AmericanPickers eat you hearts out !

Just check out those gas pumps and those oil bottles. Standard Oil gas station in Shepherd MI in mid-late '50,s. Great Grandpa John on left and Uncle Larry Kniffen on far right. Aren't those pumps gorgous. Looks like someone didn't believe in trading up in cars either. Randy.

Nice pictures! The station looks pristeen! Some things that are hard for us young pups to understand is even if maybe the car in the background is maybe a 20 something model let"s say the picture was taken in the 30s so the car is 10 years old or so I have a 15 year old F150 that looks new and a 1987 Toyota Corolla that doesn"t look so new but runs like a swiss watch all things are relative. Thanks for sharing! CT

and I'm sure they have a nice Eco 97 air meter on the wall near by also!!! Try buying one now for under 500....

Wayne

Awesome picture! My dad and grandpa both collect gas and oil memorabilia. My dad just bought a gold crown globe a few months ago for $450. I believe they have about 12 antique gas pumps in their collection and one is a clock face similar to the ones in your picture I believe. Thanks for sharing!

I have a Eco,,, now the bad part it was gave to me,,, the guy had a ware house full of old gas pumps and he told me I could have them all just to move them out of his way,,,,all I took was the air dispenser and the 2 jacks in the lower left of the pix,,, that bottom one must B for a tank jack cuzz its a BMF

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Nice pix of the owners ,Old gas pumps like them used to be everywhere around here, but now very RARE , Let the Pawn Stars and PIcKERS Eat Them selves alive ,, Personaly Don't like their smiling coniving pokr/faced methods ,, Don't care for the Personalitys of any of the pickers,, They remind me deadup of some of the rich huckster kids I went to scholl with that were always laying and trying to hook someone instead of makin a honest living .. But I like Ol granpa and Rick in the Pawn Shop , after all they are in the thick of the wild traffic and seem to remain true and ethical and tuff , But would not attempt any business with them ,..

You should Copyright that picture, and sell prints of it..

I'd put my bets on the date being in the mid to late 40's maybe 1950 at the latest. The car looks like it might be a Ford Model A from about 1929. Standard Oil did not let their franchise stations get too antiquated, or the the owners lost their franchise. The station owners had to update at their own expense, possibly getting a loan from Corporate. They were also required to sell a certain volume of gas every 30 days or lose their franchise. Maybe there were regional differences in the rules, but Corporate did play a heavy hand. There were also quotas for sales of TBA (tires, batteries, accessories) that had to be met each month.

In the early 60's I worked for Conoco Oil corporate as a part time job in college. They had stolen the book from Shell Oil, who had stolen the rules book from Standard Oil. From my perspective, Standard Oil had been the leader in creating the "sell or die" rules, and there was an established history. Part of my job was to assess whether a station owner was keeping his place clean, presenting the pump attendant in proper clean uniform and corporate hat, double checking the monthly gallonage (to see if the operator was buying and selling some loads of "no-brand" gas), and to assess the station's repair shop honesty. We also had to do traffic counts, including left turns, straight throughs, and right turns for all 4 traffics coming together at the intersection the station was located at. They also counted total traffic on the main road, and the side road the station was located at. The traffic counts were put into some formula to determine how many customers should be coming into the station, and how many gallons should be sold.

Nostalgia is great, but by the end of WW2, corporate was a very mean task master. A lot of good mechanics and honest station owners were put out of business because they did not sell enough. It was all about $$$$$.

Paul in MN

Lets see how soon YT Poofs this thread!

the car is not a ford modle A. it has wooden spoke wheels with demountable rims look at the spare tire may be a hudson or a dodge picture probley from the mid 30's electric pumps came out about then dad had a standard station back then . brings back a lot of memorys old art

That picture is older than '50s. I was born in 1944 and I never saw a dial faced pump in service.
I am guessing pre-war. Probably around 1940 or earlier. Everything in the '50s had odometers and spinning balls inside a gasoline filled lens. Stuff like that makes an impression on a young boy.

The curve of the fender and length of the radiator shell places that car at around '27 to '30. Yes, it is no Model A Ford. A six cylinder Dodge is a good guess.

I wish you could still find the good air dispensers like that. They were accurate and simple to use. Trying to find a good air pump these days is next to impossible and some stations you have to pay for air from some crappy POS compressor that shuts off when you still have 1 more tire to fill up. Dave

I would like to see that one set up somewhere and put a camera on it --would be funny to watch people trying to find the coin slot to get air .

nice picture , it's your family I'm sure you know when it was taken.

I would guess there is someone on this forum who would know EXACTLY what kind of car that is. But I'll make a guess---possibly a DeSoto. My older brother drove a '28 DeSoto in the late '40s. It had wood spokes and hydraulic brakes---unusual!! And I'm a little fuzzy here, but I believe Standard Oil had three "crowns"---red, white, and gold--depending on which type of gas you wanted. Thanks for the picture!!

1930 Buick

Sounds like you've never been to Shepard Michigan!

Well Grandpa John died in 1960 at 80 yr of age. He is all of 70 in that photo. Being less than 10 myself when photo was taken , I really don't know which relative or when they took it. I'm sure they aren't here to ask . I'm posting these to bring back some memories not to cause arguements. And like Rrlund said , Shepherd is kind a like a time capsule as towns go. I still went to a 1 room school house on Pleasant Valley/Wise Rd. called Campbell School just outside Shepherd as late as 1961! K-8th , one room , one teacher , wood/coal heat , outdoor crappers and the whole deal! Thanks for all the comments.Randy.

Ya,and if that's too modern for you,you can go a few miles up the road to Rosebush!
Or west to the big city of Blanchard.

Love them Pix! I was born in 43 and remember dial pumps. Might have been pure station. One pump was marked Benzol. Car looks like 27 Dodge brothers(no kin to Chrysler at that time) that I and a buddy owned. Cost 40 dollars in 1963. Kids were driving it with no tires, just rims.