Thanks!! My family owned a Shell station in Canada. This is a great video!! After 59 years, the establishment is still there and open 7 days a week, 8:00 AM to 10:00Pm. Good memories.
Beautifully done report with magnificent pictures! It was not specifically mentioned, but as full-service filling stations transitioned to the self-service we have now there was an interval of many years, somewhere in the late 1960's through the 1970's, when most filling stations divided their pump islands into full-service, limited service, and self-service. I recall that fuel prices varied according to which option the customer selected.
In a little Nevada town I spent many summer nights just hanging around and observing life passing through a family friend's Chevron station as a ten-year-old in the mid-1950s. I learned a lot about cars and people from the adults around me.
Growing up in Little Rock in the early '60s, we patronized Floyd Halley's Cities Service station in the Heights neighborhood. I remember we'd stop there on the way to the swimming pool and borrow some inner tubes to float in! Great days, and great memories conjured by this video. Many thanks!
I remember the gas station my dad used to patronize in mount Carroll, Illinois. It was a Mobil station and the station attendant would actually pump the gas for you. And offer to check the tire pressure, and under the hood to make sure you were safe there. And he would not try to upsell you either.
I worked part-time at a Exxon full service gas station. It was located near downtown Dallas. This was the last of full service. The oil embargo also happened during this era. I started working there as a boy. I left a few years later as a man. Nice video.
As a young boy in the 50's my favorite place to be Saturday morning was my uncle's Mobile gas station ⛽ located in Blackstone Mass. your video brings back great memories! Thanks for your video 📷!
Well done. An another era gone by. I worked for a Chevron station in my senior year in 72-73' - on into the winter of 74' - one of the last stations, about 10 years prior to the 'attendant downfall'. Loved it. I was privy to the 1st 5 gallon gas rationing 🐎💩 during the deceitful OPEC debacle and Ralph Nader's launching of his ridiculous safer car and combustion engine demise. Gasoline was .35 cents a gallon, I paid $1,800 for my 4 year old 1969 Roadrunner, made $2.30 an hour and living comfortably. So here we are today, Fuel choices are rising toward 6 -$7 a gallon (in Calif. GN wants another $2 tax on gas at the pump) Vehicles are $50 -$120k, a single wage earner making $35-$50 an hour can't keep up with the cost of living - forget about raising a family on that scratch. Lead or not, this nations matrix has peaked. Now we pay more and get less, less value, less standards, less of what this old proud nation was raised to believe - and guess what? People love it 😅
Lead was removed due to catalytic convertors, not due to air quality. The lead cushioned the valves when closing.... the newer lead free cars had hardened valve seats due to the absence of lead. Lead plugged up the catalyst, as it caused carbon deposits. Self service came about to keep the price of gas down, back when gas cost was skyrocketing after the 1973 oil embargo.... not having to pay attendants anymore made for less costly gas. Enjoyed the video.
Actually, lead poisoned the noble metals in the converter, rendering them inoperative. It did not directly cause more carbon to be produced by the engine. It caused carbon residues to plug passages in the ceramic elements of converters rather than be oxidized there.
@@FrankGutowski-ls8jt Yes, correct..... but it did plug them up with carbon also. That caused performance issues. The metals being inoperative only caused a pollution issue, the engine could still breath and run good, until the carbon plugged them.
@@FrankGutowski-ls8jt I say that, due to people back in the day would knock open the filler neck to put the cheaper leaded gas in their car. Eventually the car would loose power, due to the carbon plugging the catalytic convertor.
GREAT COMPREHENSIVE REPLY 😊, BUT AS I CALLED B.S. JUST NOW 9 HRS AFTER YOUR ENTRY, THE A👁️ KNUCKLEHEADS HARDLY WANT TO BE CHALLENGED WITH FACTS-- CLOUDING ANY ISSS~YEEWW THEY SPEW ABOUT.
@@OldCarAlleyexactly, Howard. I saw many of these fuel filler restrictors damaged to accept the larger leaded gas nozzles. I also replaced numerous plugged catalytic converters back then with straight pipes due to leaded gas usage. Loved the old gas stations as a kid.
That was enjoyable! Lots of great architecture in those old buildings. Today's environment, while all points are valid, lack any sort of charm to the past. Some stations don't event have the pride to clean up the grounds, I won't go to some of them for that reason. Thanks!
I worked at a gas station washing the windshield and running errands when I was 13 years old! Later, as a mechanic, I saw all the changes and improvements that made gas stations obsolete. By the 1980s cars didn't lose a quart of oil every 500 miles, closed cooling systems never lost coolant, tires didn't lose air and lasted more then 10,000 miles. But the big change was cars got better then 10 miles to the gallon! Self service stations were the final blow, as all a station needed was someone to take care of the store as paying for the gas is done at the pump now. I think New Jersey was the last state to allow self service but I could be wrong?
Interesting/informative/entertaining. Excellent still-motion photography pictures 📷/drawings. Enabling viewers 👀 to better understand what the orator is describing 😉. Remember the glasses that the service stations handed out to the customers.☺. Back in the. (70's).
Another thing deeply buried never to be seen again...attendants were Americans! They knew directions. Intimately. Now? "Attendants" can't tell me how to get across the street
Late 50s Baby Boomer here. Growing up in the 60s this is how I remember them doing it as a form of competition to lift up their brand names. Courteous gasoline station attendants pamper the customers with services described in the video. But, as recessions come and economies come to a slump, so do the quality of service. It's just simply what reality is.
The alternate name for the gas stations was "service station". Cars were simpler and basic services such as oil change, tire repair, shock absorbers, etc were routinely replaced. Most stations had a hydraulic lift, and many had up to 3 or 4 service bays. Those were the days.
Interesting/informative/entertaining 😉 .Excellent still-motion photography pictures 📷/drawings. Enabling viewers to. 👀 better understand what the orator is describing 😉. Remember receiving free drinking glasses with every fill up early( 70's )☺. Amazing how the smaller gasoline ⛽ companies were gobbled up by the larger ones. ( Diamond 💎 Shamrock ) was one. Wishing viewers 👀 a " Safe/Healthy/Prosperous 🌈🎉💵 (2025)
It was not easy to remember where all the different car makers put the filler pipe and cap. GM in the late 50's put them behind the taillights of some cars! Later on GM liked to put them behind the rear license plate.
Lead cushioned the valves when closing.... it did not raise compression or prevent knocking! The octane did that.... the higher the octane the higher the flash point. High compression engines needed higher flash point fuel to prevent preignition, thus a higher octane gas would be needed in those high compression engines.
I preread the comments. Wasnt sure how conservatives could be offended about an era they kind of venerate where gays, trans nonwhites didnt make the newsreel. They could pretend that mid century USA was perfect. But the video does veer into criticism of leaded gas. Well over time, gas improved. I would hope that from the 30s to today goods services products would improve. Have to call out measuring service stations of that era by todays standards. Will todays average commuter be labeled evil in 30 years because he didnt take an electric robotaxi?
By the time I had my license full service stations had faded away. Remembering as a kid the red faced embarrassment dear Mother caused. Today known as a "Karen" my racist Mom would critique the windshield cleaners work sitting in the car pointing out a speck on the glass (real or imaged) by Loudly tapping on the glass. The guys would look at me I'd offer a sympathetic eye roll flagging a mutual disbelief. Then she would roll down a window and shout "just do the whole thing again" if you were anything but white. Those attendants took a lot of grief from customers.
now it all about the quick buck and no class stations.now you have to punch in zip codes etc info at some stations, not for the customers benefit but the company to see how many from what area were coming to this pump, so they could figure out where to put the next station... then the US sold the oil rights to the oil cartel which takes our oil elsewhere and refines most of it and sells it back with a hugh price increase and if we make the refinery country mad the won't even send it back without a new agreement..
Sounds like AI robovoice narration. Could have been much shorter. Like most AI creations it repeats the same things multiple times in different, overly flowery words that immediately identifies it as AI. Some of the footage is also much later than the 1930s-50s.
Sorry...couldn't get through it. The narration was a largely accurate account of the petroleum industry's retail progression but it was completely disconnected from the coincidental images on screen. I mean, c'mon...you're talking about "by the end of the 1950s" with a guy filling an SUV with a 2021 sticker on the back bumper; horrible editing. Being into petroliana, I wanted to watch just to check out the imagery but so many of the clips were of such poor quality that you lost me. Oh, and interesting how America Nostalgic Rides kept throwing foreign images in!
The annoying "whoosh" flip between screens made me stop watching. Note to maker: it DOES NOT add interest. Just steers me away from what could be a nice story.
@leftyJim635 it's simple, over exaggerating or constantly bringing up historical gender norms, race, identity politics, far left progressive, left wing language and ideologies, etc are considered "woke" concepts on the left today. This short documentary could have easily left all that out and just stuck to the history and facts of the topic, and it would have been more enjoyable to the regular viewer instead of pandering to politically correct and the oppressed and oppressor narratives. But they went the other direction and dragged woke ideologies and ideas into it for no other reason than to further a left wing ideology/agenda/narrative. Woke is a term used by the left today, and was hijacked from regular people who just considered themselves "awake" to the corruption and truth about our government and things the government may not want us knowing about, around a decade ago.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks!! My family owned a Shell station in Canada. This is a great video!! After 59 years, the establishment is still there and open 7 days a week, 8:00 AM to 10:00Pm. Good memories.
Beautifully done report with magnificent pictures! It was not specifically mentioned, but as full-service filling stations transitioned to the self-service we have now there was an interval of many years, somewhere in the late 1960's through the 1970's, when most filling stations divided their pump islands into full-service, limited service, and self-service. I recall that fuel prices varied according to which option the customer selected.
Excellent presentation 😊
In a little Nevada town I spent many summer nights just hanging around and observing life passing through a family friend's Chevron station as a ten-year-old in the mid-1950s. I learned a lot about cars and people from the adults around me.
Did this.. Good old days.. Learned a lot..
Hello from Finland. Old gas stations are beautiful places.
Growing up in Little Rock in the early '60s, we patronized Floyd Halley's Cities Service station in the Heights neighborhood. I remember we'd stop there on the way to the swimming pool and borrow some inner tubes to float in!
Great days, and great memories conjured by this video.
Many thanks!
I remember the gas station my dad used to patronize in mount Carroll, Illinois. It was a Mobil station and the station attendant would actually pump the gas for you. And offer to check the tire pressure, and under the hood to make sure you were safe there. And he would not try to upsell you either.
I worked part-time at a Exxon full service gas station. It was located near downtown Dallas. This was the last of full service. The oil embargo also happened during this era. I started working there as a boy. I left a few years later as a man. Nice video.
As a young boy in the 50's my favorite place to be Saturday morning was my uncle's Mobile gas station ⛽ located in Blackstone Mass. your video brings back great memories! Thanks for your video 📷!
Well done. An another era gone by. I worked for a Chevron station in my senior year in 72-73' - on into the winter of 74' - one of the last stations, about 10 years prior to the 'attendant downfall'. Loved it. I was privy to the 1st 5 gallon gas rationing 🐎💩 during the deceitful OPEC debacle and Ralph Nader's launching of his ridiculous safer car and combustion engine demise. Gasoline was .35 cents a gallon, I paid $1,800 for my 4 year old 1969 Roadrunner, made $2.30 an hour and living comfortably. So here we are today, Fuel choices are rising toward 6 -$7 a gallon (in Calif. GN wants another $2 tax on gas at the pump) Vehicles are $50 -$120k, a single wage earner making $35-$50 an hour can't keep up with the cost of living - forget about raising a family on that scratch. Lead or not, this nations matrix has peaked. Now we pay more and get less, less value, less standards, less of what this old proud nation was raised to believe - and guess what? People love it 😅
Lead was removed due to catalytic convertors, not due to air quality. The lead cushioned the valves when closing.... the newer lead free cars had hardened valve seats due to the absence of lead. Lead plugged up the catalyst, as it caused carbon deposits. Self service came about to keep the price of gas down, back when gas cost was skyrocketing after the 1973 oil embargo.... not having to pay attendants anymore made for less costly gas. Enjoyed the video.
Actually, lead poisoned the noble metals in the converter, rendering them inoperative. It did not directly cause more carbon to be produced by the engine. It caused carbon residues to plug passages in the ceramic elements of converters rather than be oxidized there.
@@FrankGutowski-ls8jt Yes, correct..... but it did plug them up with carbon also. That caused performance issues. The metals being inoperative only caused a pollution issue, the engine could still breath and run good, until the carbon plugged them.
@@FrankGutowski-ls8jt I say that, due to people back in the day would knock open the filler neck to put the cheaper leaded gas in their car. Eventually the car would loose power, due to the carbon plugging the catalytic convertor.
GREAT COMPREHENSIVE REPLY 😊, BUT AS I CALLED B.S. JUST NOW 9 HRS AFTER YOUR ENTRY, THE A👁️ KNUCKLEHEADS HARDLY WANT TO BE CHALLENGED WITH FACTS-- CLOUDING ANY ISSS~YEEWW THEY SPEW ABOUT.
@@OldCarAlleyexactly, Howard. I saw many of these fuel filler restrictors damaged to accept the larger leaded gas nozzles. I also replaced numerous plugged catalytic converters back then with straight pipes due to leaded gas usage. Loved the old gas stations as a kid.
That was enjoyable! Lots of great architecture in those old buildings. Today's environment, while all points are valid, lack any sort of charm to the past. Some stations don't event have the pride to clean up the grounds, I won't go to some of them for that reason. Thanks!
I worked at a gas station washing the windshield and running errands when I was 13 years old! Later, as a mechanic, I saw all the changes and improvements that made gas stations obsolete. By the 1980s cars didn't lose a quart of oil every 500 miles, closed cooling systems never lost coolant, tires didn't lose air and lasted more then 10,000 miles. But the big change was cars got better then 10 miles to the gallon! Self service stations were the final blow, as all a station needed was someone to take care of the store as paying for the gas is done at the pump now. I think New Jersey was the last state to allow self service but I could be wrong?
People have asked, "When was America great?"
Back then. In the 50's-60's &70's
Sure miss those days.
Interesting/informative/entertaining. Excellent still-motion photography pictures 📷/drawings. Enabling viewers 👀 to better understand what the orator is describing 😉. Remember the glasses that the service stations handed out to the customers.☺. Back in the. (70's).
Another thing deeply buried never to be seen again...attendants were Americans! They knew directions. Intimately. Now? "Attendants" can't tell me how to get across the street
Station's used to give away glassware. We had dishes for serving ice cream.
could watch this, all day!
I wish had a job like they did!!!
Late 50s Baby Boomer here. Growing up in the 60s this is how I remember them doing it as a form of competition to lift up their brand names. Courteous gasoline station attendants pamper the customers with services described in the video. But, as recessions come and economies come to a slump, so do the quality of service. It's just simply what reality is.
When I was a little boy I used to see old service stations like Sinclair, pure, esso, American, and Phillips 66 were around
The alternate name for the gas stations was "service station". Cars were simpler and basic services such as oil change, tire repair, shock absorbers, etc were routinely replaced. Most stations had a hydraulic lift, and many had up to 3 or 4 service bays. Those were the days.
Interesting/informative/entertaining 😉 .Excellent still-motion photography pictures 📷/drawings. Enabling viewers to. 👀 better understand what the orator is describing 😉. Remember receiving free drinking glasses with every fill up early( 70's )☺. Amazing how the smaller gasoline ⛽ companies were gobbled up by the larger ones. ( Diamond 💎 Shamrock ) was one. Wishing viewers 👀 a " Safe/Healthy/Prosperous 🌈🎉💵 (2025)
when I was a kid I always wanted one of those inflatable dino;s from Sinclair, but we didn;d have those in Canada.
Short skirts ensured that a Woman got a clean windshield ⚡️
Yes had quite a few girls wanted there windows cleaned, Wow i was amarried young man then, I stayed out of trouble.
Wore the white Standard Stations Inc uniform '66-'67. Can I check under the hood for ya?
It was not easy to remember where all the different car makers put the filler pipe and cap. GM in the late 50's put them behind the taillights of some cars! Later on GM liked to put them behind the rear license plate.
Trust your car to the man that wears the star - Texaco. I remember Red Head gasoline & give you a glass .
It was also an era of no A.I. voiceovers.
Lead was used to raise compression, increase fuel mileage and as an anti knock additive. The tolerances were not as good as more modern engines.
Lead cushioned the valves when closing.... it did not raise compression or prevent knocking! The octane did that.... the higher the octane the higher the flash point. High compression engines needed higher flash point fuel to prevent preignition, thus a higher octane gas would be needed in those high compression engines.
I preread the comments. Wasnt sure how conservatives could be offended about an era they kind of venerate where gays, trans nonwhites didnt make the newsreel. They could pretend that mid century USA was perfect. But the video does veer into criticism of leaded gas. Well over time, gas improved. I would hope that from the 30s to today goods services products would improve. Have to call out measuring service stations of that era by todays standards. Will todays average commuter be labeled evil in 30 years because he didnt take an electric robotaxi?
"Thanks you?" This is why Artificial Intelligence voice-overs suck. Do better.
A well thought out piece- although quite redundant- the wokeism was far over the top.
By the time I had my license full service stations had faded away. Remembering as a kid the red faced embarrassment dear Mother caused. Today known as a "Karen" my racist Mom would critique the windshield cleaners work sitting in the car pointing out a speck on the glass (real or imaged) by Loudly tapping on the glass. The guys would look at me I'd offer a sympathetic eye roll flagging a mutual disbelief. Then she would roll down a window and shout "just do the whole thing again" if you were anything but white. Those attendants took a lot of grief from customers.
now it all about the quick buck and no class stations.now you have to punch in zip codes etc info at some stations, not for the customers benefit but the company to see how many from what area were coming to this pump, so they could figure out where to put the next station... then the US sold the oil rights to the oil cartel which takes our oil elsewhere and refines most of it and sells it back with a hugh price increase and if we make the refinery country mad the won't even send it back without a new agreement..
They put the zip code in the pump to make sure the credit card isn't stolen. The card number has to match the billing zip code for the card number.
Sounds like AI robovoice narration. Could have been much shorter. Like most AI creations it repeats the same things multiple times in different, overly flowery words that immediately identifies it as AI. Some of the footage is also much later than the 1930s-50s.
Gas today is shit .
Drive slow with Esso.
Can i tak with admin
Email in profile
@AMERICANOSTALGICRIDES I messaged you via Google chat
Kindly check
@AMERICANOSTALGICRIDES kindly check
Sorry...couldn't get through it. The narration was a largely accurate account of the petroleum industry's retail progression but it was completely disconnected from the coincidental images on screen. I mean, c'mon...you're talking about "by the end of the 1950s" with a guy filling an SUV with a 2021 sticker on the back bumper; horrible editing. Being into petroliana, I wanted to watch just to check out the imagery but so many of the clips were of such poor quality that you lost me. Oh, and interesting how America Nostalgic Rides kept throwing foreign images in!
The annoying "whoosh" flip between screens made me stop watching. Note to maker: it DOES NOT add interest. Just steers me away from what could be a nice story.
Hadn't noticed till I read your post.. lol 😂 I understand
kinda longwinded, tellin the same sentence, just words putted together differently...🤔
Stations used to have reasonable prices for their gasoline and other products. Even anything less than the prices brought in by Biden would be fine.
hello Magat.
Had to stop watching when you went "woke". 👎
At what time 0:00 damn wokeness
ok , snowflake
Yep, the narrator is a little too preachy .
The woke aspect of the video narration kinda ruined it
Explain "woke" and thats it's more than just an empty buzzword
You know exactly what it means.
@@paulysmith2123 I'm not asking myself 🙄 I'm asking you
@leftyJim635 it's simple, over exaggerating or constantly bringing up historical gender norms, race, identity politics, far left progressive, left wing language and ideologies, etc are considered "woke" concepts on the left today. This short documentary could have easily left all that out and just stuck to the history and facts of the topic, and it would have been more enjoyable to the regular viewer instead of pandering to politically correct and the oppressed and oppressor narratives. But they went the other direction and dragged woke ideologies and ideas into it for no other reason than to further a left wing ideology/agenda/narrative. Woke is a term used by the left today, and was hijacked from regular people who just considered themselves "awake" to the corruption and truth about our government and things the government may not want us knowing about, around a decade ago.
Yep, it did a little too preachy ..