Old gas station signage

[brucejohnson]

We had the special little clipboard thingy that you handed to the customer with a pen, but you had to remember to keep it upside down when it was raining. No booth on the pump island, so had to ran back and forth to the counter inside.

Ours were a particle board type. (In wet, wet Washington State???) Later replaced by plastic.

 

[BSeyler]

This sign is in an old chicken house that hasn't seen chickens in years - it mostly gets used if we have a calf that gets bummed. The chickens have a new "palace" to live in. I've been meaning to take the sign and put it up at the shop. It's a little rough and I have no idea the age, but it's still kind of cool.

 

[brucejohnson]

This sign is in an old chicken house that hasn't seen chickens in years - it mostly gets used if we have a calf that gets bummed. The chickens have a new "palace" to live in. I've been meaning to take the sign and put it up at the shop. It's a little rough and I have no idea the age, but it's still kind of cool.


View attachment 117578

My memory isn't what it used to be...I think... but my best guestimate is the sign is probably at least as old as the big tree in the background.

 

[mwilson]

This sign is in an old chicken house that hasn't seen chickens in years - it mostly gets used if we have a calf that gets bummed. The chickens have a new "palace" to live in. I've been meaning to take the sign and put it up at the shop. It's a little rough and I have no idea the age, but it's still kind of cool.


View attachment 117578

Oh that is Extremely Cool!!!

 

[GCroyle]

No bullet holes? It musta been near the police station.

That's pretty cool Mike.

 

[BSeyler]

My memory isn't what it used to be...I think... but my best guestimate is the sign is probably at least as old as the big tree in the background.

I wish I had found that out before my wife's dad died in 2006. His parents bought this farm in 1940 something. MIL doesn't know when it might have been put there, but it was before she came to the farm. Lots of old and historic things around this place. The house she lives in was built around 1900.

I just googled to see if I could find anything out about it. Looks to be vintage 1930s. Found this: Yikes!

 

[mwilson]

Got to thinking about what else was here...

Award Plaque and original tank dipstick...

 

[mwilson]

I wish I had found that out before my wife's dad died in 2006. His parents bought this farm in 1940 something. MIL doesn't know when it might have been put there, but it was before she came to the farm. Lots of old and historic things around this place. The house she lives in was built around 1900.

I just googled to see if I could find anything out about it. Looks to be vintage 1930s. Found this: Yikes!

View attachment 117581

And yours appears to be in better condition!!

 

[BSeyler]

And yours appears to be in better condition!!

Gosh, Mike,
Looks like you and I are sitting on fortunes!

 

[mwilson]

Sitting on my arse making money.....I like it!!!

 

[BigPapa]

The song leader at our church when I was a kid worked at a local oil company. My father was the pastor so they were big buddies. The oil company built a new building and when they moved they had @ 20 of these Shell globes laying under their dock that they were going to trash. This was early ‘70’s. He took all of them home and put them in a barn loft. Years later my father was with him in the barn and he told Daddy he could have a few if he wanted them. Daddy took five, kept two himself and gave one to me and my two brothers. Daddy and one of my brothers made lamps with theirs.

I had put mine in the shed and when the economy went to pot in 2008 I put mine on eBay to raise a little cash. It sold for $375. I was ecstatic and while boxing it up decided to wash the inside out with a brush and knocked the top out of it. That milk glass is brittle stuff. I was devastated. Daddy gave me one of his to ship, superglued the top back in the broken one, and put it on his lamp. My brother that didn’t make a lamp of his called the other day and asked if I knew what they were worth now. Looking on the web they’re going for @ $700-$800. There are reproductions selling for $400.

Daddy ended up selling his, one brother still has one, and I don’t know about the other brother’s. I don’t know what ever happened with the rest of them.

 

[TFucili]

I can't tell you how many big enamaled or porcelain signs for various building material products, we stuffed in dumpsters as we remodeled or changed brands. Every time I watch American Pickers it makes me wonder.

 

[jhenderson]

Very close to this one, technically called an imprinter.

But we did use cards for gas back then...

View attachment 117576

The one at the Mobil station I worked at would double print if you stroked it back with the card still in it. Then the bank wouldn’t accept the imprinted hard copy.

 

[BigPapa]

Imprinters were used almost everywhere and at least into the 70's.

We were using imprinters well into the ‘90’s at the motorcycle shop I worked at for almost 30 years.

 

[TFucili]

We were using imprinters well into the ‘90’s at the motorcycle shop I worked at for almost 30 years.

Can't remember exactly when we finally got a swipe machine, but we also were imprinting, and calling the call center for approval numbers for a long time. On a super busy weekend it would really bog things down.

 

[brucejohnson]

Got to thinking about what else was here...

Award Plaque and original tank dipstick...

View attachment 117583



View attachment 117584




View attachment 117585

Woah! Tank dipstick! Cool...Tough to read in a torrential downpour, but you learn the tricks and get-'er-done, as well as gettin' soppin' wet.

 

[NIsaacs]

I moonlighted at our local Mobil in the late 60's early 70's, it was just simply called the Red Horse Bulk Kerosene was 20 cents a gallon

 

[jhenderson]

Woah! Tank dipstick! Cool...Tough to read in a torrential downpour, but you learn the tricks and get-'er-done, as well as gettin' soppin' wet.

Green paste. Boss says don’t waste it.

 

[BSeyler]

Another blast from the past. I ran this in a pickup in the early 1970s. Not sure why I still have this can. I googled and found one that the can was much worse shape and it sold for $60. I wonder how much stuff I threw out that I thought was junk that is worth quite a bit today.

 

[mwilson]

I have most of the printed IH parts manuals current to the mid 70’s. From Scouts right up to the M Series.
I need to list them on Binder Planet or something similar.
I wish I had all the technical specs and sale literature that got canned back in the 80s...