When Was the Last Time Someone Pumped Your Gas For You?

Gas Station

Tire gauge. Vacuum. Fill ‘er up. When Was the Last Time Someone Pumped Your Gas For You?

Do you remember when someone washed your windows, checked your oil, and checked the air pressure in your tires while they pumped your gas?

During last year’s Superbowl, Carmax.com ran a commercial with the tag line, “We believe customer service shouldn’t be a thing of the past.”

Then, they showed someone pull into a 1950s-style gas station.

Smiling attendants surrounded the car to wash his windows, check his oil, fill up his tires with air, vacuum his carpets and put gas in his tank.

He flees, thinking he is being carjacked.

Are There Any Full-Service Stations Left?

While in New Jersey (since 1949) and Oregon (since 1951), self-service is banned at gas stations, for safety reasons and to preserve jobs, almost everywhere else drivers pump their own gas.

Even in the Washington, DC area, where a few years ago a sniper targeted people who were standing still, pumping gas, we still pump our own gas.

When Did Self-Service Start?

The first self-service station in the United States opened in 1958, in Omaha, Nebraska.

In the 1970s, they took off when gas stations sweetened the pot a little with lower gas prices for self-service and the promise that you could get in and out faster if you pumped your own gas instead of waiting for an attendant.

Now, few stations pump your gas for you and only a few have mechanics available, with convenience stores and sometimes car washes commonly co-located.

Now also, with most gas station pumps equipped to take credit cards, you don’t even have to go into the station to pay.

When was the last time someone else pumped your gas for you?

Do you remember when you first learned to drive, pulled into a station and said, “Fill ‘er up!”?

Have you told your grandchildren you never used to pump your own gas?

Our Monday through Wednesday our posts are designed to help you remember when things were different so you can tell your grandchildren your stories or write your autobiography.

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To you and the roads yet unseen for you and your grandchildren to travel together.

Carol Covin, “Granny-Guru”

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

http://ne wgrandmas.com

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