PaulH
119 posts
Oct 11, 2012
8:17 AM
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I remember 29.9 for Super at a Humble station on Harshman road in 1970. While the oil embargo was going on, I was in Germany paying 70.9 per gal through the PX. Bought ration tickets that were also good at some German stations. No cash. The tickets were like cash. Came back to the States in early 78 and wound up paying the same I was in Germany. I was already used to it. Back then no one in their right minds could have concieved of what we are paying now.
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Jazzbass01
6 posts
Oct 11, 2012
8:49 PM
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Sure, I recall regular being as low as 17.9 during the gas wars.
In '71 or so while I was laid off from one of the GM plants I worked at a service station. Most of the time I opened it at 5 a.m. One of my first customers, almost daily, bought one dollar's worth of regular.
One time it was pouring down rain, some jerk comes flying up to the pumps. I throw on a slicker and head out. He says gimme 75 cents worth of regular and where's the nearest Atta-Boy. I tell him I have no idea because I was new around here. I then pumped 75 cents of regular on the ground, collected and wished him a good day..
Last Edited by on Oct 11, 2012 8:49 PM
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PaulH
120 posts
Oct 11, 2012
9:59 PM
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@Jazzbass01. In 71 & 72, I remember putting maybe 2 or 3 bucks worth of gas in my Corvette, and cruising the whole weekend. It waw a small block. Cheap gas was one of the few truly good things about the good old days.
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luv my dayton
158 posts
Oct 22, 2012
3:13 AM
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Bought myself a new 1965 Mustang and remember it not costing me much of anything to fill the tank. Seems it was around .25 per gal. maybe a bit cheaper.You got alot of mileage out of a tank full as it was a manual shift, no a/c. Sound system great and they called it vibrasonic. Look where were at now with our cars and sound systems, but back then we were really living large!!.
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AllenN71
387 posts
Oct 22, 2012
6:06 PM
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Remember all the gimmicks service stations would use to get you to buy the stuff? Free sets of tumblers or steak knives for a "fill up"?
Five bucks at the "Hy-Fy" at Chambersburg and Brandt Pike filled my 1962 Impala to the brim. I could drive to Indianapolis, pick up my cousin, and go to the Cincinnati Zoo and back to Indy practically. And let's not forget the 75 MPH speed limit, which with the 5MPH leeway for calibration of radar and speedometers amounted to a de facto 80 MPH top speed.
Downside: Back in 1969, ten thousand bucks a year was bordering on "upper middle class". Ten grand today is more like petty cash.
Still, at 1969 prices ten Gs would buy about 40 thousand gallons of gas. Today 75 thou will only buy about 18,750 gallons. Reality bites, indeed.
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tuckerone
15 posts
Nov 03, 2012
8:52 AM
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I remember 24.9 at Atta Boy on Linden Ave in 1972 I rode three fellow students to Belmont High School for $2.00 each per week as we did not live quiet far enough to ride bus paid for all my gas and lunch at school
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olds88
34 posts
Feb 01, 2013
6:56 PM
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Used to be a guy named fogle who would bum rides for abuck to ride between Parkmoor on shroyer to one in belmont.When you needed gas that was like hitting the lotto today.
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copson
60 posts
Feb 02, 2013
1:06 PM
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.17 and .19 cents a gallon during the price war's at the red head station at the n.w corner e.fifth and wayne avenue.. it was next to the tasty boy near fifth & walnut st. There was a shell station across the street, south east corner, where dublin pub sit's now...
Last Edited by on Feb 02, 2013 1:10 PM
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Perry401
120 posts
Feb 05, 2013
10:59 PM
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During the "gas wars" you got "full" service from in some cases uniformed attendants which included checking oil, water, washer fluids, etc. under the hood, washing all the windows outside, checking tires, etc. They had plenty of time to do this becuase the pumps were a little slower back then.
Promotional items included the Tiger tails (Humble), Christmas glasses or candles (Marathon), steak knives, etc.
The competition between gas stations also resulted in countless promotional games with scratch-off cards or matching games where you had to spell a word or get a certain combination of tickets to win.
Sohio had one of the best -- a Licence plate game where they "randomly" choose Ohio licence plate numbers and posted them on the station's windows each week. (Sohio or Standard Oil of Ohio) operated only inside the state at the time, so only Ohio licenses were included.
Some licences were big winners -- maybe $1000 or more, most were $10 or maybe even less. In any event we would go and check out our car licence plate numbers every week, but we never won anything. We also checked the licence number of my Grandmother, a couple of neighbors, and others.
The for "randomly" being in quotes is that I still wonder if the contest was 100% fair. This was because we had a neighbor who worked at Top Value Stamps on Woodman Drive in their photo lab (they did the artwork for the catalogs) who won almost every year and usually got $500 or $250 each year.
I think Top Value was run by an advertising agency, and perhaps the same agency ran the Sohio game, or there was some secret inter-agency cooperation that let him win year after year. He either had increadable luck, or someone was making sure his license number won every year.
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copson
86 posts
Feb 13, 2013
6:24 AM
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Perry401, I do remember all those.. Dont forget the green stamps....
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olds88
75 posts
Feb 14, 2013
11:14 AM
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Back in the day(1960)we were told to lift every hood while gas was being filled and windshield was being wiped.We would check air cleaner ,fan belts and battery water also wiper blades.Talk about hustle.company made about five cents a gallon minus one half cent for TV stamps.When it rained stamps would stick together and we were very liberal with giving them out.The company was very good to employees ,lots of incentives for selling cases of oil,tires wipers and misc.
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joey m
39 posts
Feb 14, 2013
12:34 PM
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OLDS88 THOSE WERE THE DAYS WHEN THERE WASNT ALL THE GREED WE HAVE WITH OIL COS. STATIONS WERE PERSONALLY OWNED AND SERVICE WAS PART OF THE SALE. I WENT TO SEARS LAST WEEK TO BUY SOME CLOTHES, I WALKED AROUND FOR TEN MINUTES TO FIND A CLERK TO PAY; NO ONE TO BE FOUND SO I FINALLY WENT TO THE REGISTER IN THE TOOL SECTION! PRETTY SORRY!!!!!!
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Ared60
9 posts
Mar 04, 2013
5:18 PM
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It seemed like gas was always 29.9 per gal. This was the mid 60s. Later on during the famous gas wars in addition to the drinking glasses, or quart bottles of Pepsi ( remember quarts not liters?),the lowest price I saw was 14.9 per gal. I heard of one station on the East side that, after the boss went home, they changed the price to 1 cent per gal. That's probably just one of those urban legends but I've remembered it for all these years.
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Happy to Be
23 posts
Mar 15, 2013
5:08 PM
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I recall being able to get a gallon of gas and pack of cigarettes for under a $1. This was in the mid 70's. Not sure what the price was per gallon, around 45 cents I'm thinking.
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Tomco
6 posts
May 11, 2013
8:45 AM
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I saw 14.9 cents per gallon at a small station on Salem Ave., about a mile from Good Samaritan Hosp. This was about 1960 during a gas price war.
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FreedomWriter
122 posts
Jan 02, 2015
9:02 AM
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It would be interesting to see if this Blog would be running in about twenty years or so and someone posting of when they were a little kid they remember gas being in the $1.70-$1.80 range way back in 2014-2015
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donm
45 posts
Jan 21, 2015
2:42 PM
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I remember doing my student teaching at Roth High School, and filling up at a station down the block for $0.25 per gallon. Fill it up for a couple of bucks and have change for a burger and shake at Golden Point. That was the good life.
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luv my dayton
812 posts
Jan 21, 2015
7:59 PM
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Don't think gas stations even today make much on gas and definitely won't when states decide to up the tax on fuel since its so low. Most of their money is made on all the extra sales. Years ago same thing except their money made due to auto service provided when you got tune ups,oil changes,tires and batteries.
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Edwina
6 posts
Jan 25, 2015
7:36 PM
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I remember gas being 19 cents a gal during the gas wars ( 1972). I could go from Dayton Ohio to Sparta Tennessee ( to see family) for $20.
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Boatman55
2 posts
Mar 11, 2015
10:11 AM
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When I got my license in 1971 there were gas wars in south Dayton, and I would get gas for 19.9 cents a gallon, and this was full serve. Boy, those were the times.
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dan55
1 post
Mar 12, 2015
6:40 AM
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I remember in the early sixties going with my dad in his 49 Studebaker to a station just west of Airway shopping center and him always Saying to the attendent "fill it up or five dollars whichever comes first" I believe the gas cost about 20 cents per gallon.
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Daytongirl01
60 posts
Mar 12, 2015
9:24 AM
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What I remember about the gas prices in 1972, when I left Dayton was I didn't pay too much attention to them, until I moved to Tucson, AZ. Not only were the prices VERY CHEAP 23 cents a gallon and NO line, but you pumped it yourself. I never did that in Dayton in those days, but quickly got used to the whole idea! Then sometime in about 1973-74 cheap gas all came to an end with OPEC's little trick of reducing the amount it produced...we all experienced the same situation..line, after line, after line. Now compared to then, in California our gas is $3.39/gal...paid that yesterday.
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miles away
15 posts
Apr 07, 2015
11:11 AM
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Last time I worked at a gas station in Dayton -- the Shell station at White's Corners at the off-kilter (at the time) intersection of Wilmington Pike and Alex Bell -- I remember selling 104 octane Super Shell for about 68.9, and an old man drives in and yells at me for raising the price (like it was my idea) up from 66.9. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YER DOIN?!" Man, do I act like that today? Scary thought. That scene would have been the Summer of '78.
I can remember paying in the mid-30 cent per-gallon range when I first started driving in the mid-'70's, and I can remember the gas wars a few years before that when my dad paid in the high teens per gallon. Of course back then a nice new home cost $30,000 and minimum wage was $1.40. And a new 'Vette would have only run you about $5,000.
So how's that self-serve workin' out for ya? Now you stand in the weather, get your card number stolen off the pump and have to pay five times as much for the privilege. I used to make change for you and wash your windows. And fill your tires for you...
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FreedomWriter
184 posts
Apr 07, 2015
7:11 PM
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miles away: Hey do you remember the fruit stand that sat next to that Shell station. My wife's family ran that until it closed down due to the area being built up. You mentioned Whites Corner and it took me back when that was in the middle of nowhere..
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miles away
16 posts
Apr 08, 2015
12:08 PM
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Freedom, was the fruit stand on the north side of the Shell station, on Wilmington? I thought I remembered something there, but I'm sure I never stopped at it (why eat at a fruit stand when you're a teenager when King Kwik was still in business? Remember the Kwik Brothers (one guy playing twins in the commercials, actually) singing "buy City Ice at King Kwik, buy City Ice today"? I'd be healthier today if I ate the fruit instead.)
I know Texaco was still in operation across Wilmington from us, and Marathon was in business across Alex Bell from us (but about 50 yards east because Wilmington jogged across Alex Bell at the time) and I think Omega was the fourth station at the far eastern corner (where Shell is now), but I forget what that station was before it was an Omega.
It used to be so nice when you left Kettering and took that bank to the right where Wilmington "Pike" turned due south as you passed Rolandia Golf, and follow the two-lane roads all the way down to Waynesville. Gone with the wind...
People used to confuse White's Corners at Wilmington and 725 with Middleton Corners out where Spring Valley Paintersville Road crosses Route 68 south of Xenia, but this is a Dayton memory blog, so I won't "go" there.
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FreedomWriter
185 posts
Apr 08, 2015
8:07 PM
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If you were inside the shell station looking outward at 725/Alex-Bell their place was next door to the right, literally next to the stations lot. And going in that direction towards Bellbrook about where the far end of those shopping strip centers used to be a Humble filling station but that was in the late 60's early 70's time frame. The old man that had the corn wagon over their on the old 2 lane Wilmington pike Rd was a different place. Do you remember the shell station actually being on the corner where the former Stengers lot/ Planet Ford/Empty lot is today. And the Texaco place was virtually closed down for years. Was more car repair shop then filling station. And the King Kwik store was where the current Wilmington is now.. Sometimes its hard to imagine how Rural it was between Kettering and Bellbrook looking at the whole area now!
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miles away
17 posts
Apr 09, 2015
8:05 AM
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Freedom: when I worked there it was the original Shell station at the old intersection where Wilmington seemed to dead-end into 725, where Stenger's moved to. Of course, Wilmington started up again going south on the other side of 725 just east of there between the Marathon and what used to be the Humble station (then Omega, now Shell.) I do remember the corn wagon, and had to laugh to myself when I read your description of "the old two lane Wilmington pike"; that's exactly what it was. And yeah, now I remember the King Kwik that sat where the new road is now (personally, I'd rather have the King Kwik, but I don't have to drive through there anymore.)
And you're right, by the late '70's the Texaco station was a dumpy mechanics' joint; not really functioning as a gas station.
I'm afraid I can't clearly remember the fruit stand if it's the corn wagon I'm really remembering. I clearly remember Bellbrook girls driving in and needing a fill-up, but not the fruit stand so much; sorry!
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FreedomWriter
186 posts
Apr 09, 2015
8:47 AM
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Miles away: Thats okay I understand. I'd been more interested in the girls from Bellbrook myself back then. Most people of today have no clue how that whole area was compared to now. Oh and I was talking about where the Shell is currently located at today. Im sure you figured that out as well. I remember being stuck in traffic at that light which was the reason for the realignment to begin with. I couldn't imagine having the old road with all that being there today.
Last Edited by FreedomWriter on Apr 09, 2015 8:50 AM
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