Does anyone remember REAL full service stations

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Yes and at the time (Early 70's) gas was .29 a gallon. Those were the days! Then the oil embrago...beginning of the end of my Dodge Challenger 340 days. I don't know if Oregon still mandates attendents pump your gas?
 
I remember them well. I can recall riding with my uncle in his new 1967 Mercury Cougar looking for the least expensive gas and passing one station that had regular at $0.21/gallon for a full service Kerr McGee selling at $0.19/gallon. I remember the kid running the pumps in his grease monkey uniform admiring the new Cougar, checking oil, tire pressure, cleaning the windshield, etc., for what was probably no more than $2 worth of gas. They even gave out S&H Green Stamps.

There is one service station near us that still offers full service for an additional cost per gallon. I never see anyone filling up there.
 
Ive lived here since 75 and have been driving since 85. Never saw a full service station here.i remember a guy in a booth the size of a phone booth between pumps that would take your money so you didnt have to go inside. But nobody came running out to clean windows or open the hood
 
Originally Posted By: CHARLIEBRONSON21
Right between two of them at work and one the next city over.


Still, today? Wow, you are lucky.
 
Originally Posted By: Bud
Remember them well. Used to be in the town where I grew up that two guys would come out when you pulled up. One to pump the gas and the other to do the windshield and ask if you wanted him to check under the hood. Lots of times there would be a promotion of some sort where you would get a drinking glass of some type. Had a 65 Vette and wanted to pump the gas myself to keep the attendant from dripping gas on my paint job, and it was like pulling teeth to get them to let you do it. Those days are long gone.


I forgot about the glasses.... I got plenty of Yankees / Mets glasses.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
There is a full service island at a 76 station in my area, the cost is about $1.20-1.30 more than self service and it's empty most of the time.


We have stations with so called "Full Service" Islands but all they do is pump the gas. Rarely they would clean your windshield.
 
Originally Posted By: sparky123
I don't know if Oregon still mandates attendents pump your gas?

Yes. One guy will be running around like a chicken with no head at the big stops on I-5; really dumb, imho.
Kevin
 
My dad was friends with an owner of a Phillip's 66 and ARCO station, Little Jim was what he went by. He had the typical setup in the 70's with full-service and self-serve pumps along with tow trucks and repair bays.

When the day came that ARCO converted to the mini-mart style of station, he refused and sold. He wanted to remain a true "service" station. He likely missed out on a lot of income since those AM/PM mini marts appeared to be hugely successful.
 
My first job was at a SOHIO service station at age 16 in 1949. I was paid .65/hr if I recall. I had to get a work permit that restricted my hours and the time of day I could work. Two man service was required by the boss who was always present. The station was in a good location on a main street oposite a high school. Four pumps on one island kept us busy for most of the shift. We did minor repair work, exhaust systems, brakes, minor tune up. I learned a lot from the older guys that were trained mechanics. Still changing my oil at 80. FWIW

Oldtommy
 
Remember? Actually I had the good fortune to work at a Mobil service station from the fall of '73 (just before the first oil embargo) through '81. A very good experience, taught me many lessons, made a lot of good friends. In retrospect, good times.

Ding-ding "One up! that was the call. A long time ago I cleaned acres of glass and pumped tank-trucks of gas. Since I mostly had evenings and weekend shifts, I often ended up handling the odd stuff that rolled in. Minor stuff you'd repair and get the customer on their way, major stuff had to wait for the mechanics. Mostly learn by doing. Often had to open or close the station. A lot of responsibility for a young fellow. I didn't realize it at the time, but the experience gave me a lot of self-confidence.

"Watch out for the amateur drunks." One evening shortly before Christmas, a VW bug lurched onto the lot... missing it's fenders??? The driver stumbles out of the car, I think it was to buy a pack of cigarettes. While he's inside, I notice the keys are still in the ignition, thinking "this guy's in no shape to be on the road", on the sly I pull the keys and pocket them. He stumbles back outside and proceeds to get in the bug. He can't find the keys. He checks all of his pockets, once. He checks all his pockets again, they're still not there. He starts opening the doors to the bug and rooting around the car. At some point a frozen turkey plops out of the car and starts rolling across the lot. It was both funny and pathetic.

The guy finally gets the frozen turkey back in the car, stumbles over to me to explain he can't find his keys (yeah, I think, they're in my pocket). He goes on to say he usually doesn't drink (yeah, I think, that's obvious). After rooting around for his keys a little longer, I suggest he call someone to take him home. He gets on the pay phone (remember those?) and after considerable fumbling he finally reaches his wife.

Some time later, his wife arrives. Boy, is she upset... We push the VW to the side lot. The guy goes home with his steaming mad wife.

I heard that the next day the police arrived with a matching, but crumpled, Volkswagen fender. They found it at the bank just up the road where a fence had been knocked down. I guess it matched the VW bug on our lot. I think the other fender was found out by a highway guard rail.

That was one of the more interesting evenings, but we had others, too.

I'm often sorry the corner service stations are no longer with us. I think that in their time, they gave a lot of young guys a solid entry into the working world and good real-life experience.
 
None that I can think of locally, but when we were down east the Esso station was full service and the Irving Big Stop that I worked at while I was in school had an entire full service bar (6 pumps IIRC) where they'd do everything including checking the oil. The two guys that pumped the gas were always as high as kites on the fumes, LOL!!!
 
When I was a kid i ran a Texaco station that was at the corner of two 8 lane roads. VERY busy place.

3 guys ran to your car when you pulled up to our pumps. We would do almost anything right there, add oil, add air to your tires, whatever you needed was done QUICKLY.

Each of us had a wad of cash as credit was not very popular then. My favorite thing was the 'oil tree' made out of sheet metal that held the used Havoline cans to drip into a container.

My 65 Triumph TR-4 was a bit thirsty!
 
Nearly all full service in Taiwan, though without the Norman Rockwell stylee nostalgia, I'm afraid I find it a bit irritating.

I 'd prefer to fill it myself, to get a more consistent fill for fuel consumption calculations, but trying to explain that in Mandarin defeats me.
 
My first job was at a gas station and there was full service where I did check oils and wash windows! And I had to collect the money and go make change too! People rarely used a credit card for their purchase.
 
Yes my Family used to have owned many Gas Stations. One of them when I was a very small child and it had FULL Service and it was in a very bad time and bad area of DETROIT MICHIGAN and we had lots of trouble there, but not till what happend below.

It was LAKEWEOOD and JEFFERSON Sunoco.

Some guys pulled up and said fill er up and my Grand Pa who was still young at the time was checking his oil and my Dad was cleaning the windows. After they pumped the Gas it came out to to like 12$... Well the guys decided to do a a DRIVE OFF.... Well they didnt know my Dad and Grandpa had just come from the HILLS in TENN... My Dad pulled out his 44 and shot 6 shots into the car and my Grandpa pulled out his 6 shooter and shot 6 times and even after he was out of bullets my Dad told me he was still pulling the trigger....

The Police came and to my Dad and Grandpa surprise the Car was stolen and 1 guy had a warrant for his arrest for armed Robbery and the passenger had jumped bond plus they had 4 guns in there car plus a sawed off shot gun..

That was the last time they ever had trouble at that gas station. We were know in the area as CRAZY HILLBILLYS...

Also we Owned Harper and Caduix Shell and the Sunoco across the street. I used to work at the Sunoco on weekend and it was a much better area. However when car pulled up I would go out there and put in the amount of Gas and check the oil and wash the windows and even check the Air in the tires.

I somtimes worked at the Shell station across the street and would do the same thing.
We also owned 9Mile and Kelly Sunoco and I used to work Summers there and I remember Sunoco was just came out with 93.5 Ultra High Octane Gas.. Most other gas sations were still at 91 or 92, finally Sunoco went up to 94 Octane Ultra.. Anways, I used to run the Full Service there all summer and I used to get good tips b/c I was only in 5th Grade... Well going into 6th Grade.

Finally years later they go rid of FULL Service plus even the Garages and our family had and still has a great reputation as having the best TECHS / Mechanics in town. So when Sunoco and Shell wanted to change them into FOOD MARTS we sold the business and the leases of the property was transferred.

However I sure had fun working at the gas stations.. Even when the Sunoco on Harper and Cadieux went to a food mart we kept both Sunoco and SHELL across the street b/c they were like the #2 in the state for selling gas.

I would have my Friends from HIGH SCHOOL come and work with me. We always had 2 people on each shift.. Morning shift from 6AM to 2PM and 2PM to 10PM and 10PM to 6AM

the MIDNIGHT shift was the worst.. Also even the morning shift sucked b.c you were so tired when you got home and went to sleep by the time you work up the afternoon shift was getting off in a hour or 2 and on Weekends my friends I would go to Canada and party.

Man them were the days.
 
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