History How Many of You Did This ??

Back in the late 50's I worked at a gas station, and yes dressed similar to this, and did all these things..including he whisk broom ...
Wow...what a change..
Who on here has done the same ??
Cheers.....

 

I never pumped gas until the '60s, no uniform but a mechanics shirt. Didn't do the wisk broom thing but clean glass and fluids checked (and topped) was the norm.

 

I did in the late 70s
Man do I have some stories about that job.

 

Did as a punk kid 1958/61 went PRO---lol in the standard oil co training program 1965
sandiego, uniform was white with the chevron hat ta boot. Wasn't there long, moved over to shell and ran/ managed a string of stations.
those days that area (no bra's and usually nothing under the skirt either) washed a LOT of windshields )) yikes and yes the stories W O W ! ! !

 

My dad owned and ran a Richfield station in a small town. No uniform because they did mechanical repairs as well. It was common for them to climb from under a car and go to the pumps when someone pulled up. I am guessing the uniform thing was more a larger market thing?

 

I worked in the full service gas stations in the late '50s & into the '60s. We cleaned all outside glass, checked fluids, checked the air in the tires. Never did the wisk broom. No uniform, did have a shop jacket or overalls. And all ways with a big smile for the customer!

 

Did all the exterior stuff, nothing inside other than a quick cleavage check.

 

A buddy and I ran a Shell in Forest Grove in the early '70s. We had mechanics shirts and did repairs and ran the pumps. It was a common thing in small town USA to see the gas pump jockey wiping his hands on the way to the pump back then.

In '75 I worked a Deep Rock station in Independence, KS ( about 30K Pop.), I ran it 4 'til closing, we had a grease pit and a tire machine ( manual) by the side of the Office. I pumped gas changed tires and oil. Wore a White Deep Rock shirt and had a spare because I had to look good when I was pumping gas. The shirt didn't have my real name on it, there was a pretty good turnover.

@saltflats funny thing this came up in conversation the other week when I was up at my country estate. drinking coffee with the farmers on Saturday morning we managed to decide that times have really changed. A common right of passage when we were kids was bucking hay, bagging groceries, or pumping gas. Or all of the above.

 

Worked and later operated an independent small town station for about four years around 1969/ 70.
Didn't do much mechanical repair but did oil changes, grease jobs and sold some tires (Kellys)
First station in greater Cincinnati to have GIRLS (cute teen age high schoolers) pump gas> Yes, they washed windshields...I washed windows (it was the mini skirt era), wiped head lights, checked oil and checked tires if requested... We didn't wear full uniforms but company shirts and long pants (NO Levis), girls wore shorts when weather permitted.
This was about when self pump stations were just starting to appear and most people said that women would never pump their own gas > BOY HAVE TIMES CHANGED !!!
Guy that owned the company actually had his own / self financed credit card set up that was only good there. AND GAS WAS USUALLY ABOUT 27.9 to 33.9 CENTS A GALLON !!!!!!!

 

Unless something has changed in the last 2 years you still can't pump your own gas in Oregon, unless you go to a commercial fill dock. Like the ones that truckers and farmers use.

 

I worked in a shell station back in the 70s.Always checked under the hood and always did the windshields and checked the air in the tires. I remember I always opened the station by 6.A.M. and we had a rich old battle ax who drove a real old Jag. I came in hung over one morning{and had a coffee with too much creamer in it and while her car was filling with gas I ran in the garage puking my guts out in a garbage can.}She starts blowing on her horn yelling I want you to check the air in my tire too. I yell back ,I will be right there and finished puking and ran out to finish the job. Thats the last time I drank on a work night.LOL.Bruce.

 

nothing worse than being in the middle of a job and hear the ding-ding of the bell.......then try to remember were you left off........."oh yeah, this needed to be tightened, get that part washed" ...........DING-DING

 

Did that part time when I was in high school, figured out they paid me $0.66 a hour. dose not seem like a lot, but gas was $0.25 a gallon in the early 60's. when school was out for the summer I worked full time and learned a lot about cars and saved enough to buy my first car and got to use the car lift to work on it when not busy with customers, that was a good part of my life.
thanks BLUE ONE and ENGINE MAN

I guess it was a bad idea to quite school after kindergarten

 

Five years as a S.S.I. (Standard Stations Inc, the company-owned stations) employee in the late 60s/early 70s for Standard Oil of California. Full uniform including the military-style hat (although that was discontinued around '74), all except the jacket furnished by the company; you had to buy your own jacket. The 'Seven Steps to Success' for gas island service.... which included an upsell to premium ('Fill with Supreme sir?'), checking under the hood, washing all exterior windows (and offering to wash the inside of the windshield), checking the tires. All while looking for sales opportunities, like tires, wiper blades, etc. The official job description was 'salesman' and you were expected to generate a certain percentage of sales. To their credit, they never pushed a 'hard sell' or paid on a commission basis.

Not a bad lick for a young kid, they paid decent and you got 10% off all purchases except gas (.02 off per gallon there) if you used your SSI employee credit card. I was lucky; I worked at one of the few company-owned stations that did limited repair work beyond the usual oil changes and grease jobs and got promoted to mechanic (and got some free training/certification with the promotion). But it was the end of an era; the 'Gas Crisis' of '73, the arrival of 'pay at the pump' and self-service all showed that times were a-changing, and I quit and changed career in '75. By 1980 SoCal had converted nearly all Standard Stations to self-serve along with removing all the service bays in favor of mini-marts, and usually selling the stations to dealers. Most SSI employees found themselves replaced by minimum-wage cashiers proving that at the end of the day, SoCal was a big corporation and you were just a small, now-useless cog.

 

My Dad owned a Texaco station. Fill 'er up with Firechief? was the standard question. This was the early 60's and there was one customer with the hottest daughter, a Corvair and some very short skirts. I learned most of what I new about anatomy at that pump island. That Corvair windshield always got some special attention. No uniform, but embroidered shop coveralls when Pop was around or a clean white Moon or B&M T shirt most of the time. If I could only go back!

 

Did a stint at Mac's Mobil in my hometown in '61 after high school. No uniforms but you did clean windshields, offer to check oil, give away the premiums for a fill up, inflate tires, pump "white gas" for boat motors which was a PTA since that pump was along side the building not on the island. Working there had its advantages though. We did all the service on the state trooper cruisers from the local barracks. So when I built my first hot rod, 283" in a '47 Ford tudor, the boss (a great guy named Mahlon Macarney) got them to lay off me instead of stopping me daily due to no inspection sticker. Back then in NYS you had so many days after you got plates to get it inspected. And Mac made sure I could honestly check off all the requirements. Which made me laugh as I moved quite a few cruisers around when we had them for maintenance and the brakes on most were on life support when they came to us!

 

I worked in a gas station while I was in high school for a few years.
Some lessons I learned the hard way like when a car came in over heating and I turned the radiator cap a little to far open it and it blew right off in my face!

The guy who owned the station showed me many tricks of the trade some good and some against the law but it was a real learning experience for me.
Jimbo

 

Worked part time at a Shell station during the late 60s. No uniform, washed lots of windshields, checked oil and tires.

 

In 1969-70 when I was a senior in high school I worked at a gas station in Waukegan, IL that sold milk, eggs and cigarettes so besides pumping gas, washing windshields and checking air in tires I had to run inside for 2 dozen eggs, a gallon of milk or a carton of Winstons. The place was always busy so at least the time went by fast....

 

Worked at a Skelly station in the late 50s and early 60s and wore a uniform shirt with blue jeans, did all of the exterior stuff with a gas purchase and did the whisk broom and inside glass clean with work done on the rack. Almost all stations back then were full service and did the same, competition for business made it necessary.

 

All through high school (66-69), I worked for a Standard Chevron Dealer. We had uniforms, and were COMPLETE full service. The owner had built the station up from a single bay, to a 3 bay station. When our "good' customers came in for gas, several of us would converge on their car/truck, and do everything, bumper to bumper, door to door, top to bottom. We used to have fun doing that. Cars getting serviced would get all fluids checked, brakes and shocks checked, tires checked, and the interior cleaned/vacuumed; including the glass inside and out. I never cared for the "promotions" Standard Oil pushed. The one I hated the most was the gold plated tableware; I even wore the gold off a spoon taking it out of my pocket to show a customer, and putting it back in. BUT, the Standard Stations, the Company run stations, really pushed customer service and training programs. Those guys I felt sorry for, just the dumb hats they had to wear, it was enough for me to steer clear of them. I did go through several of Standard Oil's training programs (tuneup, brakes, alignment, etc). Anyway, working in a service station taught me I did't want to work on peoples cars for a living, so I went into the medical field instead; I spent 32 years as an X-Ray/C.A.T. Scan Tech. I preferred working on people!
I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I worked at a full service Gulf station back in High School. It was during the era of the cardboard oil can and those cool push-in oil spouts, you can figure out just how long ago. We were provided with zip-up jump suits, sort of like the early release prisoners wear when picking up trash along the highway, except ours weren't safety orange.

It was while working there that I saw/used my first Vice-Grip, you can imagine my surprise and delight ! !

 

I worked at my fathers CONOCO station in the 60's. He made me use an air hose blow gun to clean the floor. Its hard to find that kind of service anymore.

 

I worked in several gas stations as a kid. The first (1965) was a Shell station in Santa Monica, Ca. owned by our "down the street" neighbor. I was 15, only worked weekends and the area was filled with upscale cars and upscale women. Corvettes, Jags, and every kind of convertible. I just pumped gas, cleaned windows and checked oil. I still think my Dad paid my wages to the owner, Jack, to have me hang around and teach me some kind of work ethic.
Then at 17, I worked at Kelly's Enco. Located a half a block outside the main gate of MGM Studios I saw movie stars and starlets regularly. Mr Kelly also had the parking concession for the lot next door so we did monthly service on some cars and brought them up to be filled with gas and readied for the VIP customers when he/she got out of work. We had some very strange regular customers there. I wore the Enco gray striped shirt and gray slacks, no hat (thankfully). Kelly started me doing basic repairs like water pumps, lube, oil and filter, then on to wheel bearing and brakes. He was a gruff little guy but fair and willing to teach. I made $1.25/hr.
The best one was Herb Hancocks' Chevron. White uniforms, blue Custom Supreme gas and a cool '56 GMC pu service truck, white with the logo on the door. Great place to work, Herb and I did everything the station was capable of. We had an auto parts store right across the RR tracks where the local hot rodders all congegated. Herb even let me use the station and equipment after work to work on my '33 5w with a 396 and 4 spd. The station was just down the street from the The Big Donut (now Randy's - an historic landmark in L.A.). I ate a lot of jelly donuts and hot chocolate in those days.
I wish gas stations were the same today, it was a great training ground for young car guys for sure.

 

1970. Worked at a Sohio station pimping premex oil and atlas tires. All dressed in uniform cleaning windows and enjoying the miniskirts.

 

Wow 66 dollars an hour.
And 25 dollars a gallon.
All I can say is wow

 

Yeah, the damn hats.... LOL. But they paid better than the dealers, and when I moved to Seattle for school, I had no problem getting a transfer from Tacoma to a Seattle station.

But it was a large corporation; don't forget that it was SoCal that tried screwing some senior management guys out of their pensions that resulted in federal pension reform and the ERISA act. And if you were up the food chain very far and screwed up, they were ruthless. If you were looking for an employer with heart, keep looking...

And like you, I figured out that working on other peoples cars wasn't my cup of tea. They were getting harder and harder to work on was one thing. And some cars were just a PITA; I had a 'regular' who just loved me (because our labor rate was 1/2 of the dealers) but that Volvo she owned always turned into a cluster getting the right parts for it.

 

When my Ol' Man was a young man you could work on someone's car and make a good living. By the time you and I came around it was damned hard to make a decent living wrenching someone else's car unless you were the shop owner and then it was iffy at best unless you found a niche. In the '70s the Ol Man for example decided that he was not going to work on a car worth less than 80K. His reasoning was you could change the oil in a Chebby for 7-15 bucks or change the oil in a Maserati for 250.

I cannot even imagine how many windshields I washed for minimum wage.

 

I heard New Jersey self pumps now, so Oregon is the last hold out and I expect it to change soon. Bikers are allowed by law to pump their own and most stations will let specialty car owners do their own.
We spent the weekend in Fortuna for the Auto EXpo and had a nice drive up 101. Stopped for gas in Port Orford ( their drag strip was before my time) and the station had a sign that self serve was allowed between 6pm and 6am. I think this was passed last year to allow self pump in remote areas of eastern Oregon & I was a little surprised to see it on the Coast.

EDIT: I did a search and apparently New Jersey still ban self serve gas, but it comes up every couple of years to change. And in Oregon you can pump your own diesel .