[ChrisPlatt]

No more Exxons around here. All the local Exxon stations are now Gulf.

My father had worked for Cities Service Oil Co. since his discharge from the Navy after WWII.
In the mid-1970's Citgo decided to close all their stations in the northeast.
My old man was offered a transfer to Oklahoma or a severance package.
He stayed in New York. Within a year he was dead of lymph cancer at 52.

Chris

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Last edited by ChrisPlatt; 03-20-2013 at 04:36 PM.

[RoxnDox]

They were major east of the Miss R. and in the South until the 70s and now there are only a rare dinosaur left in a couple of places and I doubt many people know where those dinos came from.

From the town of Sinclair, WY? I've hear they had a secret underground factory where they recreated dwarf dinos from the oil, shellacked 'em, and painted them green to distribute them to the company gas stations. Just sayin'...

Jim

[Parallax]

I've hear they had a secret underground factory where they recreated dwarf dinos from the oil,

It's true! I took the tour on one of my trips past there in the 80s.

[ChrisPlatt]

Anyone who attended the '64-'65 New York World's Fair here in Queens will remember you could injection-mold your own plastic dinosaur at the Sinclair Pavilion.

Sinclair Mold-a-Rama: http://www.nywf64.com/sinclair07.shtml


Sinclair Dinoland: http://www.nywf64.com/sinclair01.shtml (10 pages)

Chris

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Last edited by ChrisPlatt; 03-21-2013 at 05:58 PM.

[magkelly]

Green Stamps........remember those? I vaguely recall a friend's parents that smoked Raleigh cigarettes for the coupons with each pack.

Green stamps...My parents bought 90% of the furniture in our house when I was a kid using those. Probably a lot of other stuff besides...What do I never see anymore? Phone booths. Seriously. There isn't one that I know of in our area. They are all gone, even the ones at places like Target and Walmart...

[SpecialK]

[grhazelton]

Burma Shave! As I remember one of there sequences read Free Free A Trip to Mars for 900 Empty Jars! Someone sent in 900 empty jars (a communal effort, no doubt) and were awarded a trip to...Mars, Germany!

And let's not forget Mail Pouch chewing tobacco. Their logo adorned hundreds of barn roofs. I think they'd repaint a farmer's barn in return for the advertising space.

[usn ret]

No more Exxons around here. All the local Exxon stations are now Gulf.

My father had worked for Cities Service Oil Co. since his discharge from the Navy after WWII.
In the mid-1970's Citgo decided to close all their stations in the northeast.
My old man was offered a transfer to Oklahoma or a severance package.
He stayed in New York. Within a year he was dead of lymph cancer at 52.

Chris

Chris, before it was Exxon in Texas, it was Humble Oil Co in the late 50's early 60's and I also recall Shamrock Oil......Cliff

[Docrwm]

Anyone who attended the '64-'65 New York World's Fair here in Queens will remember you could injection-mold your own plastic dinosaur at the Sinclair Pavilion.

Sinclair Mold-a-Rama: http://www.nywf64.com/sinclair07.shtml


Sinclair Dinoland: http://www.nywf64.com/sinclair01.shtml (10 pages)

Chris

Wow, I remember doing that at a museum when I was a kid too. Pretty neat thing at the time. Hadn't thought of that in years

[Parallax]

before it was Exxon in Texas, it was Humble Oil Co in the late 50's early 60's

On the West Coast, before Exxon was Exxon, it was Enco (owned by Humble).
Arco was Richfield at that time.

[grhazelton]

Ah, the memories!

That 1959 Buick is a beauty! While I always thought the '59 Chevy, the Chinese Bandit, was dreadful, the Buick, particularily the 2 door hardtops and the convertibles, were lovely, even though the grill, an unfortunate holdover from the hideous '58 (The King of Chrome excess) was unfortunate, to say the least! The 1960, as is so often the case with a "freshening" of a basically fine design (consider the '56 Chevy compared to the incomporable '55) was nice, but trapped in the Detroit mania for continual "improvements." As I recall the base models of Buicks of that era came with a 3 speed manual transmission, the classic "three on the tree." I don't know whether auto trannys were 2 or 3 speed. We guys called them sludge-o-matics!

[cardinal43]

I don't know whether auto trannys were 2 or 3 speed.

When we got married in 1967, my wife had a Chevy Nova II that had a 2-speed automatic. It got terrible mileage, but it really didn't matter all that much as regular was $.36 a gallon, and premium was $.38 a gallon. Minimum wage was somewhere around $1.40 an hour.

[Blue]

When we got married in 1967, my wife had a Chevy Nova II that had a 2-speed automatic. It got terrible mileage, but it really didn't matter all that much as regular was $.36 a gallon, and premium was $.38 a gallon. Minimum wage was somewhere around $1.40 an hour.

The 2-speed was probably the famous Power-Glide. Believe it or not, it was sought after by drag racers. They could modify it to stay in 1st gear and shift at higher rpm's and speeds. I had one in a 66 Chevelle with a special torque convertor, long tube headers etc. in College. It was a good cruiser.

[RoxnDox]

When we got married in 1967, my wife had a Chevy Nova II that had a 2-speed automatic. It got terrible mileage, but it really didn't matter all that much as regular was $.36 a gallon, and premium was $.38 a gallon. Minimum wage was somewhere around $1.40 an hour.

We had one of those... Old white PoS but it ran forever - had an inline straight-6, the 2 speed tranny, and enough room to cram the whole family in. That was the car I learned to drive in. Named her "Charging Sheep" <grin> I think she expired somewhere around 200K+ miles...

Jim

[Tom S.]

The 2-speed was probably the famous Power-Glide. Believe it or not, it was sought after by drag racers. They could modify it to stay in 1st gear and shift at higher rpm's and speeds. I had one in a 66 Chevelle with a special torque convertor, long tube headers etc. in College. It was a good cruiser.

Yup, there were probably 100 (or more) versions of the power glide. I had one in my 64 Impala 409 SS, and my dad had one in his 66 GTO. Built right, it was actually a good trans. I put 4:11 gears in my 409 and the trans would squawk the tires going into second at around 60 mph. I had to have it rebuilt once, but considering the abuse I put it through, it should have died many more times than that!