Are they gone forever? gas station attendants.

How about seeing old ladies pumping gas into their Caddy's, does that make them bad ass?
Years ago all stations everywhere had gas pump jockeys,it was their job.

 

I worked at a Phillips 66 station from 69 to 73 while I was in High School and College. Worked 5-11 PM M, W, F and every other Sunday. I was on call for service calls other nights. I pumped gas, wrenched on cars and cleaned the shop at the end of the night. No we didn't use gas to clean the floor, we used a detergent made for cleaning floors. Guys would hang out and work on their own cars on nights off. One of the other guys that worked there and I ran a stock car. Lots of chicks stopping in to flirt and flash in those days of tank tops and no bras.

Every job I've ever had started with people I met there. I also met the lawyer that got me out of traffic tickets, the banker that loaned me money to buy cars and my house and even one who left me money. I met several people from towing their vehicles in and repairing them on Sundays when they assumed they had to wait until Monday to get any work done. Today you never see the person who actually did the work on your vehicle.

 

Not for the SAME $2.00 an hour you cant! $2.00 a gallon gas?!?!? I'm movin' to Wisconsin!

 

If your to old to pump gas you should not be driving ! And I dont like nanny states telling us we cant pump our own gas. I dont want to pay extra for some pump jockey to do it for me because the unions/thugs lobbied and bribed politicians to make it law.

 

I'd like to fill out an application...

 

I worked at Chevron in San Jose. I even had to wear a uniform! Best part time job. Especially in the summer. This was when sun dresses and clogs were the thing. SWEET! The owner was a hard nosed businessman who did teach me a few life lessons. Especially when I made a few bone head mistakes. I miss the simple times. Saturday night and my radio. No cell phones, texting, computers. Only was robbed once. I think I made about $3.20 an hour.

 

Funny, I was thinking about what would happen if you opened a station with just gas & service today? You know how the "good old days" were and how things come back into fashion? Maybe it is time to go back!

 

I think thats a great idea. And gas should drop to .39 a gal. Cola back to a dime and candy bars a nickel. Bonneville entry could drop from $400 to $20. Hell, if we could do that we might even be able to get some honest politicians in Washington.

 

To answer you're question , are gasoline station attendants gone forever , well kinda . Oregon and New Jersey both require a attendant and probably always will. Me, I was an attendant in Richmond Virginia and in of all places Hollywood California at one time . You still see Full Serve islands here and there . Thats going to cost as the pumps on those islands are generally 5c higher . Meanwhile , I resorted to building 1-25th scale models of former SERVICE stations :




scrubba

 

Those are great looking models !

My great grandfather was a driver for Shell Petroleum at Roxana Ill.. This is when they delivered fuel with horse drawn wagons. My Grandfather was a plant mgr. there when it was the largest refinery in the world, he was still there when I was born in '56, at Woodriver. I came back to that area after growing up in Calif & Okinawa in '75-'77. The original Shell station in Roxana was the same as it was during the 50's & was a cool place for me to get gas for my '63 Impala ss before heading up to the parking lots & Jack in the Box. The Roxana HS teams were named the Shells, my Dad went there, Mom too.

A family friend named Bill Hunter in San Diego had the Clairemont Exxon during the 60's. I used to ride bike or skateboard to help out around the station. He's pay some, had stickers for us to keep & give to buddys for their bikes & 'boards. Fed us chips, hot dogs, & and bottles of ice cold Pepsi. Bill had french bread pizza too, toaster ovens where new then. Traded gas for our lawnmowers & mini bikes, & we got to fix bike tires, for our Stingrays by the dozen. My Dad was overseas during 'Nam & he was one of Dad's BF so he's kinda like an uncle. I guess that's why I have such fond memories of the past. I tried to get a gas station job back then by the times were changing.

FYI Oregon haters........gas costs more in Nor~Cal than Oregon & we have to pump our own gas.

 

You just wish you belong to a good high payin good benifits,and retirement,and seinority union job

 

That would make sense, except for the niggling little fact that gas is CHEAPER in Oregon than Washington... but hey, don't let facts get in the way of your rant! Fight the Union/thugs and bribed politicians! Oops, another niggling little fact: the law has been upheld several times by popular vote in Oregon... Stupid Oregonians! Nothing but a bunch of Union thugs and politicians!

 

yea, me too. sometimes the view was fantastic!

 

LOL ! Yea that's it. I own my own business, FYI if union monkeys had any real skill they would be successful in what ever field in the private sector. Nice try.

 

All four gas stations in our little town are "full-serve". You can pump your own gas if you want to, but I always let them fill my daily for me. It's really nice in the winter when it's -40.

 

Back in the early 70's I worked at a full serve Home, then it became as Esso, gas station in Nanaimo, a city north of here. It was a good entry level job. Paid for my 64 Chevelle and for some college education. The gas pumps are now self serve, and the service bays are a sandwich shop.

There are a few full serve gas stations around here, but I doubt if there will ever be an increase in the numbers.

 

Damn! I hope you tip the guys when it's that cold out.......

 

Hell yeah! I'm all for it!

 

Back in those days most people didn't know how to work a gas pump - it was like you needed experienced skill to pump that gas. And then overnight everybody -even grandmaw is pumping their own gas...

But -- these days - "can you change your own oil?" -- no - of course you need experienced skill to change oil.(?)... overnight everybody starts going to an oil change place...

And now they are really encouraging self-checkout in the stores - "but I thought you needed experienced skill to do that!"

Times are always changing...

 

Good riddance, the one's you'd get today would come from the same well as the knuckleheads at the parts stores.

 

The little town where I lived in Colorado still had 2 full serve stations in 1995. I worked at one, and my buddy at the other. It wasn't a bad gig. We could use the shop lifts and air tools after hours and get shop discounts on our parts.The owner let people work there way into light mechanical work if they showed some talent. Some of those guys became great techs. Not me, I can't make myself care about other people's dailys. Both shops are self service only now.

 

You guys miss the point of minimum wage. The kids who used to take those jobs are not worth more than that. Heck today, most aren't worth that. It was an entry level job, just like babysitting is for many girls. Perhaps $2 and hour is too little, I don't know. But I can tell you I've had some "experienced" adults work for me recently who aren't worth $2 an hour. My point was that minimum wage and regulation have killed that job posititon, unless even more gov't regulation forces a gas station to offer it. That is a fact, not an opinion. So the answer to the original post is, no, you'll not see it again unless the gov't forces gas stations to do it. Comrade.

 

I did my gas station attendant time at a Mobil station. I rose up the ranks fast, since the boss appreciated the fact that I always showed up for work and actually did some while I was there. Being a young man, I often worked for 16 hours at a stretch when the unreliables didn't show up for the shift following mine (we were open 24 hours), since all I saw was more $$$ in my pocket for my car addiction. Eventually, he rewarded me with the best work schedule I've ever had---four 10 hour days, with Wed, Sat and Sun off! Of course, I still ended up working at least one of those days in place of one of the no-shows quite often. I remember old women pointing out the one or two bugs that I couldn't scrub off of their windshield that hadn't been cleaned since the last time they were in, taking some guy up on trading me a Homelite XL chain saw for $10.00 worth of gas, a guy pulling in in a '68 4-4-2 making a horrible grinding sound with me jacking it up and removing the entire driver side front wheel, drum and hub assembly without loosening anything, the buxom blonde that used to pull in wearing a bikini (I think she must have been related to the car wash girl in "Cool Hand Luke"), the greaser holdout from the '50s with "Slick" tatooed on his arm that came in every day for $2.00 worth of gas and a pack of Parliments, the cute 18 year old girl that the boss hired one summer that every guy there was hitting on (some of us successfully), the look one of my college professors had the night I caught him making out with one of his female students in the parking lot (he didn't know I worked there---d'oh!), totally reconditioning my car on slow nights, the night I drove to work, unaware of the fact that the blizzard had caused the county to close the roads---VERY slow night, but I had bought about 150 old Hot Rod magazines from my dad's insurance agent that day and they were still in my car, so I had something to do---and lots, lots more. It all came to an abrupt end when Bruce (my boss and station owner) was killed in an airplane crash and the place was sold to someone who converted it into a convenience store. If I had to be stuck in one time period for eternity, I might very well choose the time I worked there.

 

dittos for New Jersey.

 

I think anyone that worked a service stations has great stories like the night a whole car full of kids could only come up with 26 cents for gas or my bosses wife threw him out in the winter so he put a car on the lift and put it up in the air to keep warm while he slept there all winter. We had a "warwagon" service truck that when two of us would go out the passenger would reach over and stomp the pedal to the floor anywhere and that truck would swap lanes without any notice because of the steering. Working the night shift meant you could go to the junk yard during the day and your friends would hang out with you at night, it was a great time to be 18.

 

Great post, man!

Mine started in MO in the early 60's when I was 13. Combo Conoco, welding and repair shop. Learned how to weld, gas & lube cars to start. It seemed like a cosmopolitan atmosphere with all the different type people coming in - even though it was in a small town. Learned "people skills" which has always been important. Later on worked my way through college pumping gas. Though I don't remember anyone mentioning it, I normally really liked the people who worked in gas stations back then. Some of them still remain on my mental list of "the neatest people I ever met".

Great times, really.