The Gas Stations We Grew Up With... That Are Gone
Sep 12, 2026
If you grew up in America as a baby boomer, you probably remember when a trip to the gas station was nothing like it is today. Pulling into a service station meant hearing the familiar ding ding of the bell and having an attendant meet you at the pump. He'd ask how much gas you wanted, and then check your oil, and clean your windshield. All while you waited. The many familiar gas station brands that we visited as a child over and over, have now disappeared from the American landscape. Now seeing one of those old gas signs brings you right back to childhood.
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Interesting, when you think about it. The 1945-2000 era was a collusion of a number of factors - postwar prosperity; affordable, and by then reliable, cars; a desire to see and explore other parts of the nation. PERSONALLY - not herded like cattle into no-longer-comfortable railway services.
Prior to television's havoc, wreaked on a generation...the culture was vastly different in different parts of the nation. And most of the nation remained a "high-trust" society. True, Chicago and New Orleans were probably not safe places - but those who went there as tourists, no doubt were well heeled, paying attention to historical and architectural draws. Those looking for vistas and different styles of cooking, tended to head into rural parts, and mostly out West.
And because of this, and because businesses had not begun centralizing (re-centralizing, in the case of refining companies) there were all these different names of petroleum marketers and different emphases on services. Self-service was a novelty about 1970. In Europe, they were experimenting with automated gas pumps that you fed currency into. Those never made it here, but only because credit-cards and Cardlock systems beat them to the market.
How many brands of gas, I cannot count. As a little kid, traveling, I used to play a game...guess what brand is what. Esso, in New York (had family roots there) had HUMBLE (block lettering) in Oho and Indiana. Because, as noted, Esso is S O. Standard Oil. Ohio had a different company with rights to Standard - Sohio, Standard Ohio. Mobil, once Standard of New York, went through Socony, and then, their brand of gas, MobilGas, became their brand. They somehow ceded the right to S O to Esso, which corporately was Humble Oil. Standard of New Jersey had bought Humble Oil of Humble, Texas, and adopted their corporate charter.
Then, American Oil in Ohio was Standard Oil in Indiana and Amoco elsewhere. To say nothing of the Gulf, the Texas Company/TEXACO and Standard of California/Chevron brands. Who has the Standard rights out HERE?
This, as much fun as finding out where food was good and cheap, and a quality mom-and-pop motel could be had for $12.99. They were out there, even up to the 1990s.
It's all gone, now. We have ExxonMobil and BPAmoco and all the convenience stores selling Mystery Gasoline, mostly cut with ethanol to please libburls...but it's all the same. The same gas brands I saw in Wisconsin, living there, are right here. The mannerisms different - Montana USED to be more friendly; that's changing, fast - but it's Holiday, which just became a Circle K brand, and Cenex. Town Pump, a local quick-stop, carries ExxonMobil. That's it. A few Shell quick-stops, fighting the Borg.
And as life becomes homogenized, our cars and our culture, the experience of living in our towns and cities, becomes schittier.
Enshittification, as Cory Doctorow calls it. Public outrages and acting-out; homelessness, violence and threats of violence, general contempt and hostility.
