Here's to......

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by RightHand, Oct 31, 2014.


  1. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Here's to those of us who remember going to the "service station" instead of the convenience store that sold gas.

    Here's to the old "gas jockeys" who could pump gas to 2 or 3 cars at the same time and never overfill one of them.

    Here's to having someone check the oil, wash the windows, check the air in our tires just because it was good service and then added a thank you after his work was done.

    Here's to all the young men who's first job as a gas jockey taught them the value of being polite and attentive to customers. As a bonus, those same young men often met their future wives as they washed her windshield and she pretended not to notice him but seemed to need gas every day. Today, we pump our own gas, check our own tires, pay for air to fill them, stick our credit cards in the slot in the pump and drive off, never having to speak to anyone unless we want to go inside and buy a bag of Doritos and a power drink or get a hot dog that has been rolling on the cooker for the past 10 hours and then pay the sulky person at the register who thinks they are doing you a favor by taking your money. Please and thank you have been abolished from most people's vocabulary as surely as shame has been obliterated from our culture.

    The old service station reminds me of all of this.

     
  2. NotSoSneaky

    NotSoSneaky former supporter

    " 'Mep Ya?" <-- I hear this every day. I think it's supposed to mean "May I help you ?".
     
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  3. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    My father had that job. You ever wondered why the oil cans were displayed in the windows?;)
     
  4. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    I washed cars, pumped gas, checked oil, and tire pressure, and washed windows at an ARCO station summer of 64. I am not sure if a 13/14 year old would be allowed the same today.
     
  5. techsar

    techsar Monkey+++

    Ditto, tac...but I got to help out in the garage and on certain nights even the dirt track car :)

    Ummm, not quite '64 either. '80 era.
     
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  6. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Far too dangerous for a 13/14 year old, you know the ever present risk of dirty hand syndrome. Most parents today would be aghast at little Johnny getting his hands dirty
     
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  7. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Most parents today would welcome any such interest, anything to get them off the X box and maybe even outside. Who knows, they might even get a paying job....:rolleyes:
     
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  8. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Warning, language.

    Psycho Dad Shreds Video Games:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 31, 2014
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  9. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    Before I moved here, the town I lived in had one full service filling station. The guy who owned it was the guy who came out and pumped your gas and checked your fluid levels, wipers, etc. The fuel price was a few pennies more per gallon than the no-service C-stations. I tried to tip him a few times but he refused to accept tips. Some of my friends gave me crap about going to "Granny Gas" because normally I'm a DIY kinda gal, but I liked the guy and liked the service and wanted my money going to him over a chain. Rain or shine he was there to pump your gas, and he had a lot of regular customers. The only time he took a day off was the day he died. Haven't seen another full serve station since.
     
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  10. KAS

    KAS Monkey+++

    new jersey you cant pump your own gas but i doubt they are checking your oil or tire pressure...

    this is back wen the gas used to go in behind the license plate
     
  11. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    Amen to men... and women like that!!
     
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  12. Mountainman

    Mountainman Großes Mitglied Site Supporter+++

    Oregon is the same way about pumping gas, right to work law that employs more people. Here you can still find a few stations that will at least clean your windshield.
     
  13. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Its been at least 10 years since I've seen a full service station in CT and yet we still have some of the highest gas prices in the country but you still pump your own.

    Here on SM, its not uncommon to find a thread bemoaning the .gov culture. Part of that occurs because we are less connected to our fellow human beings so the government fills the void. We no longer form personal relationships with people partly because we are all in the "convenience" mode. We no longer have a butcher who knows just how think we like our chops cut or the service station owner who remembers that we had a problem with a tire a few weeks ago and double checks to make sure its okay now. Our mail comes mostly electronically and many of us often work from home.

    I'm a person who embraced technology before it became part of everyone's lives but it has proved to be a slippery slope. We are less connected to one another, we often live and work in isolation, our friends are scattered around the world and we communicate by email/skype/texting/Facebook. We don't write letters and don't even talk on the phone very often. What is written between the lines of people lives remains hidden which reinforces our separateness. I love to write and receive letters. There is something about reading the words that someone has taken the time to put to paper, put in an envelope and mail that has enduring meaning. Yes, I can print out their emails but they don't look anywhere near as lovely with a red paperclip as letters did with a red ribbon tucked away in our secret places.

    There are times I just want to hear the sound of a friends voice, hear the inflections and emphasis in their words; want to sit across a table from them while having coffee and talk, seeing all the non-verbal cues that can only come when we really see people.

    Is it any wonder that so many people turn to alternatives to fill the spaces in their lives?
     
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  14. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    There's an Asimov book that talks about that, one of the I Robot series IIRC.
     
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  15. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    I have watched as people's social graces went flying down that slippery slope over the years. The things we once thought but would never dare say out loud, we now scream at total strangers through comments and postings and tweets. And more and more, those snide, snotty, or downright shitty remarks and slams are leaving the keyboard and being repeated out loud in every day social encounters. People are getting used to showing their rears and getting away with it online, and the habit is carrying over into their real world lives.
     
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  16. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Shame has value and but that value has been lost in a feel-good culture. Shame is that little voice that is whispered in our ear when no one else is talking but that voice has been silenced and been replaced with "go for it" and "so what"
     
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  17. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus


    or YOLO! .............................AAAAGGGHHHH!!!! ............................................................................................................................................................................................... [banghead]
     
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  18. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Nostalgia has set upon me in recent years and I now make it a point to call friends on the phone and try to actually stop and visit as often as I can manage. I do not have many friends and family is a bit dysfunctional but I still try to manage it to limits of tolerance. I miss those gas stations, (especially the cheap gasoline). I recently cut my hair off, mostly because I found a real barber shop and I just enjoy ing a chatting with Joe while I get a real hair-cut and a shave and leave smelling good, feeling good and usually having a new place to go shoot ducks or a hog. This past week, for the first time in 40 years, I went to a county fair. I was looking forward to greasy burgers cooked on a grill, real corn-dogs, and riding some of those fast rides. Well, a hundred bucks later, I realized that the best rides were over ten dollars per 1 minute ride and the loud music was hip-hop instead of real music, the corn dogs were cooked in vegetable oil, not lard and had sugar in the meal, the burgers were mostly bread crumbs with just enough meat product in them to form a patty, the rides were smaller, there were no real shooting galleries except the water gun ones and a BB machine-gun, no girly shows, freak shows (unless you found BlackJack, the giant horse and Babe the big cow, no daredevils on motorcycles, and the onlyTHING i enjoyed was watching some trained seals doing a show with some pretty girls. I won't do that again any time soon.
     
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  19. NotSoSneaky

    NotSoSneaky former supporter

    [​IMG]
    Fire up the wayback machine Mr.Peabody, I want to go home. [tongue]
     
  20. vonslob

    vonslob Monkey++

    I was in a hardware store recently that really took me back. Knife displays with good regular pocket knives, you know like case and buck folders on this stand up display back with felt. They had cold local bottled soda in all the old school favors. A small selection of ammo mainly hunting loads. Three people asked me if i needed help and when i went to pay the smiling young cashier thanked me and wished me a good day. It really took me back to when i was younger and i miss those days.
     
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