Author Topic: So we stopped for gas in Cowan TN... (Read 3033 times)

Sven · « **on:** July 10, 2007, 09:09:43 PM »

The pump price was only $0.34/galllon but they appeared to be closed on Sunday.

StangMATA · « **Reply #1 on:** July 10, 2007, 10:32:33 PM »

Go back there with a few 50gal drums. You just found gold

pmackie · « **Reply #2 on:** July 11, 2007, 01:18:44 PM »

Great looking, 60's vintage Texaco (Star of the American Road) station.

I have a soft spot for the old "corporate" image sites...reminds me of by youth I guess.

Red01 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 11, 2007, 05:16:23 PM »

"You can trust your car to the man who wears the star..."

H2RICK · « **Reply #4 on:** July 13, 2007, 12:35:12 AM »

Thanks for the memories, Sven. I love those old art-deco type stations. The first place I can remember (as a nipper) where my dad was working as a mechanic was a Texaco station in a small tank-town. The station was so far out in the stickas that they still had the big old-style bowsers with the glass container at the top. Now that's old.....and the "high test" gas (premium) was really red-colored. "Fill 'er up with red." was heard from the occasional lost traveller with an Olds or Caddy or Firedome-engined Dodge or Desoto.
The Texaco rep used to give us kids plastic Texaco Fire Chief hats with the big logo label on the front. This would have been about 1950 or 1951.
Yes, I am that old.....

Sven · « **Reply #5 on:** July 13, 2007, 09:53:02 AM »

Quote from: "H2RICK"

a small tank-town...had the big old-style bowsers

The "high test" gas (premium) was really red-colored. "Fill 'er up with red."

OK, so some of your terms (small-tank town & bowsers) are as foreign to me as some of the terms our friends from down-under post!

I never heard of the gas being dyed red (except for in the US where it indicates diesel that has not paid road-use taxes and is for non-commercial/off-road use).

I got a chuckle out of your use of "hi-test". That term comes out of my mouth instead of "premium" and my friends, who are older than me, give me ahard time about it. When I rented the BMW in Denver a few weeks ago, the guy told me to make sure to use "hi-test"! SO maybe I'm not out of time, I'm just using a term I picked up when we lived in the west?!

Anyway, thanks for sharing your memories!

H2RICK · « **Reply #6 on:** July 13, 2007, 11:21:43 AM »

"Tank-town" started off as a railroad phrase for a place that had a water tower (tank) to fill the tenders of steam locomotives. In the 1870's - 1890's, locos had small tenders but used a lot of water. Consequently water towers had to be located every 10-20 miles along the tracks. The towns were typically on railroad lands and were there just for the convenience of the railroad. Nothing much else happened in these little places until settlers moved in and homesteaded their farms around these little towns.....and even then these towns were very slow-moving compared to the cities.
"Bowser", OTH, was the name of a company that invented gasoline dispensing equipment way back when. The name became generic, at least in the British Commonwealth, for any gasoline dispensing pump/device. Check out the kind of pump I remember quite clearly at this site:
http://www.severngaspumps.com/gaspumps/1920s.html

Sven · « **Reply #7 on:** July 13, 2007, 11:53:32 AM »

Quote from: "H2RICK"

"Tank-town" started off as a railroad phrase...

So the spacing of small towns (like hose that string I-80 in Nebraska) due to rail is familair to me, but the term was new. Thanks, and for the link as well.