Service Stations – A Thing of the Past

Gas stations like the one in the photo are surely a thing of the past. Sad but true, gone are the prices too. Gas at 23 cents a gallon, free glass with fill up, put a tiger in your tank and a thousand other gimmicks to sell gas. When was the last time someone cleaned your windscreen at the pumps or offered to check the oil?. In the 1960’s gas stations were interesting places with a variety of tempting offers to buy their brand of gas. Imagine the work that went into installing the World War two bomber over that particular station, do you think they only sold High Test????Even here on Prince Edward Island we had a gas station or store with a gas pump on almost every corner in the 1950’s-60’s. Today I doubt we have more than a handful of actual service stations, most now are fancy convenience stores with self serve pumps. If we look at the photo in this post it would indicate the gas bars of the past employed a great number of staff, wonder what happened to all those young gas jockeys??They were the mechanics of the day when tools consisted of a hammer and baler twine. I recall stopping in at a Texaco station one summer day in the early sixties, the owner was grinning from ear to ear, he had just sold $40 worth of gas to a large motor home!!!! Wow!!today it cost more than that to fill my economy car.
God Bless and keep reading.