It was in 1956 when I was 13 years old at my friends parents Phillips 66 full service station. I started after the school year in June and I well remember a customer that pulled up to the pumps in a new 1956 Chevrolet. I had the pump nozzle in my hand, but couldn't find the gas cap or flap. This amused the man when I asked, "Where is the Gas Cap"? That was 56 years ago and the newer generations wouldn't understand that dilemma. You had to twist a trim bar above the tail light lens and the whole tail light assembly swung open on a hinge. The gas filler tube was in that open void. How clever I said. |
| The station I worked at did not look like the one below as I wanted to represent a newer style. |
| Gold Bond and S&H Green stamps were given away by many stations to keep customers coming back. For every dollar you spent on fuel, you got so many stamps to paste in the appropriate book. So many pages filled with stamps allowed you to win free merchandise. A full book allowed larger prizes. This promotional offer cost the service station money and you paid for it in the price of fuel. As an example, we had a regular gas pump called "Special" that was 2 cents a gallon less and you didn't get stamps for that purchase. We sold a lot of "Special" those years at $.33 cents a gallon. Our high test gas was about .37 cents and it was a special Ethylene pump that was taller than the others. That leaded fuel smelled better going into the tank and coming out of the exhaust than the new unleaded fuel. A big part of sales were fuel oil deliveries as some homes were switching over from coal. |
I could never afford to own old Packard cars like you see above, but the models are good enough to just have on the layout. If you look at the far pump island, there's a "high boy" bulk oil container with pump. Generally, it contained 20wt. oil and sometimes it was Non Detergent oil. Way before engine emission devices, a lot of men used this oil as it was cheaper even though sludge built up in the crankcase. If those motorist switched to detergent oil, it would loosen up the layer of sludge and cause oil flow problems. Pennsylvania Oil Company through news paper article ads used to try and convince motorist to switch over to detergent oil anyway. This was about the time multi grade oil became available like 10w30. |