It’s fill-up time today. So what ride and what station shall be the one you visit? Here’s a collection of vintage photos to ponder those choices, with vehicles that go from the humble to the pricey.
As usual, these images come from random corners of the web, with no info on provenance on most. But I gather a good number of you might guess locations far better than I ever could, though at least one is rather obvious.
I’m not sure what it was that made Service Stations so compelling to me as a child but they were and I actually enjoyed my time as a pump jockey at an ARCO station with three pumps .
I can’t ever get used to there being 10 as many cars now yet only 1/4 of the stations there were back when .
Nice pictures here, every one .
-Nate
Can’t help noticing the 50s with attendants and 60s with self service. Like many of the cars shown, many gas companies are long gone. I can recall Mom pulling into ART’S City Service in our 55 DeSoto, softly sighing, 29.9 cents a gallon!?! 😲 . That included an attendant filling the tank, checking tires, oil and other fluids, and cleaning all windows. Even in inclement weather. Thanks for this drive down memory lane! 👍 Guess I’ll gas up the Town Car with $3.89.9 self service and drive past the old family home. 👪 🏠 for some great family memories!
That 26.9 cents per gallon in #3 equals $3.14 today. Not as cheap as many would like to think or remember.
A quite rare Cadillac Eldorado Brougham at the pumps. Is that why the photographer decided to take a picture of it?
A lot of the petrol stations I used touring about Japan back in 2016 weren’t self service and in one station a guy guided you out on to the road and bowed as you drove away.
I don’t know, $3.14 seems pretty cheap here in the land of $5 gasoline (California).
I paid 3.95 last night.
Now 3.85 tonight
$2.86 at the local Costco, about $2.99 at stations that don’t require annual membership fees. Taking into account the much better fuel economy of modern cars, we’re paying much less for gasoline today than in the ’50s or ’60s.
So true as 17 mpg on regular doesn’t compare to 30 mpg on regular that I get today. I spend $85-90 each month on gas in my daily drivers. So I am paying 0.28 cents per gallon in 1971 money. The vintage cars don’t count as that is hobby money.
Sure Paul! It’s not every day the most expensive car sold in the U.S. in 1957 pulls in to fill er up!
You better recalculate that $3.14 a gallon. In 1952 when gas was 26 cents a gallon , that equates to $2.68 a gallon. When you consider the small number of refiners in the country and the limited miles that people actually drove it was a reasonably small price.
You must be using a different inflation calculator. And it appears to be incorrect. I’ve double checked this. And it turns out that 27 cents was the average price of gas in 1952.
TANKS, what a GAS! 😄 😁 🤣 Sometimes I just can’t help myself!
Gas stations were members of the family in those days.
Ours was Red Lloyds’s Gulf station on north Main Street in Columbia, SC.
A can of Gulf Valvetop in the tank once a month!
Yes, my mom used to patronize 2 local Atlantic stations back in the day. I can’t recall the owners names now. Ironically, there was a 3rd Atlantic station with a single pump island nearly across the street from our house, but my mom didn’t like the owner! This last station closed in 1966 and became a plumbing business.
That tan 1961 Olds Dynamic 88 is a dead ringer for my aunt’s except for the color (hers was medium blue). Love those ’61 GM bubbletops!
That photo immediately made me think of the NJTP rest area gas stations, but I never saw one before the late 70s. Esso was Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Windshield washer in #1 is shamefully smoking! They look like ex-cons.
Dear American friend, don’t be so unhappy with the approximately $3.50 per gallon that currently reigns at your place. Here just to the north it’s at least $4.10 a gallon ( 3.735 liter for one u.s. gallon & currency conversion included )
…and we are offered the same large gaz guzzlers vehicles . If we could have the whole range of small cars from the 80s with the efficiency of today’s engines and transmissions it would be fantastic.
Dangling seatbelt from the Chevelle wagon. A familiar sight and sound before three-point belts and inertial retractors.
It looks like a ’65-6 full-size Chevrolet to me. What are the odd of two trailers filling up at the same time? Near an RV campground? Would a Ford and Chevy vacation together?
I remember Chevron’s predecessor, Calso, and I remember when they were preparing the brand name changeover. They covered over all the Calso signs to create an air of mystery. What would it become? When the great unveiling happened, it wasn’t quite as exciting as it had been predicted. The new Chevron signs were more colorful, but that’s it. In my town of about 5000, close to the Chevron station there were both Flying A and Texaco businesses, and a little further down the street there were Esso and Amoco garages. Local gas wars used to be fun.
Always enjoy your pics down memory lane. But had to reminisce as a child in 50’s gas war 19.9 cents a gallon with a case of hires (glass bottles) root beer with a fill up in Tillamook Oregon.
Those are great pics. The Packard in the lead picture is especially nice!
I’m always amazed at how much taller and narrower the ’51-’54 Packards look than the ’55s and especially ’56s do. Looking at this photo I can see at least one reason why – the widest extent of the grille is the center of the headlamp above it. Look how much painted sheetmetal there is to either side of the grille! And the round chromed trim surrounding the turn signal indicators further visually delineates the grille’s narrowness. In ’55 the new eggcrate grille ran the full width of the car and then wrapped around the sides, making the car look about 10″ wider than before although it was actually the same width.
That Cadillac Eldorado Brougham has so much presence.
That Olds coupe is such a great combination of rakish and outlandish! It’s no wonder Oldsmobile was such a good seller in the ’60’s.
In New Jersey an attendant must fill the fuel. Here where I live just about eleven miles north of the New York/New Jersey border, we have a station called “Oasis” that is cheaper than most and filling is by an attendant. Don’t forget to tip the gas jockey.
Good “down memory lane article” And you probably got. In the 50s gas was around.18 cents per gallon. You might pull in to a station and ask for $3.00/5.00 worth. You could also get directions from the people who operated the station if you needed help. They where from there. And you probably got your oil change at your local station. Live was more simple then
What’s the gold thing on the Packard’s hood?
A bug deflector.
As I’ve said here before : I was born and raised in Newport Beach, CA. One of our local stations (Union 76) gave away plastic tumblers with color drawings of Dodger players inside the clear plastic surround. We had Johnny Roseboro, Sandy Kaufax, Ron Fairly and a few others. Set of 6 in all.
Other filling stations gave away serving plates, juice glasses, offered ‘free air’ and the local Texaco sold toy tanker trucks. The Union 76 station gave away the small orange antenna topper with the 76 logo on it.
My folks traded at
I’m still using the juice glasses my grandmother got at the Esso down the street c. 1970, but I’m down to six.
I hated the paper oil cans visible in the third picture. Was there any way to pour out the oil without drips and spills?
Yes , it’s called an oil can spout
My father worked for Esso back in the 1960s
Paid $2.26 last week (with 10 cent wally discount), it’s up this week but still 2.49 – mountains of North GA
The Gulf station brought back fond memories of the summer I worked for a Gulf jobber. I worked in the office and made deliveries to stations and factories. I used either our “56 Ford flatbed ton truck or the owner’s ’65 Econoline pickup. It was a good and interesting place to work and the owner treated me well. It was the first job, other than a paper route, I ever had where I wasn’t working for my family. After college started back up I got a job as a pump jockey at a Phillips 66 station. Pretty nice coworkers but a jerk for an owner. Not many fond memories there, but it was a job until I had finally had enough. That was the first and only time I quit a job without another one to go to.
As a kid, I loved going to the has station with Mom and Dad. I remember Dad saying, “Fill ‘er up with Ethyl.” I remember the attendant opening the hood and checking the oil. I remember the plastic board with the credit card carbons on it and Mom or Dad signing them. I remember the squeaks of the squeegee as they cleaned the windshield and afterward drying any water lines left behind by the squeegee with a paper towel. Why did this leave such an impression on me?? Lol.
“Fill er up with Ethyl, that’s if Ethyl don’t mind !
Picture #4 with the red Ford wagon was taken in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The gas station was located on a small, triangular piece of land, and the gas-pump shaped structure was 16′ tall. It’s shape, of course, was a curiosity, but it was efficient for the site because it maximized square footage on a tiny lot.
The lot itself has been bisected by a road now, but you can see where the building stood in the then-and-now comparison below.
Google Street-View link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yKQZigYWqXScWQmP7
I just now noticed the giant pump – if my eyes catch that first, it makes the pump look real and the red Ford look like a toy pedal car.
Sweet mint-green ’58 Pontiac (Bonneville?) convertible in the background.
I’ve done the easy work of virtual helicoptering and I would say the station in Manhattan was along Second Avenue just south of E 40th Street. While the structures on the west side of the avenue would appear to still be there, the station and the building on the corner are gone, presumably replaced by a multi-story residential tower and corner parklet in 1967.
In the 50s-60s Dad always patronized the Thorne brothers Conoco in South MInneapolis. A tiny, one island station with pit service bays (no lifts). Dad always said “fill it with Ethyl”, but I just pumped regular into my Vespa in 1964. Fifteen cents worth (half gallon) plus my little measuring cup of oil gave me a week of riding to high school and back.
Looking at many of the pictures, I’m reminded of how I miss the days when gas hoses would reach around the car.
1964-65, worked for my uncle Chester at a station with a dirt drive called Trax Oil. All the Trax oil stations in Iowa were located along railroad tracks and the gas came in by rail on a tank car. The station operator had to pump fuel from the railroad tank car into the station storage tanks.
When business was slow a car driving over the driveway bell would bring you wide awake. Miss the smell of gas and oil but not wringing out those disgusting chamois.
Hah!
Just try, in 2010 or 2024, to get these guys…
https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/d7ba4a85039119c1d15cf4c95f3b394a09b47568.jpg?ssl=1
or their grandchildren, to do those same jobs today every time a customer rolled over the air hose! At minimum wage to boot.
“shamefully” smoking? Why is that, Ralph?? Why do people feel compelled to comment about the dangers of cigarette smoking or mention it in some way, shape or form if somebody is smoking.? Curious…
I owned a new 1961 Oldsmobile 98 2 door white bubble top, sharp car. But most likely the one pictured is stopped at station due to the ‘slim Jim’ transmission failing…. Believe me when I say, the trans was a piece of junk.
I worked at the esso station in cayce and My dad owned the Texaco station on plat spring rd cayce sc back in 60s.
What a flood of nostalgia and memories came with that 1951 Packard! When I was a few years younger, and my grandfather drove a 1940 Mercury, my father traded-in his gloriously opulent travelling living room 1939 Packard on a brand-new 1951 Packard. Packard had trouble in bringing their tall-narrow classic trademark grille-frame into the modern age. In the early ‘forties, they kept its 1930s profile. Then, in 1948, they tried to compromise, which looked like nothing quite so much as the face of a parakeet. At last, in 1951, they got it right, and on one thoroughly modern car. I would love to own a 1951 Pacjard Patrician 400 or Mayfair 250 convertible.(no continental tyre, please!).
I worked at a couple of service stations, including an Exxon.
I man in a Volkswagon Karmen Ghia pulled up to the full service pumps one day. He asked me to fill the car and check the oil. He was 1 quart low and asked for the cheapest quart we had. I put it in his car and gave him his bill. That’s back in the days when we use the knuckle buster for credit cards. Anyway, he began to argue telling me he did not want the oil after all. My store manager was in so I called him over and told Ron what was going on. Ron asked me to go in the garage and get an adjustable wrench broom and dustpan. The gentleman asked what was that for, and Ron said I’m going to drain all the oil out of your car give you the broom and dustpan and you sweep up what is yours and just leave the quart he put in on the ground!!
He signed and sped off!!