Today's "Anything Goes" installment celebrates the humble Service Station. I was originally going to title this one "Got Gas?", but decided (uncharacteristically) to take the high road.
How often have you gone to a gas station and stopped to take a picture with the friendly attendant? Same here, NEVER. So I love that somebody thought to do so in this case. I wish I knew where this was, but at least I know when it was - September 1963.
Luckily this photo had a few clues that helped to identify the location. That awesome truck has an Idaho license plate (1954), and the Standard Oil establishment belonged to a man named Roy Percival - which helped to determine that Roy's place was in Idaho Falls, ID. I am guessing that our photographer was passing through Idaho Falls on the way to (or from) Yellowstone National Park or the even-closer Grand Teton National Park, just over the Wyoming border.
Hug your gas station worker today!
I'm gonna go out on a limb, here to say me thinks the first pic is one of "family values": Mom, son & grandma.
ReplyDeleteAnd who knew that God-awful STP was "German Developed". It's a wonderful lubricant thickener for every place but the internal combustion engine. Gums them up something awful.
I'm agreeing with Nanook - getting a family pic at the gas station along with a pic of dad and lad by the pump truck was part of the afternoon drive to Idaho Falls. So cool that we get to see the images 49 years later!
ReplyDeleteBill in Denver
Nanook, now that you say it I think you're right! Look at the lady on the left, she sure has the same nose as the kid! Guess I'm not very observant. Meanwhile, what's the deal with STP? I don't know anything about it except for the old commercials I used to see.
ReplyDeleteBill, as you see, I agree with Nanook too!
Love the truck! Geez, today's vehicles need some old time style!
ReplyDeleteI guessed the same thing, a family photo. Perhaps it was the very handsome boy's first job and Mom and Nana showed up to embarrass him as relatives do when visiting?
ReplyDeleteI love these pics of the past. Life may have been just as difficult as it is day, but sometimes I look at them and sort of want to step-in and spend a day or so -ala Twilight Zone- in the Land of Long Ago.
Just remember: These are "the good-old-days" Seems hard to believe, but I suspect if we could step-back into those pics and chat with the folks in 'em, they would be wantin' to step-back themselves to what they perceived to be happier times. Just gotta live each day as if it had the "greatness" of a bygone era.
ReplyDeleteLooks like there might have been more than one photographer too. The two women appear to be posing for someone else while the young man is looking directly at us.
ReplyDeleteHey, I work at a gas station and have had MY picture taken with tourists! More accurately, I do maintenance at an RV park just outside Yosemite that just happens to have a General Store and gas station. I'm 6' 3" with longish hair and a full beard, they think they've met a *genuine* "Mountain Man"...... I was born and raised in Orange County, Huntington Beach High School class of '81....
ReplyDelete