History Service Station Built Cars....

Worked a couple gas stations over the years. By that time, it wasn't advertising who was working there by the hot car out front.
Just checked, both are long gone.

 

Not many/if any gas stations with auto/mechanic service work are available here in Northern WI. We do have all the big chain names, gas sales, food marts and warm food carry out style ,some pretty good, I like the Kwik Trip or the BP. Progress, Every time I see a big complex of the new station being built, I think, How many do we need ? Yet they are always busy. Rarely see a young person working there or anywhere, mostly all part timers, retiree's filling in.

 

We had a genuine Texaco until maybe 15 years ago. 2 bays, our drag racing friend Dan did most everything, I really hated to see it go. Was a real ***et to the community.

 

Never worked at a service station; but my buddy John did and I hung out there a lot. We worked on personal stuff at night. Brakes, tires, transmission, and engine swaps. Owner was an old time mechanic that was willing to share and teach. Even tho I didn't actually work there, I filled a lot of cars and ran a lot of parts. After back from a couple WestPac cruises, I found another friend worked overnights at another station, 2 bays and the place only pumped gas, so Bill had free use of the shop; helped with his stuff and worked on my stuff. After that I had full reign over the truck shop where I worked. Good old days. Probably against all kind of rules now-a-days.

 

That Mobil gas station I worked at during and after high school was actually owned by a regional distributorship for Mobil Oil in our area. That distributorship actually owned all the Mobil gas stations in our area, then each station had independent proprietorship owners that operated each station. My boss owned the proprietorship of the station I worked at.
About 10 years after I left the station, my old boss sole his proprietorship to a different guy, then opened his own auto repair shop a few blocks away. At that time, self service was becoming the new thing with gas stations and my old boss saw the problem making that work as a profitable operation. The guy he sold his proprietorship tried to run the repair shop at that location, but eventually ended up selling out to the regional company, they converted it into a self serve convenience store operation. About a year ago, the Mobil station became a Marthan station.
In our town, there is only one auto repair shop (oil changes, light repair work, and tire mounting and repairs) still located at an operating gas station, and they do not have self serve pumps. All of the other gas stations in town have become convenience stores with self serve pumps. Most of the national auto repair chains closed up here years ago, except the auto dealers. Most of the other repair shops are privet owned and employ 2-4 mechanics.
The high school auto shop no longer exists, they closed that down about 10 years ago. The auto shop at the local college only covers the basic repair courses. A few years ago, they had cl***es for auto body, but I'm not sure they are still doing that.

Times have changed a lot in the last 50 years!

 

The only Hitching Post in town is a bar & grill!