I watched a Superbowl commercial last Sunday that took me back a few years. In the commercial, a guy drives up to a gas station, and a bunch of service people come out to start washing his windows, checking his oil, etc. It scares him half to death, he thinks he is being carjacked.
I remember those gas station days. In my neighborhood in the 60s, and into the 70s, we had a Phillips 66, an Atlantic Richfield (now ARCO)and up the street there was a Texaco, and one I can't remember the name for, but their mascot was a tiger (put a tiger in your tank)Anyhow, if you needed to gas up, you'd drive up, and there were these black wires that you would run over, which would ring a bell inside the bay, where the attendant was usually working on someone's car. You didn't get out of your car. The guy would come over and say, "Fill 'er up?" and you'd say, "yes,thank you" or you'd say something like, "Just give me $1.00's worth. Back when I was a little kid, that that would have been about 4 or 5 gallons of LEADED gasoline. The "ethel" cost more and had a higher octane, they called it high test. Nobody had locking gas caps back then,because gas was so cheap, it wasn't worth siphoning out of anyone's car. So he would just take the nozzle and stick it in and start pumping gas. while that was going on, he would wash your windshield for you, and ask if you needed your oil stick checked. The guys always more dark pants, a white shirt, and had a greasy rag sticking out of their back pockets.
When the gas was pumped, you'd pay the guy, and sometimes there would be a bonus. Some gas stations had trading stamps that they'd give you depending on how much money you just spent. S & H Green Stamps, Blue Chip, or Top value were the 3 that Moms were collecting at the time. When you saved up enough, you could take them to the redemption center and trade them for towels, pots and pans, or a new radio.
Another gimmick that brought families to gas station were the giveaways. Atlantic Richfield had most of the giveaways I remember. They once gave away beverage glasses with football team logos on them. And they once had a Noah's Ark toy collection that kept us kids begging to go there to gas up. every fill up would get you a pair of little plastic animals, and you could buy the big brown plastic ark to put them in if you wanted to. The animals, if I recal correctly, were actually pretty cool and detailed. I managed to collect the lions, tigers, rhinos, hippos, elephants, sheep, zebras, antelopes, and alligators. And Mom actually did buy the ark to go along with them.
The only snacks you could buy at a gas station back then came from a little vending machine. The little machine had small packs of Tom's sandwich cookies, gum, and hard candies. And of course, on the side of the building there was a little soda machine that dispensed small bottles of root beer, cola, orange or grape pop.
Now, gas stations don't have the little black rope that goes ding when you drive over it. You never see an attendance unless you go inside the station, which is now a small convenience store that sells everything from candy to condoms. The gas isn't leaded anymore, and one dollar will only buy you fumes. You have to have a locking gas cap, a gift from the old embargo days when shortages sent thieves to sucking gas out of people's cars in the middle of the night. You have to get out and do the pumping yourself, and if you take the time to wash your own windows, the people waiting behind you give you dirty looks for taking an extra minute. In my old neighborhood, the gas stations are long gone, you don't any stamps or toys when you give your business to any particular gas station. And since that friendly attendant no longer offers to check your oil, our poor cars don't get the attention they really need.
I don't know when this all happened. I think it was incremental. I remember Mom telling me I needed to learn how to pump gas, and then having me do it, in 1976, so I guess things were changing then. If I remember right, during the first oil embargo in 1973, when the gas lines were really long and involved waits of an hour or more, the guys still pumped the gas. By the time I was driving in 1979, during the second embargo, which was much worse and involved waiting overnight in lines for the gas stations to open, we were pumping our own gas.
I miss the old days, when you didn't have to get out in the wind and rain and get your hands all germy and smelling of gasoline. But like everything else that evolves, you can't ever go back again.
I guess you can't stop progress.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Thinking about the 70's
The 70's. I was thinking about that decade the other day. Mainly I was thinking about things we had in the 70s that we don't have anymore. Some of the things we did in the 70s we don't do anymore either. Here are just a few things that stand out in my mind.
1. Stay at home moms. Yeah, I know it was woman's liberation time, bras were burning, and all of that. But in my neck of the woods, which is San Diego California, in my neighborhood, there just weren't too many families that had working moms. My mom stayed at home and made money by selling junk at swap meets, breeding poodles and kittens, etc. Most moms didn't dump their kids in day care, they actually stayed home with them. Now, of course, things are different. In a lot of cases, it would be cheaper for the mom to stay home and raise her own kids, but everyone has bought into the lie that you can do everything you want to do. It isn't true. either the job suffers, or the kids suffer. Sometimes both do.
2. The change from rotary phones to touch tone phones. I remember when we changed our phone out for a new push button phone. Back then, there was one phone company, and they leased out the telephones, I remember there was a monthly charge on the bill for the touch tone phone. It was a very weird thing the first time we went to the store and bought a new phone and turned in the leased phone to Pacific Bell.
3. Tunnel of Fudge Bundt Cakes. Those bundt cake mixes were the best thing ever. There were a few different flavors, but the only one Mom bought was the Tunnel of Fudge. It was chocolately good, with all that pudding-like middle, and a tasty chocolate glaze you drizzled over the top of the cake. We loved this cake and I can't figure out why they quit making it. I found a recipe for it and made it, but it just didn't seem the same to me.
4. Playing outside. This goes hand in hand with big families. In my day and in my neighborhood, there were a lot of good Catholic families. In those days, being "an only child" was looked upon with pity. If you had just one kid, it was either because you weren't able to get pregnant again, or you were selfish and wanted to deprive your child of a full family experience. Now, of course, its different. But back then, most families had at least 3 kids, with many having 6, 7, 8 or more kids. So, there were always lots of kids in the neighborhood to play with. You could get up a game of kickball, or you'd just get a bunch together with their Schwinn Stingrays with banana seats and sissy bars, and go riding up and down the street, off curbs, popping wheelies, just having a blast. Helmets? I don't think they even made them for kids yet. When you got home from school, if you got your homework done quickly, Mom would let you out to play before dinner. On Saturdays, once you got your morning chores done and your piano practice complete, Mom would let you off the leash, and first thing you'd do is run outside and look up the street to see if the other kids were out playing yet. And then you'd go join them. Now, there are play dates, because neighborhoods aren't teeming with kids anymore. Mom has to set up your social visits at prescribed times and prescribed places. Lots of kids don't even do that as they get older, they play on line games with each other from the comfort of their bedrooms, or text and Facebook each other. And they wonder why everybody is getting so fat. Its not because of the snacks, because we ate all that crap back then and were nice and skinny.
5. Going from black and white to color tv. We had a big huge black and white tv set during the 60s. It was set in a huge wooden cabinet. Back then, if the picture went out, Dad would take the back off the tv and take out a picture tube, go down to the hardware store in the neighborhood (way before Home Depot or Lowes) and get a new tube. dad kept that old tv going for a long time. then one day, a delivery truck came driving up, and out came two guys carrying a new tv. They set up the new one, and took the old one away, while this 8 year old was crying and carrying on as to why we were throwing our old tv, to me a friend with its own soul and personality, our of our family. The guys ignored me, then shimmied up to the roof and proceeded to set up a new antennae. Another memory: TV that came through air and snatched up into our antennae instead through a cable. Our new tv was then turned on, tuned in, and it was in living color! I had never seen color tv accept at the TV store. And this new antennae had a cool dial unit set up next to the tv, allowing you to turn your antennae for the best reception. Now we could get 4 channels instead of just 3. It was amazing. That tv took us into the 70s, until Cox cable came to the neighborhood and we got the next step up--cable tv.
6. Nuns. I don't know about you, but I have noticed that nuns are going the way of the Tasmanian tiger or the dodo, as in extinct. I went to a Catholic elementary school, and 3 years in a Catholic high school. We had nuns teaching the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 8th grade, with lay teachers taking up the other four grades. In high school, it was about the same ratio. Now, at my old elementary school, its all lay teachers. The last nun, who was my really mean 8th grade teacher, was the principal until 2 years ago when she retired. I think it is probably the same situation at all the schools now. I have a feeling, with our society going more secular, and with Christians now taking over where Catholics left off, there just aren't too many girls who want to grow up and give up a life of friends, fun, fast living, boyfriends, partying, the pill, etc, for a chaste religious life. Where is the attraction to it? I think priests are probably in the same situation. I have a feeling it had become a good cover for gay men, but now, its cool to be gay, and you don't have to hide it, so they are coming out and not hiding it under a priest's robes. I bet you the Catholic faith will have a major shake up in the next 20 years, as the nuns and priests die out and are not replaced. They may have to change their rules a bit to make a religious life more attractive.
7. Dittos Jeans. As a teen in the 70s, I wanted to wear popular clothes just like any other normal girl. But my mother did not buy us new outer clothing. New undies and socks, yes, everything else, forget it. All our clothes came from rummage sales, garage sales, or junk stores. Shopping for new clothes in August before the new school year started was not a custom in my house. I was actually happy to have to wear a school uniform, because if we had been allowed to dress freely, I would have been mortified to come to school wearing the crap my mom brought home from the junk stores. I really did like those Ditto jeans. On free dress day (I hated those days at school, thank God they were few and far between)the girls more often than not came prancing onto campus in form fitting high waisted jeans. Some had yokes on the butt, some were smooth. They came in lots of colors. I really wished I could had had a couple pairs of them too. I finally got my way when I went to the junk store with Mom in 1979 and found a pair. Smooth butt, faded yellow, but no rips or tears, and they fit perfectly. I finally had my dittos. Too bad I was already out of high school. Too little, too late.
1. Stay at home moms. Yeah, I know it was woman's liberation time, bras were burning, and all of that. But in my neck of the woods, which is San Diego California, in my neighborhood, there just weren't too many families that had working moms. My mom stayed at home and made money by selling junk at swap meets, breeding poodles and kittens, etc. Most moms didn't dump their kids in day care, they actually stayed home with them. Now, of course, things are different. In a lot of cases, it would be cheaper for the mom to stay home and raise her own kids, but everyone has bought into the lie that you can do everything you want to do. It isn't true. either the job suffers, or the kids suffer. Sometimes both do.
2. The change from rotary phones to touch tone phones. I remember when we changed our phone out for a new push button phone. Back then, there was one phone company, and they leased out the telephones, I remember there was a monthly charge on the bill for the touch tone phone. It was a very weird thing the first time we went to the store and bought a new phone and turned in the leased phone to Pacific Bell.
3. Tunnel of Fudge Bundt Cakes. Those bundt cake mixes were the best thing ever. There were a few different flavors, but the only one Mom bought was the Tunnel of Fudge. It was chocolately good, with all that pudding-like middle, and a tasty chocolate glaze you drizzled over the top of the cake. We loved this cake and I can't figure out why they quit making it. I found a recipe for it and made it, but it just didn't seem the same to me.
4. Playing outside. This goes hand in hand with big families. In my day and in my neighborhood, there were a lot of good Catholic families. In those days, being "an only child" was looked upon with pity. If you had just one kid, it was either because you weren't able to get pregnant again, or you were selfish and wanted to deprive your child of a full family experience. Now, of course, its different. But back then, most families had at least 3 kids, with many having 6, 7, 8 or more kids. So, there were always lots of kids in the neighborhood to play with. You could get up a game of kickball, or you'd just get a bunch together with their Schwinn Stingrays with banana seats and sissy bars, and go riding up and down the street, off curbs, popping wheelies, just having a blast. Helmets? I don't think they even made them for kids yet. When you got home from school, if you got your homework done quickly, Mom would let you out to play before dinner. On Saturdays, once you got your morning chores done and your piano practice complete, Mom would let you off the leash, and first thing you'd do is run outside and look up the street to see if the other kids were out playing yet. And then you'd go join them. Now, there are play dates, because neighborhoods aren't teeming with kids anymore. Mom has to set up your social visits at prescribed times and prescribed places. Lots of kids don't even do that as they get older, they play on line games with each other from the comfort of their bedrooms, or text and Facebook each other. And they wonder why everybody is getting so fat. Its not because of the snacks, because we ate all that crap back then and were nice and skinny.
5. Going from black and white to color tv. We had a big huge black and white tv set during the 60s. It was set in a huge wooden cabinet. Back then, if the picture went out, Dad would take the back off the tv and take out a picture tube, go down to the hardware store in the neighborhood (way before Home Depot or Lowes) and get a new tube. dad kept that old tv going for a long time. then one day, a delivery truck came driving up, and out came two guys carrying a new tv. They set up the new one, and took the old one away, while this 8 year old was crying and carrying on as to why we were throwing our old tv, to me a friend with its own soul and personality, our of our family. The guys ignored me, then shimmied up to the roof and proceeded to set up a new antennae. Another memory: TV that came through air and snatched up into our antennae instead through a cable. Our new tv was then turned on, tuned in, and it was in living color! I had never seen color tv accept at the TV store. And this new antennae had a cool dial unit set up next to the tv, allowing you to turn your antennae for the best reception. Now we could get 4 channels instead of just 3. It was amazing. That tv took us into the 70s, until Cox cable came to the neighborhood and we got the next step up--cable tv.
6. Nuns. I don't know about you, but I have noticed that nuns are going the way of the Tasmanian tiger or the dodo, as in extinct. I went to a Catholic elementary school, and 3 years in a Catholic high school. We had nuns teaching the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 8th grade, with lay teachers taking up the other four grades. In high school, it was about the same ratio. Now, at my old elementary school, its all lay teachers. The last nun, who was my really mean 8th grade teacher, was the principal until 2 years ago when she retired. I think it is probably the same situation at all the schools now. I have a feeling, with our society going more secular, and with Christians now taking over where Catholics left off, there just aren't too many girls who want to grow up and give up a life of friends, fun, fast living, boyfriends, partying, the pill, etc, for a chaste religious life. Where is the attraction to it? I think priests are probably in the same situation. I have a feeling it had become a good cover for gay men, but now, its cool to be gay, and you don't have to hide it, so they are coming out and not hiding it under a priest's robes. I bet you the Catholic faith will have a major shake up in the next 20 years, as the nuns and priests die out and are not replaced. They may have to change their rules a bit to make a religious life more attractive.
7. Dittos Jeans. As a teen in the 70s, I wanted to wear popular clothes just like any other normal girl. But my mother did not buy us new outer clothing. New undies and socks, yes, everything else, forget it. All our clothes came from rummage sales, garage sales, or junk stores. Shopping for new clothes in August before the new school year started was not a custom in my house. I was actually happy to have to wear a school uniform, because if we had been allowed to dress freely, I would have been mortified to come to school wearing the crap my mom brought home from the junk stores. I really did like those Ditto jeans. On free dress day (I hated those days at school, thank God they were few and far between)the girls more often than not came prancing onto campus in form fitting high waisted jeans. Some had yokes on the butt, some were smooth. They came in lots of colors. I really wished I could had had a couple pairs of them too. I finally got my way when I went to the junk store with Mom in 1979 and found a pair. Smooth butt, faded yellow, but no rips or tears, and they fit perfectly. I finally had my dittos. Too bad I was already out of high school. Too little, too late.
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