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Tuesday 16 August 2011

Gas Stations 1937-1942


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Gas station, Washington, D.C.: photo by John Vachon, July 1937

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Gas station and gospel mission, Cleveland, Ohio: photo by John Vachon, August 1937

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Gas station with truckers' quarters, Enfield, North Carolina: photo by John Vachon, April 1938

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Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gas station price analysis
: photo by Dorothea Lange, August 1938

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Gas station and dance hall, Osage, West Virginia: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, September 1938

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Sign at a gas station advertising a particular brand of petroleum, New Iberia, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938

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Gas station, Kern County, California
: photo by Dorothea Lange, November 1938

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Gas station and commissary, sawmill town, Ashepoo, South Carolina
: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, December 1938


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Gas station, Edcouch, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, February 1939

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Gas station, Butte, Montana: photo by Arthur Rothstein, Summer 1939

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Gas station, Wibaux, Montana: photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1939

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Gas station, Washington, D.C.: photo by David Myers (David Moffat), July 1939

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Gas station at night, Dubuque, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, April 1940

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An "open all night" gas station in Durham, North Carolina: photo by Jack Delano, May 1940

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Crossroads store, bar "jook joint," and gas station, in cotton plantation area. Melrose, Natchitoches Parish. Louisiana
: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, June 1940

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Gas station, Benton Harbor, Michigan: photo by John Vachon, July 1940

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Mountain cabin, general store and gas station along highway near Hyden, Kentucky
: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, August 1940

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Gas station in Franklin, Heard County, Georgia, nine o'clock in the evening: photo by Jack Delano, April 1941

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Gas station, King William County, Virginia: photo by John Vachon, March 1941

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Abandoned gas station, Fort Worth-Dallas highway, Texas: photo by Arthur Rothstein, January 1942

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Gas station, Minneapolis, Minnesota: photo by John Vachon, January 1942

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Gas station and tourist cabins, Shannon County, Missouri: photo by John Vachon, February 1942

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Gas station and road house, Union County, Illinois: photo by John Vachon, February 1942

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Abandoned gas station, Anaconda, Montana (vicinity): photo by John Vachon, March 1942

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Gas station, Twin Falls County, Idaho: photo by Russell Lee, July 1942

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Washington, D.C. At 7 a.m. on July 21st, the day before stricter gas rationing was enforced, cars were pouring into this gas station on upper Wisconsin Avenue: photo by Marjory Collins, July 1942

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Washington, D.C. On morning of July 21st, the last day before stricter gas rationing went into effect, cars were parked in front of gas stations long before they opened, waiting to fill their tanks on the quota of their old ration cards. Cars were parked and left without their drivers who returned at eight o'clock when the station on upper Wisconsin Avenue near the District line opened: photo by Marjory Collins, July 1942

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This sign appeared at one upper Wisconsin Avenue gas station by 8:30 a.m. on July 21st: photo by Marjory Collins, July 1942

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Washington, D.C. Renting bicycles at a gas station on East Potomac Park. Notice the "no gas" sign on the nearest gasoline pump
: photo by Marjory Collins, June-July 1942

Photos from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress

6 comments:

Scott Keeney said...

I couldn't help hearing Modest Mouse's admonishment "you will come down soon too / you will come down too soon" (from "Out of Gas") as I scrolled through these posts. How the mighty (once great? no, not quite) continue to suck it, etc.

Not sure if this video will embed . . . OK, it won't.

Plan B: Out of Gas

Ed Baker said...

that last gas stain... I remember that last gas station... it was still there way into the 70's !

in the 50's we used to bike over to East Patomac Parkf go down around Hains Point

sometimes fish
sometimes play miniature golf

when later Bobbie McDonald had his 47 black, shiny , big, Buik


we used to drive down and after getting gas at that station go over and play golf on that East Potomac Prk Golf Course...

once we took girls with us to play miniature golf

and over there on the left of the station that overhang is were we all went to pee in the bathrooms

at night gas stations after the closed never used to put locks on their pump-hoses...

they'd turn off the pumps (with a key) but there was always a bit of gasoline still in the pumps

we would go from pump to pump and from gas station to gas station and put whatever gas was in the hoses into our tanks...

then drive over to the Hot Shoppes and flick our lights to get cute girls on roller skates to come Z"curb service" and take our orders.

the last Hot Shoppe to have curb service was up the street a bit from where I now live... up on New Hampshire Avenue and 410. It s the same Hot Shoppe where they invented that double pat tie/secret sauce Mighty Mo (which McDonald now calls a Big Mack
but NO COMPARISON...

that Hot Shoppe as I recall closed down in mid 1980's and on the site is now a UHAUL and a cheap gas gas station .... $3.65 for Regular and $5.25 for ONE ! pack of Pall Malls (pronounced "pell bells")

I quit smoking when they went up from 25 cents to 27 cents a pack.

Ed Baker said...

WOW a photo of that Hot Shpppes is #28 (about 7 entries down) here:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=484242&page=2

over on the left is where the "curb-side" was.

the Hot Shoppes became something else.

we hung out at this place, the one in Langley Park and (mostly) at the Georgia Avenue Silver Spring one

OR

the Wisconsin Avenue Hot Shoppes not too far from that gas station in the 1942 photos...

TC said...

Scott, right on the button.

The really astonishing fact about that footage is that it's a Sinclair Oil PROMOTIONAL VIDEO.

But then, it's been rumoured that Milton was actually of the Devil's Party.

(Berle, I mean.)


Edster, taking girls out for miniature golf is probably better for the health than sucking gas fumes, but peeing in one's shoes while putting... wrong message.

Although, Tiger might give that formula a try, next time out.

(Dousing an oil fire in a sand trap is no laughing matter.)

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

Great -- it's those prices that get me, 20 1/2 cents, 18 cents, 17 1/2 cents (what are we up to now, $4.39?), and then "OUT OF GAS"), and men on bikes. . . .

8.16

grey whiteness of fog against invisible
ridge, towhee standing on redwood fence
in foreground, wave sounding in channel

another reason to draw them,
not mention in letter

but beyond, what those words
expressed, “thinking”

cloudless blue sky reflected in channel,
cormorants flapping across toward ridge

Ed Baker said...

NO NO NO NOOOOOO

Uncle Miltie was TEXACO

"we are the men of Texeco
"we work from Maine to Mexico
"we pump the gas and check the oil, and wash the did-shield and shine the hip caps

"etc"

and THEN we play with the cute girls in the pink-fuzy sweaters

and, heck gas fumes just ain't what they used to be

neither is Coca-Cola (COKE) which since they tok the dope out of both the as formula and the Coke formula...
no cheap highs