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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 25, 2003
Suddenly Trivia:
How many American service stations were there in 1969?
a. 78,500 b. 156,000 c. 239,000 d. 468,900.
With gas prices here in the Tampa Bay area heading north, many of us yearn for those days when gas was 36 cents a gallon and service stations actually delivered service.
Service.
What a quaint concept!
Today, it's as bizarre a notion to those younger than 40 as a gentleman's tipping his hat to a lady. Until about 30 years ago, both were part of everyday life in America. Then in 1973, OPEC turned the screws, creating high prices and long lines at gas pumps, prepayments to grim strangers behind bulletproof glass, and, most shocking of all, forcing ladies to pump their own gas, wash their own windshields, check their oil and fill their tires with air, "free air" now costing two bits.
It was the end of a great era.
Older Suddenly Seniors will remember its beginnings in the '20s when gas stations popped up all over postwar and newly prosperous America. Some stations even had indoor toilets.
In those days, filling a car's five-gallon tank took eight minutes. To keep customers' minds from the clock, attendants cleaned windshields (sometimes inside and out), checked oil and water, even cranked engines to get the jalopies back on the road.
The Depression saw stations built to resemble teepees, castles, dinosaurs, even pyramids -- anything to attract scarce dollars. One of Gulf Oil's outlets was built in the shape of the Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh's famous airplane.
Slowed by gas rationing during WWII (remember the A, B and C decals?), by the prosperous 1950s, with its huge expansion of cars and highways, service stations sprouted from every corner, competing by giving away drinking glasses, trading stamps, maps and car washes. And a tsunami of service. So fierce was competition, gas wars broke out, at least once pushing the price down to 12 cents a gallon in my neighborhood.
Even car dealers put pumps out front to get some of the action. In about 1950, I worked one summer at Ladendorf Oldsmobile in Des Plaines, Ill., about a block from the world's first McDonalds. My job was changing oil, lubing, undercoating and pumping gas.
When the tire bell rang, I'd quickly throw on an ill-fitting jacket and cap, run out and pump the gas -- usually a buck's worth, but occasionally, "Five dollars or fill, whichever comes first." Then I'd wash windows all around, check the oil, fill tires and the battery as needed. And in my spare time, chat or flirt, whichever was appropriate.
Really hectic was when a gas customer drove in as I was undercoating (spraying tar all over the bottom of a vehicle and me).
Mr. Ladendorf insisted that I always wash my face and hands with gasoline before greeting the customer. Small wonder I had trouble getting dates that summer.
My car was a '41 Ford convertible with a '48 Mercury engine. Bright red. All chrome interior. Chopped and channeled. Leaded. Duals. Headers. Necker knob. And no top. On those rare occasions when I scrubbed up clean enough to date, I'd borrow my dad's Oldsmobile Rocket 88 (0 to 60 in eight seconds!), promising to fill the tank and adhere to his mileage restrictions.
Dad insisted, "Don't drive over 10 miles, now." Whether he thought I'd have less chance of an accident or what, I never knew. I do remember having a devil of a time reinstalling the speedometer cable, and once getting caught, feet in the air, fumbling under the dash with loose cable in hand.
From then on, my last stop on date nights was at a service station where, without so much as a frown, they reinstalled the speedometer cable, free, with my fill-up.
Try to get service like that in 2003.
Trivia answer: c. There were some 239,000 gas stations at the peak in 1969. Today there are less than 100,000.
-- Frank Kaiser is a nationally syndicated columnist living in Clearwater. His Web site, www.suddenlysenior.com, includes nostalgia, trivia, senior humor and 111 Best Senior Links. Write Frank c/o Seniority, the Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731 or email floridian@sptimes.com ">atfloridian@sptimes.com .