Gots Me A New Pet [:^D

[Niner]

Got me a new pet whilst we were out west. I just hope I can keep him from eating up the flowers in the yard....

3286

[Captain]

Dino!!!!

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[Captain]

Looks like an old Sinclair dinosaur



3287


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[Niner]

Exactly. I have not seen a Sinclair station in many a year. They had one out there, complete with a little green monster. Had to get a snap of that joker!!!

[Thumper]

Looks like two old dinosaurs to me. Which one is the pet? ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

I went to grammar school and high school with a gal who was a Sinclair and related to that family. Lots of old money in that family. I prolly should have tried harder to impress her.

Lots of Sinclair stations in Oklahoma because they have a refinery here. For some reason not so much here in Tulsa, but up where Herb lives in Pawhuska there's a lot more. I always thought Pawhuska was the home of Sinclair but I guess not. They just leased a ton of oil drilling rights from the Osages there. There used to be an old elm tree in downtown Pawhuska that the Osages would sit under and auction off leases of prime drilling land to the big oil companies. Lots of big wigs sat under that old elm and bought leases that made them billionaires. It dies a few years ago and they replaced it but a lot of history went down with that massive old elm tree.
BKB

[Thumper]

Thump story:

We had a little 2-pump Sinclair station in town that was a daily stop for me on my way home from school. I'd sit and visit with the owner ... "Old Man Schweitzer" ... almost every day. On one hand, we prolly drove him bonkers hanging around that old gas station and it was also our go-to place to get air for our bicycle tires as kids. I remember one year he gave me a big bag of plastic dinosaurs at Christmas (they were being sold as promotions). As I got a bit older, maybe 6th grade or so, I asked Old Man Schweitzer why he put up with all us kids? He said, "Number one, you boys are good company and number two, someday you'll be driving and maybe you'll come here to buy your gas!"

We moved away from Orlando when I was 15, but during Spring Break in college, my girlfriend and I went to Florida. On the way out of town headed for Daytona, I stopped to fill up at Old Man Schweitzer's Sinclair station. It was a short but memorable reunion and I reminded him that he was correct ... "someday" is "now" and I'm there to BUY some gas. He then told me he's getting too old to run the store and needed to retire. He said he had no family and he'd like to GIVE me that old gas station! He said all I had to do was pay him a "little bit" every month just so he could get by. He said he didn't need much as he had a Social Security check coming in. I was kind of flattered, but told him I was going to college in Tennessee and there was no way I'd be able to take over his gas station.

I have no clue whatever happened to Old Man Schweitzer. His station is long gone and there's a parking lot (for a big building next door) where it used to stand, but I pass by there often and not ONCE do I drive by without thinking of "Old Man Schweitzer". :(

[BarryBobPosthole]

I miss the old gas stations and full service. I lived in Stillwater Ok for a year or two and worked at a DX station there. The owner was a real genuine asshole but I actually loved that job. My car never ran better and was never cleaner than when I worked there because I'd tinker on my old car in between customers. MY favorite time was Fridays when the coeds from OSU were headed out of town to go home for the weekend. Man they had the cleanest windshields in Oklahoma when they stopped by my station!

BKB

[Thumper]

Believe me ... I can relate to the windshield cleaning! When I quit college to go to work for GM in Arlington Texas, the Union went on strike the SECOND day I was in town. I moved from Memphis to Arlington on a Saturday, signed a lease on an apartment, was supposed to start work at the plant on Monday ... but on Sunday, the union went on strike and there was a freeze on all hiring! Damn the luck! The strike dragged on for months, so I went down to a local Enco (later to become Exxon) station and got hired. Same deal as you ... my car LIVED on the lube rack so I could "tinker" between customers. And those windshields you mentioned? This was in 1971 and skirts were a tad short in those days. I always made SURE the driver's side of that windshield was SPOTLESS! I swear, some of those cars prolly pulled out with the glass a bit thinner on one side just from wear! :biggrin

[DeputyDog]

The last time I saw a Sinclair station it was in the Wisconsin Dells. I can't remember if they had the little dino still or just on the sign.

[Big Muddy]

I bought my first "rubber" at our local Sinclair station, when I was maybe 14 years old....the gas station owner, Mr. Hickman, kept them under the counter, to sell mainly to the local farm labor who could buy them there on credit because old man Kincaid at the drugstore didn't extend credit to anybody.
When I asked to buy one, Mr. Hickman laughed his azz off....he didn't charge me for it, but at the end of the month, he had put it on my Dad's bill.
My Mom kept the farm books, and she came charging into my room, when she saw it on the bill....she scolded me real good, and made me take it back to Mr. Hickman for a 25 cent credit....yep, I was just a tad embarrassed about that....besides, I was really looking forward to carrying it in my billfold, like the older guys!!! ;)

[Thumper]

Yep Eddie ... you just weren't cool unless you had that "ring" imprint showing through your billfold in those days. I used to get mine from the quarter vending machines in the restrooms of some "sleazier" gas stations back in the day. 'Bout the only reason mine got replaced was the packaging would wear out before I ever got to use it!

I guess that old "ring" on the billfold was kinda like the redneck kids at school who had the Skoal "ring" imprinted in their back jeans pockets.

Ahhhh, wasn't growing up fun in those days? ;)