History Old "pump Jockey" story thread

early 80's and there was a lady (appx 24 years old) that would come in every now and then with a red and white Pinto. I'm in WV and she had plates from out west somewhere. Kansas maybe.

She liked to exhibit the wares. She always had a ****on up shirt with the top few unbottoned and nothing underneath. They weren't super impressive but they are all nice.

She always had very clean windows.

 

Cleaning the windows was the biggest cheap thrill a guy could get in his teens. The real pisser was if your buddy cleaned them and then tells you after she drives off that she had no *******! I used to also have a couple young guys come in twice a week and take 4-5 gallons of old used drain oil to keep there Rambler going, but they never bought gas. While pumping full-serv I often smoked a cigarette at the same time, this really pissed of a lot of people! We had a lot of Rock concerts in town also, after they got out around midnight, a lot of stoned kids would stop in for what ever pocket change they had on them, usually just over a buck or so and it would take them 2 minutes to count it they were so stoned! Do any of you guys with could winters remember trying to pour STP when its zero degrees outside? Only takes like 5 minutes to get that little can to empty out. One of the best times we had also was when kids would come in and fill there bike tires with air. We would just stare out hte window and wait for the "BOOM". I bet I saw 50 bike tubes blown up in the two years I worked at that Standard Oil station. Yea, we gave some hellish directions at our station also. We had a big church about 6 blocks away and they had at least 1 wedding every sSaturday, People were always late to those weddings because we sent them on a totally lame wild goose chase! God, those were the best of times.

 

A length of heater hose with a big-***ed bolt electrical taped in the end was good enough to intimidate most, a sawed-off 12 gage for the ********..

cc

 

I could write a book on this subject. In '59 my parents started a two pump two bay Standard Oil Station with a small attached restaurant.

I pumped that evil liquid from just past sh***y diaper time till I was 16. Thank goodness that my older brother took over the gas portion then.

I've got many many memories of those times.

Never knew that that Funderbird go-cart I got would come back to haunt me. Dad didn't own a electric generator so every time the power went out he would back the cart up to the pump, set the rear wheels off the ground, and hook a drive belt to to the pump. Sure screwed up my days.

Also remembered the guy that ran the Texaco down the street sending a vendor up to see dad about selling him a condom machine. Dad says he doesn't need a machine as all his customers knew he kept the rubbers in the lock box under the cash register. Man tells dad the machines only cost 25$ and won't work. Just put them in the ladies restroom and rake in the profits. Seems most women/girls in that day were reluctant to ask for a refund for condoms...................

By the way Dad refused.

 

The same one he used on unruley sons................

 

Reminds me of a story

Last summer, For some reason my boss put his pothead son on the task of setting the gas prices for the week, and of course he did it wrong. when he went to set the computers he didn't enter a dollar value for the regular on one of the pumps. so it ended up being 34 cents a gallon.

It was about 3 in the afternoon and, no one had noticed yet because the signage was correct and the pump hadn't been used yet.
I'm there by my self now and Ive got my truck in the bay and im working on it not really paying attention to whats going on out front.

I start to smell a lot of gas fumes and hear a lot of guys yelling and arguing in Spanish, i go out front and see the local landscaper guys filling up everything they had with gas, soda bottles, beer cans, everything.

a fight started when one of them decided it would be a good idea to fill up a garage bag with gas....

they had realized that gas was only .34 and decide to take advantage of the deal.

 

Never a pump jockey myself, but I had an uncle that owned a Vickers station for years before he retired.
A good friend of mine worked for his dad at his Texaco station in high school and for a few years afterward. Greg was a hoot & a helluva storyteller. I always remember him telling me about the big breasted girl that would always ride her bicycle in on Saturday mornings so he could air up her front tire. He said she would lean over the handlebars with her loose T-shirt leaving little to the imagination while he aired her tire. He said he never got the air pressure right- always had to put some air in- let some air out, till he got it just right. He said he got good at spying her cleavage from under the bill of his Texaco hat. Greg told me it would have been easier to just fix her tube & tire, but that would've taken all the fun out of Saturdays.

 

I've never worked in a gas staion, but one of the older guys I work with likes to tell this story. He was working at the station one night when a guy rolls up and asks for "fitty cent worf." He pumps it for him and off he goes. About an hour later same thing. The third time this guy stops in and asks for another fitty cent worf my friend asks him why he doesn't just buy a couple dollars and be done with it. The guy tells him "Man, I'm out lookin for some *****. Once I find it I don't need no mo gas."

 

btt

 

Got my first job at one of the few remaining full serve stations in 1986 at the ripe age of 14. I had just bought my '65 Nova project car (The one I still drive today) w/ savings from lawn cutting money, etc, and needed a job so I could afford to work on it. My Grandfather knew the owner of the local Sunoco, and he agreed to let me work after school from 4-8 PM everyday, and on Saturdays, under the table, for a whopping $2/hr!

I thought that was AWESOME... get to work around cars, AND get paid. I mostly cleaned tools with gas-soaked rags, and pumped gas at the old "sun-dial" pumps. The prices at this place were always much higher than the local self-serves, so he only had a handful of customers... mostly loyal older folks that had been coming there for years. Seems like the older people always wanted "full service" (oil checked, tires checked, etc, etc) when it was like 20 deg and snowing.

There was a group of locals that would come in and hang out and drink coffee every Saturday morning and BS. Kind of like an informal "men's club" for the 50-60 yr old married guys that wanted to get away from the wives for a while. Probably the same thing happened at every little corner garages all over the country when Mom and Pop service stations were everywhere.

The owner's Son was 19 or 20 yrs old at the time, and he had a '78 Z28 w/ headers, cam, etc. All his buddies would come up and hang out in the evenings. Lot was always filled with well-worn '60s-70s muscle cars wearing G-60 or L-60 tires, reverse-offset Cragars, air shocks, and gl*** packs.

The job itself ****ed, but on the other hand, I'm really glad I was old enough to get in on the tail end of that era. Just a neat piece of Americana, and lots of memories. The station still operates as a corner garage (no gas) - the owner's Son took over when the ol' man retired. The ol' man still comes around on Saturday mornings to BS w/ all the same locals that were coming in on Saturdays when I worked there.

 

Ahh yes... almost forgot about having to do that after close every night.

 

I worked in a full service station in High School in the early 70s .That is where I learned alot mech skills related to the hobby that I'm now neck deep in. ,At night It was OK with the owner to pull my chevelle or whatever ****box I was driving at the time and work on it while pumped gas to the occasional customer. One night I was doing some exhaust work with my car up on the lift I inadvertantly tightened up a muffler clamp on the skin between my thumb ans index finger with a ****erfly air gun,knowing that if I pointed the gun down while trying to reverse it the socket would slip off and I would be up the creek by myself W/O a paddle. But I managed to do it . In the winter months I would thaw out any Beers I could find in my car in the Mens room sink ,I almost got caught a couple of times when the Boss showed up @ closing.I'm sure glad I'm sober now.

 

What was that blue soap we used to scrub the floors with on the night shift.Seem like it came in a small cardboard drum and would make the floors spotless.Anyone remember that stuff. I wouldn't mind having a drum of it nowdays to do the shop floor with.
I worked in a lot of stations in the '60's and loved it, except for pumping gas in the winter. The best place to learn to work on all makes and models.A lot of the stuff i do today I learned at the 'ol gas station service bay and it still comes in handy.

IUSETABE

 

i dont have a great story, i got fired , joined the army and the rest is history!
but i have enjoyed reading yalls storys..

 

Any of you ole pump jockeys have a customer that would ask for "rethel" gas
1/2 regular-1/2 etheyl

 

I worked @ a Boron station in Bridgeville, PA in 1983. As the FNG, I was generally on the night shift & had to handle the full service island & cash & credit cards from the self service island. The regular day shift guy (owners son & a total A-hole) used to come in & work on his POS Mustang II. He rebuilt the engine & ****** on the house. I was glad to see him wreck it before the engine was broken in.

The A-Hole would stick the tanks @ the end of his shift by throwing the wood measuring rod as hard as could into the tanks. This would cause the stick to bounce high so he would not have to bend over & lift the stick out of the tank. This also eventually punctured the tank. About three years later I got to put my Enviromental Engineering degree to use when I did a release investigation when gasoline showed up in the creek. The station closed & the the A-hole lost his busness.

 

Bump for more good tales

 

I worked at a gas station/convenience store along I-35 in northern Missouri in the mid-to-late eighties with several of my friends. One night a drunk came in wanting to buy a bottle of Jack but a little short on funds. Now I was back stocking the beer cooler at the time but I guess he and the counterman (Kyle) argued about a while then Kyle decided to have me handle it. He came running into the backroom just as I stepped out of the cooler and said "Can you take care of this ***hole?" I said "you mean the ***hole behind you?" Kyle turned around said "oh ****" and out the back door he went! He hadn't realized the guy had followed him to the backroom! They were great times even then. I had a blast!


Iron Man

 

For a good laugh, listen the Merle Haggards "Harold's Super Service"
song.

 

My old man had am AMPOL servo here in Seymour, Victoria on one of Australia's major highways, the Hume Highway. We were at the Ampol from the late 50s to 1970, then ran a Caltex (Texaco) in Melbourne from 1970-74.

At the Ampol, the folks ran a tight ship. Dad wore either white overalls, or mechanics jackets with name and logo, blue shirts with bow ties and WWII like crush caps. Very smart. I'm lucky my folks took a heap of photos from that time. My folks are the ones in the background of the 2 couple pic. In the pix you can clearly see the caps/bow ties and jackets they wore.

Mum/Staff ran the Cafe/Diner and served travellers/truckers wore a dress with the AMPOL logo and similar jackets.

The thing that always struck me was how clean the place was kept and how politely and professionally we looked after our customers. Driveway service with a smile - always. When I was a pump jockey later on, we'd put the pump nozzle in the tank and before it had filled the tank, I'd have the oil /water checked, aired the tires, filled the wiper washer and cleaned the windshield. Ahh the good old days haha. Try findin THAT kinda service now. Pfffttt......

I bought my first car with my saving from that pump jockey job - a Charger. The little bloke with the red "racer" is me.

Enjoy the pix.....

Rat

 

Hey Frank, cool pics! I love that vintage Ampol shot with the 605 wayne pump, as well as your first ride! My first job was a pump jockey after school. I was car mad and I loved every thing about the place, it was a Shell station. The pumps were Gilbarco sales makers. The sales maker in the pic below is the same as the one I first used, it is an actual pump from the place where I served my apprenticeship, I saved it when it got pulled out and I restored it! The tall pump is called a Gillbarco CM or Calco meter. I have been hooked on old pumps, signs, oil bottles etc ever since then. Johnny

 

Worked in the local station and painted a friends car white in one of the open bays over the night shift one evening. Of course there was white overspray dust all over everything the next morning when the boss came in he was pissed and I can't blame him. But he liked the new paint on the car and I ended up painting the bosses car for free to make it up to him and he even helped cleaning up all the overspray. Ahh the good old days with no epa to worry about.

 

Here you go:

Harold’s Super Service

Now me, I work at Harold’s Super Service
We specialize in service all the way
And there’s only one thing that really bugs me
This big ole boy in his stripped down Model A

At Harold’s Super Service we do grease jobs
We fix thirty...forty flats every day
And just about the time we get real busy
Here comes that guy in his stripped down Model A

He says, “ Gimme 50 cents worth of regular
Check, my oil too, if you don’t mind
Put some air in my tires, won’t you mister
Clean my windows too, if you have time”

Last night I dreamed I died an’ went to Heaven
To that Mighty Super Service, in the sky
I was satisfied a-pumpin gas forever
For the Angels in the sweet by and by

Now the Pearly Gates was just around the corner
I could see the new ones comin’ ev’ry day
I was changin’ plugs on Moses’ Magic Carpet
When up thru the clouds there came this Model A

He says, “ Gimme 50 cents worth of regular
Check, my oil too, if you don’t mind
Put some air in my tires, won’t you mister
Clean my windows too, if you have time

 

Pumped at a Shell in 65/66. Gas was about .33 or so, Had a guy pull in and ask "for one" so I put in $1. worth, wouldn't you know he proceeded to go off on me and told me he said "one gallon" well I lost about 1/2 hrs. pay he got 2 free gallons out of the deal someday karma will get him if it hasen't already........ to this day, when #'s or $ is mentioned, I always clarify what is said.actually a hard lesson learned as a kid.

 

I worked at a Sunoco station when I was 18. Most of the other guys were older and on the fire dept. One old guy, Bernie was pumping gas for a woman at the full serv island. The auto shut-off didn't work and some gas spilled making a small 2ft puddle. The woman saw him run to the nozzle and got out to see what the problem was. when she saw the puddle she demanded he knock the total down. Gas at the time was $0.59 a gallon. Bernie asked "How much do you think I should knock off?". "At least $1.00!" was her reply. So Bernie reset the pump and proceeded to pump 1 dollars worth of fuel onto the ground. The puddle created was about the size of her car. He asked again how much he should knock off and the woman just handed him a credit card and got back in her car.
And yeah, he was one of the firemen.

 

This has been a blast reading. My story goes like this. Summer I was 15 ,55', i bought my first car, 48ford coupe. Next door to the car lot was his brothers Shell service sta. school was almost out and I wanted a better job, from cutting gr***. Got the night shift job at the Shell sta, 7 to 7. pay was 65 cents an hr. wash cars, gas and drive the service truck, 48 ford 1/2 ton. Learned to shift the gears, was a neat truck,red and yellow. One morning I had to jump off a car, as I was coming back I had to get up some speed , well here is this short 90 degree rt, and into a 90 left.had the truck on 2 wheels, scared the **** out of me. Won't ever forget the days back then.

 

We had double top value stamp day on every Wed.
Most guys didn't mess with the stamps so I would stuff the unclaimed stamps in my shirt until one of the Foxy Lady customers would stop in -- an extra hand full of stamps from my shirt pocket was like trading beads to the Indians..always good for at least a smile and a giggle.

 

thread back from the dead.........new story time......here's mine......
Worked at a sunoco station back in 74...this guy drops off his 62 vette for a tune-up. He looks familiar.......check the owners card....yep it's him...my seventh grade teacher, the same guy that busted a paddle one day on my ****!! ( I swear i was inocent) This guy had a reputation for wacking kids....by the end of the school year every guy in cl*** got it at least once. sssooooooo....after I do the tune-up I take it for a test drive .....well...after about 6 or 7 of the smokiest burn outs ya ever saw and some of the best high rpm flat shifting ever witnessed on earth....hahaha..Iwent back to the station....cleaned the wheel wells out of burned rubber and hung the keys on the rack.........thankyou very much!

 

I worked the 6:00-12:00 PM shift at an E**on station for a bit. This was during the time they sold Atlas products in those little metal containers. The labels on these things all looked the same.

It was a cold January night and it had snowing hard for few days. So the roads were now dry and covered in salt. It was covering cars like paint.

This lady pulls in around 9:00 PM for a fill up and wanted me to check her washer fluid. The thing was bone dry. I sell her some washer fluid (so I thought) and put it in for her. She's was happy and ready to leave, gives me a tip and goes on her way.

As she drove off, I look down at the empty bottles in my hand. Well, I just sold her the finest brake fluid E**on had to offer.

I felt horrible and tried to flag her down before she got back on the highway.

I can only imagine the minute she hit the washer. The dust probally stuck to the windshield like glue while it took the paint off her roof.

That really was one of the ****piest jobs I've ever had.

 

this is a good thread, never worked in a gas station ,it sounded like some fun