Who worked pumping gas when the were a kid?

[spinshop]

I lived behind a Chevron gas station when I was a kid and when I was just turning 16, I went to the owner and asked for a job. It was my 1st gas station job.
I hung around there for years before and I knew some of the high school kids that worked there. Back then, I`m sure you know, you had to check the oil, check the trans oil, washer fluid and wash the windshield while the gas was pumping.
I remember one night, some guy off the highway stopped with a flat tire and asked if I could fix it. I took it off and put a plug in, checked for leaks and blew up. Put it back on and he gave me $5.00.
Well, back in 1974, $5.00 was a lot of money, when you are making, I think around a $1.25 an hour.
Another time, one of the kids that worked there had a 1964 Impala SS. Gold with a black vinyl top 4 speed car. Man I loved that car.
One day I was out with him and he was banging thru the gears. I remember looking at the speedo as we went trough a stop sign, It was at 90 MPH!!!
Kid was nuts.
One day, I was walking from my house to work and this tractor trailer carrying huge coils of steel came of the highway and down the hill too fast rounding the corner and flipped over.
I`ll never forget seeing one of those coils rolled right over his car.
The driver was still in the cab when I got there and he was in pretty bad shape. Crazy.

What about some of you? Any stories?

 

[cheveslakr]

Cool stories, surviving that trauma is something else!
Never worked at a station, but my oldest brother did, he's 7 years older. In around '74 or 5, he worked at the station next to his high school. It was a mecca for the high school crowd and had a drive through car wash. I made excuses to hang around there and I'm sure was a pain in his ass. I was deep into cars, but at my age I was limited to sting ray bikes , car mags and model cars. He did cart me around quite a bit in his '66 malibu 327/4speed. That particular gas station actually had groupies, girls that would come in regularly for no other reason but to be around the guys. One, wish I could remember her name, would always run up to the malibu when he pulled up and lean way over to great Joe, and I was lucky enough on a few occasions to be in the passenger seat. She always wore low cut tops and was well gifted. She had the figure of Linda Vaugn. Talk about lasting impressions.

 

[Alan F]

I worked in 4 different stations in a small town beginning at 15 in 1972. I loved the jobs. People were generally nice back then. We worked hard and played hard. Too many stories, many of them unsafe.

I found out gasoline vapors kept me sick. To keep vapor emissions low, many don’t know that todays gas pumps do not pump as fast as they used to. The hoses also have splash guards that will keep the vapors from coming directly up to your face.

I used to tap my foot quickly to the tenth of a gallon pumped. Back in those days people would routinely buy 5 or 10 gallons. I’ve even pumped 1 gallon in to a customer’s car.

My favorite thing was waiting on nice ladies.

 

[hkalin]

I never worked in a gas station either but a lot of times I was with my father when he stopped to get gas. The kid that used to pump the gas had a brother that had a real nice maroon 442 probably around a 65. Well he was there but just leaving and he took it out on the street and pulled a hole shot and hit each gear. I had to have the biggest grin on my face after that one. The kids brother that was driving the 442 was also a Waterbury cop.

 

[spinshop]

These 2 oriental "ladies" pulled in to get gas once and I was washing their windshield. I looked down and they were giggling so, I looked down farther...
One of them had a little dress on and was showing me some interesting things.
One asked if we sold Virginia Slims and then asked me if I had a Virgin slim. Needless to say, I was a little embarrassed. I was 17 years old.
They just laughed and drove away.

I worked in 4 different stations in a small town beginning at 15 in 1972. I loved the jobs. People were generally nice back then. We worked hard and played hard. Too many stories, many of them unsafe.

I found out gasoline vapors kept me sick. To keep vapor emissions low, many don’t know that todays gas pumps do not pump as fast as they used to. The hoses also have splash guards that will keep the vapors from coming directly up to your face.

I used to tap my foot quickly to the tenth of a gallon pumped. Back in those days people would routinely buy 5 or 10 gallons. I’ve even pumped 1 gallon in to a customer’s car.

My favorite thing was waiting on nice ladies.

Yes, one cold rainy night, some clown pulled in and I went out to ask how much, he cracks his window and says 50 cents.
I told him to pump it himself and walked back inside. He called me a few names and left. Fuckin idiot.
Another guy, big guy, thought he was a big biker guy. Leather jacket with a Harley patch on the back, rides in on his Honda 250cc.
He says, I`ll pump my own gas. He put about $1. worth.
Gas was around .60 I think.

 

[cage2592]

My Father and Uncle owned Chevron service stations when I was younger in South Florida. In 1985 I was 11yrs old and in the 5th grade. I walked a few miles to the shop every day after Elementary School and started pumping gas. We were still a Full Serve Station and had three service bays. Every evening and after the mechanics went home, my job was to wheel out everything that could be moved or rolled and then sweep and mop the floors. Then put it all back. Some of the guys would give me the spare keys to their boxes and pay me extra to clean their tools and or put them away.

I did that for the next year while in 6th grade and could still walk to work. The year after I was finally in Middle School and my Mother would pick me up and take me to work after. That's also the year I moved up to tire replacement, mount, balance and rotate. These were also the times when someone would buy a full set of tires, we would keep the take-offs and resell them as used (don't see that anymore). Somewhere in Middle school is when we split one Island to Full service and the other to self. I also moved up to oil changes then belts and later, general tune-up's.

in 1988 I was fourteen years old and in the 8th grade. I had been saving all my money for my first car which at the time was hoping for a 66 Nova. For some reason I was not working a particular day when my father came home that evening and said an old lady's husband had passed away, and she brought in a 70 Chevelle Malibu to get tuned up and was looking to sell it. He had the poloids with him (the ones below). He said that he asked her if the shop could hang on to it until I had a chance to see it. The next day after school I got to the shop and immediately fell in love with 70 Chevelle's ! I bought it for $1800 that evening. It had drums all around, a 307/TH350. White with blue interior. 71/72 rear bumper and (super ugly fake as all get) vinyl skinny blue stripes. BUT IT WAS MIINE ! We spent the next year on a 305/TH350, 10 bolt rebuild and adding front disc from a junked Elcamino we had. I wanted a BB but my father wanted me to learn to drive better first and not kill myself.

Th following year 1989, I was 15 and finished 9th grade. Having my learners permit, I drove that car every chance I got. I was working that summer as usual at the service station. The guys would give me money and id run across the street to Hardees for their lunch. One day that summer I walked in and met the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and she was working the register. Needless to say I went back there everyday that summer to get the guys lunch and they didn't have to buy mine. She was a year older and already in High School. When I was working late nights at the station, she would come over and hangout with me. My buddies and their friends and girls would bring their cars and hotrods and hangout till we closed at midnight. Lots of street racing next to the shop and crazy stuff those nights. After that summer I turned 16 and drove my Chevelle to high school for the next three years. During that time I worked that station and a few other Chevrons in town until graduation. I watched gas and tire prices go up, full-service go away. People started coming in less as cars started running longer and warrantees got better. The Chevelle eventually got a 350.

After High School I joined the Navy and didn't come back for several years. The station was sold, and the garage side was torn down to put more (digital) pumps in. I still cant bring myself to ever go back and see it. The 70 Chevelle was eventually sold as I had lost my drivers license three times (twice for to many points speeding and once for racing. Though a great night in another story). I had to sell the car because I couldn't afford high risk insurance and pay the bills once leaving for the Navy.

Oh ! and I married that girl that worked at Hardees. We just celebrated 30yrs this past 25 July. She still loves to be in the shop working on cars. She has the 68 Camaro in our shop right next to our 70 Chevelle

 

[Alwhite00]

The stripes are awful but the story is epic.

 

[Shovelrick]

Not really a Gas station but a Truck Stop on I-10 across from an Air Force base in 1980 in Yuma Az. when I was 20 yrs old, Fill the OIL Check the Fuel, and the old Smart ASS "Hey check my Spark Plug Wires I Think 1 Came Off" lol, no cool stories though but I did have a very nice 72 Catalina 2 door coupe with a 400 from an early 70's Formula Firebird LOTTSA fun in that car

 

[kmakar]

I worked at a Mobil gas station when I was 16 and it was the center of town and where all the action gathered before everyone went to the stumps to party (it's where the town crew dumped all the stumps from road construction and storm cleanup.

I was often invited by a number of girls, but always worked the late shift on Friday and Saturday nights until the station closed at 11pm, then it was my job to stick the tanks and inventory.

One night I had just finished inventory and was locking up when a girl showed up (one who had invited me to the stumps a number of times) and asked if I was done for the night, and I responded yep, I was, so she asked if I'd like to go for a ride with her and I told her I was pretty dirty and didn't want to mess up her firebird, when she responded yep, you're dirty, so take your clothes off throw them in the trunk and get in. I thought she was going to play a trick on me and just drive away, but I said what the hell, I was game. She did drive away after I got in and it was a night I would never forget. Didn't get home until 5am, but I figured out she was a senior, and I was out with an older chick, so all was good in the world.

There are more adventures, but that one is the best.

 

[JohnC]

Yes, one cold rainy night, some clown pulled in and I went out to ask how much, he cracks his window and says 50 cents.
I told him to pump it himself and walked back inside. He called me a few names and left. Fuckin idiot.
Another guy, big guy, thought he was a big biker guy. Leather jacket with a Harley patch on the back, rides in on his Honda 250cc.
He says, I`ll pump my own gas. He put about $1. worth.
Gas was around .60 I think.

It sound ludicrous now, but my sister and I shared a Toyota Corolla hatchback when we were in college in the early 90s. It was not uncommon for us to go to a gas station and buy a dollar worth of gas and pay with coins. We were pretty broke, but it wasn't bad. A dollar worth of gas would get you around town pretty well. You also didn't want to put a bunch of gas in the car and have the other one use it all. That car probably spent most if it's life (that we had it) below 1/8th tank. Almost never put more than $5 in it unless you were going on a road trip. No AC, in Austin, Texas = no bueno.

 

[Richard150MPH]

My first real job, lied about my age to get it, no one checked.
Best Gas, Monte-Vista CA.
Just up the road from De Anza College.
No service bay at that time.

Adventures?
Well, I was younger than the other guys and greedy for money to pay off my Honda 305 "Chopper".
So guys were always "Trading shift" with me so they could have their hot dates.
One night when I would normally have been working I was off.
That night some Dumb-Azz tried to rob the attendant, who still had the gas nozzle in his hand.
He spayed the dummy with gas, dropped the hose, stepped back and pulled out his lighter.
He let the dummy flee and called the cops.

That shift trading became a problem, I was working so many hours I got overtime that was not in the budget.
The point of having enough employees to cover all the standard shifts is to keep the overhead down.
A new manager was appointed and the first thing he did was fire one guy and put his Pet in his place.
Not sure what was really going on there, but the pet could do no wrong and was not really required to work.
I worked a couple of the pets shifts.
Come pay-day my check was short.
When I asked why and how do we correct it I was told by the manager to get the difference from the pet!
It was my first job but even then I knew that was wrong, I had already learned about the tax bite.
No way the pet was going to figure that out, and I would have been cheated on my SS and Unemployment insurance contributions as well.
When I objected I was fired, first time for that too.
But I got the last laugh.
Went to the labor board.
After a short investigation the labor board awarded me a full weeks pay as compensation.
The manager was transferred to Siberia, well, Ben Lomond.
That was a very long commute through the Santa Cruz Mountains, a hint that he should just quit.