Motion Pictures Working at a Gas Station in 1962...

Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post:

Working at a Gas Station in 1962...

Continue reading the Original Blog Post

 

Not far from Rolling Meadows I spent ten years of my youth at a gas station that was two doors from my childhood house.
I spent at least part of ninety percent of the days there. That was from age eight to eighteen (1955-1965).
The Pure Oil station had two pumps and one service bay with a lift. I would say much of my mechanic knowledge was gained by just being around and observing routine maintenance and repairs being handled by the proprietor.
On the hot rod side, I remember a gentleman had a 1952(?) Desoto that he converted to run on propane gas. Entirely a back yard build.
There was a nicely finished midget racer that used the station as home for a time. The shop truck got painted to match the midget and trailer. Very cl***y.
I attended local races, but never saw the midget race.
At eighteen I left for college and my future life as a young adult was changed greatly.
Good memories.

 

Going to college in Hastings NE. I needed some extra money and I found just the place. Berck's Full Service. It was a gas station but more important it was the local speed shop. Waiting on customers/pumping gas kept me busy but when I had time I watched Jim and his helper doing all kinds of engine swaps and other performance work. I was in aw by all the Chevy high performance crate engines stacked along the wall. He could do an engine swap as fast as anyone I ever saw. He had the then popular 40 Ford Chevy to Ford swap down to a science. 2 days max. I couldn't afford any of what he was doing or selling but working there was fun & educational. Today Jim is in his late 80's and still doing it.

 

Very cool. This is way before my time. It looks straight out of the movie American Graffiti. That is my favorite era of hot rodding.

 

I worked at a Sohio gas station in my junior and senior days in high school. I worked every night from 4 till closing time at 10 and on most Saturdays, My girl girlfriend would do my homework cause I was too tired when I got off work. Pretty neat Hugh! We ended up getting married!

 

Nice video. I would say it is a little newer than 1962 based on some of the cars.

 

I worked at a Phillips 66 station a little west of Minneapolis in my early college years. I worked with one of my car-guy buddies from high school and it was a pretty good gig. I still have the uniform shirt.

John

 

My dad worked at a gas station in the late 50s- He said sometimes the fun challenge was finding where the fuel door was hidden on that particular make & model- Under the taillight? Behind the license plate? Hidden by a piece of trim?

 

Worked after college as a fun job nights and weekend at a Mobil station. Been sort of collecting Mobil items lately .Still waiting to spend my retirement on one cookie cutter Pegasus.

 

One of my favorites was washing the windshield. Saw some fabulous young ladies. A few were exhibitionists!!

Ben

 

My gas station job was a little later, about 70 or so. The ***** I worked for knew all the old folks he could cheat, so when "ms. johnson" came in, he would rush out and give her his best smile and eddy haskel speach...Well hello ms johnson, my you look lovely today! Then, he would take over my job checking under the hood to report.." my goodness, that fan belt looks bad, you must come in soon.
Then sell a quart of oil she didn't need.
I had no drivers license and would ride my mini bike across the ice 3 miles to get to work and the ***** wouldn't let me put it in the garage to stay warm enough to start when closing. It went in as soon as he left.

 

I never worked at a station but used to help a buddy at his dad's station in the evenings so I could put my car on the hoist. Helping included washing windows and pumping gas but it was two miles from my house and I had access to the hoist. I did change or repair a few flat tires on occasion.
Later I helped my life time buddy that I have known since my mom held me over his crib to show me the baby when I was a year old at his station for pretty well the same reasons outside just hanging around with him. He is still the guy I go to if I need something welded that is critical as he is one of the best welders in the region even though he is 78 years old. If he can't weld it it can't be welded.

 

Great Times.
The cars were getting ****ier and More tricked-out design wise.
I was there age 14, spectating at my Uncle's Gulf.
Marveling at the H.S. gang and their antics.
Having been shown the process of tire service, and soon to led to oil change and lube duties.
Then pulled wrench's from bumper to bumper, ( top end/bottom end ) to ring and pinion.
Took that path until May of '71.
In and out another 8 years 'tween 70s and 90s

 

Nice. Well before my time. Grandad had a concession from Shell to run a gas station in Israel between 1940-1963 but when Shell's operation got taken over by an Israeli company (Paz), terms became unattractive so he sold the concession. All happened before I was old enough to get involved, so the only chance I got to work at a gas station was in... Melbourne, Australia when I visited in 1986-1987. Very busy and with the odd Ausie muscle car stopping by from time to time but nowhere near as intersting as the the place in the vid...

 

It wasn't 1962, it was 1963. Started a few days after high school graduation. I was hired to pump gas and change oil/grease jobs for a dollar an hour. PA. inspection and full service. Never turned away any repairs. I made the mistake one day of offering to tune up a car. The owner said "you can do that?". From then on, I did everything, brake jobs, exhaust, inspections. Plus, opening, closing, inventory. All for a dollar an hour. It didn't matter, I loved it.

 

The other side of that coin was the miserable old woman in the p***enger seat who pointed at the one bug that didn't come off of the windshield.

 

Of course! But hope springs [ sprung ] eternal. That 15 year old with her feet placed enticingly on the dash! And I was 16!

 

Gas stations provided a lot of jobs and learning a trade. Greyhound buss stations also were a way to leave a rural town ro a trip to Hollywood to be a movie star All now history.

 

Much later (early 1980's) I worked at a gas station with a high school friend. We used to rent U-Haul trucks there as well; had some funny and interesting times with those things!

 

In 1966, had a job as a draftsman from 7am to 3:30pm five days a week. Girlfriend worked until midnight at a factory so I got a second job at a MFA gas station for the night shift. They only sold gas and oil so no service bays. Gas was 16.9 cents a gallon. Back then in Missouri, few cars had a/c so washing windshields was a show if the female driver or p***enger pulled their skirt a bit higher for the cooling effect. One night, a lady came in driving a Galaxie 500. It must have been running on fumes because I pumped $5 in gas into the tank. A Ford didnt hold 29 gallons that I know of. I told the boss and he accused me of running gas on the ground. Never figured it out. I waxed my car every night that I worked, my shift ended at midnight and I went and picked up the girlfriend. Started it all over the next morning..... I was tired all the time.

 

I worked at a Chevron station at 30th and Thorn in San Diego in 1958. If a customer didn't want their Green Stamps, I kept them and used them to get my first electric drill. Pay was $.90 an hour and we had to pay for uniform cleaning.

 

I firmly believe that I became much taller than my pals, stretching to reach the W/S center.
Never was able to hit $5, even in a Caddy.
One night a guy pulled in. I stuck the nozzle in and he hollered back to me
'' I'm going to FLORIDA!! Run it on the ground! ''
From my town it's a 23 hour blast.

 

In 1958, I took over a Sinclair station. I ran it about 4 years, 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. I was so glad to get rid of it!

 

In the early 1960's I had the opportunity to accompany my grandfather on many occasions as he would visit the local Ashland gas station (which was housed in a Pure cottage-style station building). There I learned the fine art of "loafing", which has served me well throughout my life! My fondest memories involve getting a bottle of pop and a candy bar from the vending machines as I would listen to the old men tell their tales. The station owner ("Bunk Patterson) always had a couple of Model A's around and usually a race car or two in the bays. A great way to grow up in small-town rural West Virginia.

 

Hello,

When one of our friends got a job at the only Texaco Gas Station in Bixby Knolls, it became our gas station of choice. During the day, it was busy with local businessmen and families. At night, the pumps were full of hot rod sedans and the local teenage cars of the area.

Since the station was on a corner of a busy street, the local families used it always for their needs. The teenagers just multiplied the gas station usage in droves. It was a busy place. Now, many years later, the station is gone. Back in those days, gas stations were like Starbucks, one on almost every corner of a busy intersection along the major streets. When one station is by itself in a heavy traffic area, then it becomes very important to the local residents and customers.

It also helped that the cruising teenagers had the hangout locations, hamburger stand and drive-in restaurant location, just around the corner. So, this Texaco Station was a big draw during our time as cruising teenagers in our hot rods and family cars.

Jnaki

I even applied to work at the Texaco Station. Did not work out, but we all continued to support our friend on those long hours. His 1961 Pontiac Hardtop was always in one of the stalls, protected from the elements. The other stall had one of our teenage sedans up on the lift for service. On busy days, he allowed us to do our own lube and oil changes. That left him to service the customers at the pumps. For dinners, it helped that one of the local hamburger places was just a half block up the street and we all liked that. YRMV

Note: Here is an older story about the same gas station during our cruising teenage days in Bixby Knolls.
similar look of his car...
We stopped by and the parking lot at times looked like a hot rod sedan gathering. The burger spot parking lot was about a half block north of the Texaco Gas Station, so, he had a built in clientele. It was a great place to see our friends, if we were visiting our friend. When he was busy doing mechanical work or lube jobs at night, we helped him out by going to the car load of girls to ask how we could be of service. That always brought out a chuckle of laughs. Ha!

The local Bixby Knolls Texaco Gas Station had so many customers that it was hard for our friend to service all of the pumps on a busy day. Two rows of pumps, an office and a two car garage bay on a corner lot. The corner lot was one of the main entrances to the popular homes near a golf course and designer architects build models that were the popular style, back then.

When one hears of a neo-modern style of house with gl*** walls surrounding a inner courtyard, that was the popular style. Mostly single story homes, but as one got deeper toward the golf course, the huge two story homes started multiplying like the golf course bunnies.

Our friend earned a lot of money for a teenager. He bought a nice new 61 Pontiac Bonneville Hardtop with the fancy 8 lug spoke-fin wheels. He did not like to race, so, it was literally another form of garage queen. By garage, he always parked it in one of the open stalls without the floor lift and it was protected from the elements for his full time job after school.

Well, that Pontiac was certainly different. But, that blue color was pretty cool, including those odd ball, but great looking factory wheels were the best.
Until one night an older lady saw all of the hot rod sedans parked along the large lot and called the owner the next day. She said the cars were making a lot of noise and we were all “just hanging around.” Despite, the chance of her daughter being in the mix had no consequences. She told the owner those hot rod sedans had to go.
similar looking 55 Chevy sedan
So, we all had to leave the lot until we came in for gas and talk to our friend. If we paid him to lube our cars, then we got to hang around as our cars were up in the lift. YRMV

The owner never had more than two workers at the most, despite the station being one of the busiest gas stations in all of Bixby Knolls. The additional attendant was hired during vacation times and holidays. The gas station was a great place to hang out, when the burger places were crowded or we had just left the nearby location. Our friend was a good worker and was always well paid, Thanks, K...

 

I was going to college and pumpng gas at Burcks Service in Hastings. The Job ****ed and Jim was tough to please but I stayed because it was the area speed shop. He would order a bunch of the high performance SBC crate motors and have them stacked along the service bay wall. He was the fastest I've ever seen at an engine swap. He had the SBC into a fat fendered car down to a science, usually done and out the door in an 8 hour day.

 

I worked part time after school in my junior & senior years (1963 &1964) at a Rotary gas station in the town of Gates, NY. I did mostly gas fills, oil checks & general clean-up work, but I just loved being around cars. I remember bulk oil for 25 cents a quart.
I recall somebody saying one of the Chrysler Turbo cars was in the area and how I kept expecting to see it. Never did..... Good years!

 

I loved cleaning the windshields of the hot girls that had the deep cut tops and no underwear. you could google at them but it looked like you were doing a really good job on their windshield. I do believe they would wear and did that on purpose though.

 

Odd that this thread did not get to page 2 yet
I'll help it along, daytime I was tasked with car washes. I grew into a system of rinse, soap, rinse.
At night my uncle allowed the older kids the use of the water hose. Naturally this drew a posse of H.S. girls waiting on their dates' ride.
The butcher next door had a son that worked for the Electric Co.
A couple of pay checks and he showed up the sweetest 5 year old '57 Chevy convert.
Tahitian Turquoise
Sporting all the goodies of the day. Lowered in the back full skirts, diamond back window.
Up front were dummy spots hood louvered to hell and back,
Tubular grille, Chrome spinner wheel covers.
And the word that his 'dutch' poppa wanted to choke him for the waste.
My favorite deal was to cross the street to 'The Inn' where I would order a cheese steak sandwich, for 65 cents.
I would garner tips thru the day and feel big about telling her to 'keep it', when paying with a buck.
As time rolled on I was led to realize that the guys that were evening gas pumpers had, and shared Uncle's Tax Exempt number. For the purpose of getting their Hop-up parts at discount.
This kid that I didn't even know told about the deal.
When I turned sixteen and had my own wheels, I was making changes for sure.

 

Maybe not as true to this board as the video, but one of my buddies dad owned the local Texaco station and we would hang out there in the early 70s. It was more the era of Trans Ams and GTOs instead of hot rods, but it was still fun waiting around for those cars to stop in for a tank of premium.