Showing posts with label Gas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gas. Show all posts
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
ACME hi power.... what the Coyote should have used to catch the Road Runner
Video found on http://www.historicvehicle.org/News/Articles/All-Articles/2013/01/17/Super-Bowl-Commercials?utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Hagerty%20Weekly%20News%2002-06-2013 via Hagerty's weekly newsletter
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Airplanes used to get you to pull into gas stations or restaurants, the Best one first, Bobs Air Mail Service on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles, circa 1938
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Above 2 photos from http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=5679313&postcount=7493
Below images from the guru of the Roadside attraction and signs: https://roadsidenut.wordpress.com/
I love a B 17 bomber story, here is a good one , a surplus B 17, a guy who couldn't fly one, who wrote bad checks, and couldn't get a permit to move it and build a gas station
In Milwaukie Oregon, on the 99e highway, also known as McLoughlin Blvd, 6 miles south of Portland Oregon. Between I5 and the 205
Above is the "Before" photo referring to the current or recent restoration. Notice the great fluorescent lights under the wings
Below you can see that the nose and cockpit are removed for renovations
Shortly after WWII , Art Lacey went to Kansas to buy a surplus B-17. His idea was to fly it back to Oregon, jack it up in the air and make a gas station out of it.
He paid $15,000 for it. He asked which one was his and they said take whichever you want because there were miles of them. He didn't know how to fly a 4 engine airplane so he read the manual while he taxied around by himself. They said he couldn't take off alone so he put a mannequin in the co-pilot's seat and off he went.
He flew around a bit to get the feel of it and when he went to land he realized he needed a co-pilot to lower the landing gear. He crashed and totaled his plane and another on the ground. They wrote them both off as "wind damaged" and told him to pick out another. He talked a friend into being his co-pilot and off they went.
They flew to Palm Springs where Lacey wrote a hot check for gas then they headed for Oregon. They hit a snow storm and couldn't find their way so they went down below 1,000 feet and followed the railroad tracks. His partner sat in the nose section and would yell, "TUNNEL" when he saw one and Lacey would climb over the mountain.
They landed safely, he made good the hot check he wrote, and they started getting permits to move a B-17 on the state highway. The highway department repeatedly denied his permit and fought him tooth and nail for a long time so late one Saturday night he just moved it himself. He got a $10 ticket from the police for having too wide a load.
The plane weighs 32 tons, is 75' long and has a wingspan of 104'. Mr. Lacey worked on planes during WWII but he was not a great pilot. The gas station opened in 1947, followed by the Bomber Drive-In in 1948. The station started out with five pumps but eventually had 40. Although it closed in 1991, the original family still runs the restaurant and the plane is still on display
just 6 miles South of Downtown Portland on Hwy 99E. Just get on 99E (aka Mcloughlin Blvd.) and head South. About 1/2 mile out of Milwaukie you will see the Big B-17G Bomber. http://www.thebomber.com/
gas stations and gas company advertising, mostly 1930's and 40's
A footnote of interest in history, and I think a lot of people have forgetten, that during world war II, so many men in America were drafted into the military, that in order to keep American jobs alive, and to make munitions, tanks, airplanes, and so many of the suddenly necessary things that fighting the war created a need for, women stopped being treated like domestic prisoners. They even formed a baseball league, since the majority of the baseball players were drafted (See the movie "A League Of Their Own")
Above, good design thinking, why not have the gas station provide shade for the mechanics, cars, and customers? Not just shade, but shelter from rain and snow!
Some time ago, the company Montgomery Ward was like Target. It operated from 1872 to 2001. Then couldn't figure out how to compete with online companies like Amazon.com that had taken it's business model of mail order goods, and improved on it to where it and the other competition have put Sears, Montgomery Ward, and Kmart out of business or through bankruptcy. Montgomery Ward was so influential, they invented Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. The mail order catalog was deemed as influential on American life as the Websters dictionary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Ward
The above is in Portland Oregon, and has been going through a restoration
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Fuel delivery trucks, the variety is impressive
Above is in the Ramsey Museum in Dover Ohio
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