Stops, Along The Lost Highway...

...nothing says "in the day" like an old abandoned service station. Because "back in the day" my first job as a fourteen year old was at the local Premier Service Station. Yes, "back in the day" I worked ten hour days, six days a week at the full service station pumping gas, checking oil, radiator, washer fluid, brake fluid, airing in the tires, cleaning the windows, and sweeping the floor while pumping 20 cent a gallon regular gasoline and 25 cent a gallon "Ethyl". Yes,I WAS pumping Ethyl -heh,heh. It was the summer of 1967, and along with those duties I was charged with changing the oil and doing lube jobs, and the occasional tire rotations. One day the lady who ran the carpet store across the street came in for a quick rotation, before taking a trip to Shreveport. I did a quick change over, between gassing up the regular customers. The next day she returned madder than "H-E-double hockey sticks!" Seems that between "rotating" and "pumping" I forgot to "torque her lug nuts" - heh, heh, and she completely stripped twenty tire studs on her wobbly trip ... well, I guess that's one reason today's gas stations are self service and sell Icees, snacks and beer, rather than employing teenage pump jockeys.


Davidson, Oklahoma Rte 70 this station is now home to Christine.




Downtown Electra, Texas on old Hwy 287


146 W Floral Ave, Frederick, OK, this looks like an old neighborhood station


Old Phillips 66 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Phillips was the first gasoline dealer to move off the highway and into the residential neighborhoods, thus many of their older stations look like 1930's bungalows.


Decatur, Texas at 450 W Main Street, living a second life as a barber shop.


Weatherford, Texas Courthouse Square at 128 Houston Ave, an old drive through design, probably a garage, too. Today it is an antique store.


Henrietta, Texas Old Hwy 287 is now a junk store with bargains to go.


The Manhiem Store on Hwy 21, the Old San Antonio Road, is so old they retrofitted gas pumps when the automobile came along. The store's been in continuous operation for over a hundred years.


and just like today's convenience store gas stations you can get a snack and a cold beer, just park your hourse at the back door.