[ursus]

One thing that I recall is pretty much gone these days and that is a sense of pride in running a service station. My father started in sales for the former Texas Company (now called Texaco) at a time when most stations were leased franchise operations. The operators were expected to wear a reasonably clean uniform with a cap and black bow tie and to treat the public with courtesy. This was just after WWII and many of the station operators were veterans that ran their places with the efficiency and precision of a military base. By the time he retired in 1990, my father had said they were lucky to hire station attendants that "could walk and chew gum at the same time".