Old Enough to Remember?

All I get are red Xs. Yeah, I used to be one of those guys who'd check your oil, air, clean your windows, etc. all for $.50 worth of gas. One station I worked at, as far as I know, is still doing it. At least, they were a few years ago.
Hutch

i worked at one when i was 14 after school. my dad knew the owner and took me to get a work permit. had to have one if you were under 16. i would get off the school bus at the station and dad wuold come get me till i turned 15 then he and mom would drop off his van and i would drive home, only lived about 2 miles and times were much different then. only had 2 kinds of gas regular and eythel(or hitest). sold oil from a 200 gallon tank for i think .15 a qt. man things were so simple then and yes i played with the bell. i wish i could take my grandkids back to that for a while, just for the fun.thanks for making me remember

Bamby said:

Gas Stations OfYesteryear

Click to expand...

http://www.jokelibrary.net/xOtherAtoM/cars/stations/stations.html

I bet they're all considered hazardous waste sites now and before the current owners can sell the property, they have to tear everything out to remove the underground tanks.

Good find Bamby, and good save PG.
Oh yeah, I remember them well.
Good post.

Here's some shots..

Those old stations were works of art. I wish I had one of those old pumps to set outside my new shop.
Hutch

I worked at a Quaker State on National Road near Wheeling when in high School. First 5 hours of shift spent working in the garage doing light mechanical work. Spent final 4 hours pumping fuel in the front of store. Had enough time to study a little between customers. The station was green and white and looked like a castle. It was very unique in a lot of ways until they tore it down for so called progress. It may have been the most pleasant job and working conditions I've ever had.

I owned a Texaco station with 2 bays in 78/79. I was young and stoopid, and had no business sense. I cleared over 125k the first year. Problem was, I pissed away 150k. Second year it still didn't set in. I really pissed away alot. New Lincoln, new race cars, new show cars, motorcycles, and girls.

You can trust your car to the man who wears the star...
Yup, I had a green and white striped shirt, a green hat with red Texaco and Red Star, and dark green pants, and all my employees wore the same except an all green shirt. I was proud!

While everybody else was going self serve, no matter how much gas you bought, we pumped it, cleaned your windows, checked all your fluids, If it was slow, we'd vacuum out your car and dispose of the smoker's ashes. Checked wiper blades, tires, light bulbs, belts, hoses and air filter. We didn't screw around. I wanted to SELL!

The kids that worked for me got a bonus for every car they spotted with a service problem that came back to the shop for work. I taught the kids how to fix cars too. As a result, I was able to beat all my competition with cheaper labor rates, plus, I did not need to make the 40% markup on parts, because my bays were full day and night. Everybody won.

I kept Texaco happy by selling Havoline branded parts and displaying them.

So, customer service works to grow a business, but having a greenhorn business owner with no mentor can take a perfect business and drive it to the poorhouse.

It wasn't cheap school for sure, was in debt for quite a few years after that, to the Govt too, but I learned more about many many things than I could ever learn in school.

Oh went off on a tangent there.................

Fred, one of the service stations I worked at was a Texaco. This was in '72-'73. The owner was a clean fanatic! He had an entire walk-in closet in his house devoted to nothing but Texaco uniforms. Any speck of grease on his uniform and he changed it. This was when Texaco was so proud of their clean restrooms. We cleaned them numerous times daily. We had to check them at least every hour. He kept a drum of Tide that we cleaned the service bays with every night. Nothing worked like Tide back before they de-phosphated it! You had to be able to eat off that floor by the time you left at night. Of course, the tow truck outshone and outran everyone else's. I'm not knocking it, it was a good place to work. Unfortunately, they tore it down after I left to put in a cloverleaf, and I don't know what ever happened to the owner.
Hutch

Yup, that sounds like me. I learned from the guy I worked for in College - a Standard Oil station. He was relentless. Me too. The staion was cool. I'm not sure what they are called, but the facade was covered with giant tile-like metal pieces, maybe 2 foot square. The place always shined.