Time Traveling

[Avanti]

To the age of inexpensive gasoline.

[Jess from VA]

The first time I put over $20 in a motorcycle.... was some time ago. 

I pumped gas at a quarter a gallon (1968).   Making $1.25 an hour. 

[carolinarider09]

I pumped gas at a quarter a gallon (1968).   Making $1.25 an hour. 

Funny thing, I pumped gas (summer job) 1964, 1965, and 1966 in Myrtle Beach.   Full service and gas was, as I remember it, regular 32.9 and high test 35.9.  I was also making $1.25 an hour.  Got a raise on my third year to $1.50 an hour. 

[Jess from VA]

I started at 15yo, and was promised $1.50 an hour when I could do oil changes.  I could do them in about a month, but the raise took 6-7 months.  Our owner was a drunk and a cheapskate.  But his answer was true... I have 40 job applications in my desk and they can all do your job.  Do you still want it?  I did.

We also gave full service, and that meant washing every window in the car, and checking the oil.  If one car came in, 2 or 3 of us all had to jump on that car, or get fired.  We were required to lift every hood without asking, even though a majority of our Cadillacs, Imperials, New Yorkers, and Continentals did not want any kid lifting his hood (at all).  So they blasted their horn in your ears and yelled for us to get the hell out of there.  We told the boss, and he said, lift every hood anyway.  We got a nickel commission on every quart of oil we sold.  When we worked the late shift until 1AM, we had to take all the money and register receipt strips and drive down to his house with them, 12 miles away (and even farther from home), off the clock.  If he was in a good mood, we might get a Budweiser (one).

We were required to get our uniforms laundered by some company, out of our pay, (and he got kickbacks).

The night of the moon landing, all hands on deck, and we worked all night until after sunup to clean out the shop bays and paint the entire inside of the station.  Watching on a portable black and white TV.   Off the clock, but we got Budweiser.

This was the only job I ever got fired from.  I dropped the clutch in the station truck on the bell ropes, but blew the drive shaft out of the truck and blasted the exhaust pipes.  After 2 years, I was glad to leave.  The other guys gave me a sendoff party.

My next job was as a clerk in a field engineering trailer in the largest steel mill in MI.  Much better job.  

The things you remember.  

[carolinarider09]

Very similar to my job, full service, did tire/wheel changes.  Plugged tires when possible. 

Learned why doing "truck" tires was a very dangerous activity (stay behind the wheel when inflating the tire).

At the beach, cleaning the windshield was almost a "joy".  Never know what you might see in there. 

And that 1956 -1957 Chevy (don't remember which year really) where they cleverly hid the gas cap behind the left tail light.

And, also based on memory, there was the Renault Dauphine where everything was in the back with the motor.  Had to be care you did not add gas to the oil.   (Again based on memory from 50 plus years ago).

[Jess from VA]

Mini skirts could require a five minute windshield cleaning.  (I see Paris, I see France, I can see your underpants)

My best friend got a job at at another station.  He knew absolutely nothing about cars.

Lady drives in in a Corvair and says to check the oil and water (in back).  The oil dip looks good.  He assumes the oil cap is the radiator cap, looks in, sees nothing, so he fills it to the top with water.  

Ralph Nader said they were unsafe at any speed, but they were cool cars.

[Cracker Jack]

Very similar to my job, full service, did tire/wheel changes.  Plugged tires when possible. 

Learned why doing "truck" tires was a very dangerous activity (stay behind the wheel when inflating the tire).

At the beach, cleaning the windshield was almost a "joy".  Never know what you might see in there. 

And that 1956 -1957 Chevy (don't remember which year really) where they cleverly hid the gas cap behind the left tail light.

And, also based on memory, there was the Renault Dauphine where everything was in the back with the motor.  Had to be care you did not add gas to the oil.   (Again based on memory from 50 plus years ago).

Both hidden. I had one of each.
56- Turn latch at top and tail light assembly hinges down.
57- Vertical fin molding swung to side like a door revealing the filler cap.
55- Behind tag.

[Oss]

my 57 olds same thing behind tail chrome

Good memories

[0leman]

Started driving in early 60's,  remember getting gas at a couple place at $0.15 a gallon.  Not the full-service lane.   But knew what my oil level was.

Folks had a '56 chevy station wagon.  Gas was filled in the left back light.  There was a lever to turn.  Had to get out a few times when with my Mom, to show the attendant how to do it.

[carolinarider09]

One more "oddity".......  I purchased a used 1959 MGA in or around 1967.   No windows, just "side curtains".   And the electrical supply was two six volt lead acid batteries wried in series to get 12VDC.  Why you might ask?  Room.  The two batteries were behind the front seats under a "small cushion" one on each side of the drive shaft. 

But it was a fun ride, not designed for going to the "Drive In" though.   The best car for that was a Nash Rambler.

[Jess from VA]

This one almost cured me of British sports cars.  62 Austin Healey Sprite

Mine was not in as good shape as this one.  Cost me $450 (which was three times what it was worth) 



Your MGA was a much nicer car.

[luftkoph]

I started at 15yo, and was promised $1.50 an hour when I could do oil changes.  I could do them in about a month, but the raise took 6-7 months.  Our owner was a drunk and a cheapskate.  But his answer was true... I have 40 job applications in my desk and they can all do your job.  Do you still want it?  I did.

We also gave full service, and that meant washing every window in the car, and checking the oil.  If one car came in, 2 or 3 of us all had to jump on that car, or get fired.  We were required to lift every hood without asking, even though a majority of our Cadillacs, Imperials, New Yorkers, and Continentals did not want any kid lifting his hood (at all).  So they blasted their horn in your ears and yelled for us to get the hell out of there.  We told the boss, and he said, lift every hood anyway.  We got a nickel commission on every quart of oil we sold.  When we worked the late shift until 1AM, we had to take all the money and register receipt strips and drive down to his house with them, 12 miles away (and even farther from home), off the clock.  If he was in a good mood, we might get a Budweiser (one).

We were required to get our uniforms laundered by some company, out of our pay, (and he got kickbacks).

The night of the moon landing, all hands on deck, and we worked all night until after sunup to clean out the shop bays and paint the entire inside of the station.  Watching on a portable black and white TV.   Off the clock, but we got Budweiser.

This was the only job I ever got fired from.  I dropped the clutch in the station truck on the bell ropes, but blew the drive shaft out of the truck and blasted the exhaust pipes.  After 2 years, I was glad to leave.  The other guys gave me a sendoff party.

My next job was as a clerk in a field engineering trailer in the largest steel mill in MI.  Much better job.  

The things you remember.  

Zug Island?

[Jess from VA]

Zug Island?

Yes.  

A picturesque spot.  


Zug (4 blast furnaces) was only one of four separate locations of Great Lakes Steel.  

[crow]

Working at a filling station, was the best job I ever had!   Worked in a steel mill too.  HM Harper Co.  2 electric arc furnaces,  12 ton capacity.

[GWS]

One of my earliest jobs, about 15 years old, was working on a neighbor's sheep farm. He was a retired Air Force Major. After school, I had to hop on his little Allis Chalmers C with a small trailer and go down to another neighbor's potato farm and load up cull potatoes. I'd bring them into the sheep pasture and fling shovelfulls of spuds out to the sheep. But NOT before I located his black ram. That s.o.b. would run at you the minute you turned your back on him. He nearly broke my leg once.
That was summer and fall, in addition to the haying. In spring I had to take that same little tractor and trailer and clean out the barn. 30'x80' converted dairy barn with a winter's worth of sheep poop and bedding, 2-3' deep. Throw it on by hand, throw it off by hand. It usually took a week.
The starter on the little Allis Chalmers didn't work, so I had to stand in front of the rear tire and jump the solenoid with a screwdriver to start it. Once, when my mind was wandering (girls, I'm sure) I forgot the tractor was in gear. Started right up, knocked me down and ran up my leg before I could get back up and shut it off. The only thing that saved me from serious injury was that I had been throwing all the manure in one small spot that the owner wanted to turn into a garden. The ground was spongy from all the layers of manure and bedding, so my leg sank into it as the tire ran up my leg.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.