Remember when the gas was cheap, the windshield was washed at some point, and checking oil, and filling tires with air was the norm? Going to the full-service gas station with your Dad was a real treat as you inhaled the gas fumes and begged for some treat. My Grandmother Mary Deller Knight lived next to the Shell station at Church and South Street in Cowansville, Quebec. I always remember her complaining about that gas station. But, that woman knew when the big gas tanker came in, and the gossip that she heard from an open window was continual lunchtime conversation.
I remember when a brainiac at some head office figured out that behind the rear license plate was a great spot to fill the car. Everyone raved about it while their cars ran full speed as they gassed up. Knowing how many Mark Ten Cigarettes my Dad smoked while he filled up; it’s a wonder we were not blown to high heaven watching him from the back seat of the car.
Back then it was very common to ask for a dollar or two worth of gas. It was also the norm for my Dad to buy cigarettes for under 50 cents while I tried to find a cold bottle of Orange Crush in the drink cooler. Then there was the gossip from all the folks that filled up as in those days the gas station was the centre of all local conversation. Like my Grandmother the service station was the source of many town secrets that they heard on a daily basis.
As I got older my male friends worked at these stations and they learned the basics. They learned how to pump gas, change the oil and filters, and it was a great place to meet girls. The teenagers gave customers rides home if their car was in the garage, and brought in their own cars to work on. Full service stations were a wonderful place in those days to learn how to become an automobile technician, as you learned something new every single day.
There was one place at the gas station I hated. Personally, it was rated up with the change room at the local swimming pool as a place infested with bacteria. That was the gas station restroom, where I swear I could hear the bacteria breeding in every corner.
In 1939 Texaco became one of the first oil companies to introduce a “Registered RestRoom” program to ensure that restroom facilities at all Texaco stations nationwide maintained a standard level of cleanliness to the motoring public. The company hired a staff of inspectors who travelled from station to station periodically to ensure that restrooms were up to standard. The “Registered RestRoom” program was later copied by other oil companies and continued at Texaco until the energy crises of the 1970s
Oil companies believed women were the ones who decided where to stop with their families–even if they didn’t drive. I personally have remembered every dirty restroom in my life, and I know if I have to go to the Kansas City Bus Station in Kansas City forget it! On a four day bus trip to California I could tell anyone which Greyhound bus washroom was safe and which one you needed a shot of penicillin before you entered. When I was pregnant with my two sons I had all the clean potty locations nailed down in every mall in Ottawa.
Some old gas stations had the restrooms in a separate building in the back or side of the building–or just a reminiscent of just a hole in the ground. Although I never saw such a thing–some just smelled like it. Other old gas stations had bathrooms that were only accessible from the outside. This was inconvenient, because it typically required getting a key from inside, going outside and using the bathroom, and then returning the key. In my mind, the attendants were discussing what I was doing in said bathroom.
I never use a washroom that emits certain fragrances, or toilets that are surrounded with water on the floor. That’s just asking for some publicly transmitted disease. Any washroom I go into that has writing on the walls makes me wonder if any hanky panky has been committed before I got in there. What possibly went on in this stall that warranted so much merit that it had to be documented on the door in front of me?
My Grandmother always told me that ladies should only use clean washrooms– especially gas station ones. I never really could understand her reasoning when I used to see her large drawers hover barely 1/8 of an inch from an obviously “malaria stricken” public washroom floor. In essence I should have probably been a man because they have it made. At least I would have the sense to lift the seat up!
So my memories of gas stations from the past comes to an end. In order to accommodate the new fancy interior restrooms, coffee bars, snacks and so forth warranted larger buildings and required continuous surveillance. That means that everything is located where the cameras can see it. Cameras? Maybe we should have had cameras in the old days when cars were more disposable in those days– we could have watched them rust right before our eyes..:)
See you next week!
Jayne”
lindaseccaspina 