Being that this is Labor Day weekend and I’m in a nostalgia mood,  I decided to crank up the way back machine again and show you another load of photos that feature cool old stations from decades upon decades ago. These photos skew largely toward the mid-century time frame with some falling a little earlier and a little later. It was about that time that the gas stations had developed specialized looks between the brands and they could be identified long before you actually saw the writing on the wall. As I lamented last week, that has all gone the way of catering to convenience store customers. We wonder why we are the most obese country in the world and yet when you used to fill up and drive off, you now bop inside, grab a Coke, some other snack and munch down about 1,000 calories of badness as you are essentially motionless behind the wheel. But I digress.

One of my favorites in this collection of photos is the station with the Christmas trees for sale. That photo was taken in Rhode Island and it is such an image of community and history that I love it, especially the “free delivery” sign. Know why? If they were offering free tree delivery they undoubtedly had a bitchin’ old shop truck that was hauling those trees around town with a kid or an old man at the tiller. That’s Normal Rockwell stuff right there.

One thing I am really interested to see in the comment section between the people that think the incredible Art Deco Gulf station is cooler than the Sinclair in front of the mansion or the other way around. Both of those are jaw droppers and we don’t know if either stands today. The Gulf would be some sort of site to preserve if it were still upright as you are reading this.

I really love combing that archive and as you can tell I have been hitting it hard lately. So what’s next? Stay tuned!

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THESE GREAT PHOTOS AND TAKE A LOOK INTO AMERICA’S MOTORING PAST –