Service Station Evolution

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.