." I'd wash windows all around, check the oil,
fill tires and the battery as needed, and, in my spare time,
chat or flirt, whichever was appropriate.
Really hectic was when a gas customer drove in as I was
undercoating - spraying tar all over the bottom of a vehicle
and me, protecting us both from road stones and rust.
Mr. Ladendorf, afraid my tarred, blackened aura might
frighten customers, insisted that I always wash my face and
hands with gasoline before greeting the customer.
Small wonder I had trouble getting dates that summer.
My
car at the time was a '41 Ford convertible with a '48
Mercury engine. Bright red. All-chrome interior. Chopped and
channeled. Leaded. Duals. Headers. Necker knob.
And no top.
On those rare occasions when I scrubbed up clean enough to
get a date, I'd borrow my dad's Oldsmobile Rocket 88 (0 to
60 in eight seconds!), promising to fill the tank and adhere
to mileage restrictions.
Dad insisted, "Don't drive over 10 miles, now." Whether he
thought I'd have less chance of an accident or what, I never
knew. I do remember having a devil of a time reinstalling
the speedometer cable, and once getting caught, feet in the
air, fumbling under the dash with loose cable in hand.
From then on, my last stop on date nights was at a service
station where, without so much as a frown, they reinstalled
the speedometer cable, free, with my fill-up.
Try getting service like that in 2007!
Suddenly Trivia answer: c. There were some 239,000
gas stations in the US at the peak in 1969. Today there
are less than 100,000.
Suddenly Senior is the popular weekly
e-zine for everyone over 50 who feels way too young to be old. Voted
American's Most Trusted Senior Site and read by 2-million each month,
you¹ll find 2,400 pages of senior humor, travel, nostalgia, trivia, senior
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50+. Updated daily.
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