The anti-c_19 thread

[Joker 1299]

As a school person I sent a plea to the Esso oil refinery at Fawley at the height of the put a tiger in your tank campaign ( can’t see that getting pass the PC brigade now! )
In return got a lovely parcel stuffed with stickers, badges, and the faux fur tiger tails with red ribbon to attach to the car aerial.
Much happier and more generous times.
4 star at 4s 11p a gallon
Sigh ......

Don’t let them get rid of the tiger.

 

[Velma's Dad]

As a school person I sent a plea to the Esso oil refinery at Fawley at the height of the put a tiger in your tank campaign ( can’t see that getting pass the PC brigade now! )
In return got a lovely parcel stuffed with stickers, badges, and the faux fur tiger tails with red ribbon to attach to the car aerial.
Much happier and more generous times.
4 star at 4s 11p a gallon
Sigh ......

Faux fur? You just RUINED my whole childhood.

 

[Duxdeluxe]

I remember my dad in the mid 60s getting 6 gallons for a £1 ! Me working in a garage in the early 70s and 2 star was 37p gallon Everyone moaning in the 80s when petrol went over £1 a gallon , funny cos I can’t remember the price of a pint !

 

[GrannyJen]

No offence but in my opinion this thread should be in the COVID-19 section, regardless of the humour / nostalgia behind it.

Personally I come to the forum as one of the places to avoid any COVID chat. I’ve hidden the whole section.

With respect this thread was posted in general chat as it is deliberately phrased to AVOID c-19 chat

 

[Velma's Dad]

With respect this thread was posted in general chat as it is deliberately phrased to AVOID c-19 chat

Can we do Brexit?

 

[GrannyJen]

Remember when Total service stations sold Smurfs ?
I think the smurfs were more expensive than the Fuel.

I was in the marketing department of Total oil then. My first proper job. Yom Kippur War, oil embargo's imposed by the gulf states, de-facto rationing and yours truly posted to Bramhall depot having been given the enviable job of explaining to 270 irate fuel station owners why they were not getting the fuel ordered.

 

[Vagophile]

I remember my dad in the mid 60s getting 6 gallons for a £1 ! Me working in a garage in the early 70s and 2 star was 37p gallon Everyone moaning in the 80s when petrol went over £1 a gallon , funny cos I can’t remember the price of a pint !

When I started driving I got 3 gallons of petrol for ten bob, 5 pints of IPA for the same, 3 babychams (remember them?) for 3 shillings and admission to the cinema for 2 was four shillings. Saturday night sorted for £1.70. First annual salary was £370, so a quarter of a week's wages for a night out. Just a minute while I get my violin.

 

[Vagophile]

I remember my dad in the mid 60s getting 6 gallons for a £1 ! Me working in a garage in the early 70s and 2 star was 37p gallon Everyone moaning in the 80s when petrol went over £1 a gallon , funny cos I can’t remember the price of a pint !

You've set me off now! Remember rationing? I got done for speeding in my MGB on the M5, exceeding the "economy" 50 m.p.h. speed limit. Everyone was exceeding it and I think that I was singled out because of my car, to make an example. Lots of traffic slowing down after seeing me on the hard shoulder being given a ticket.

 

[GrannyJen]

How much for a pint of beer?
I remember the first time I had to pay over €100 for a full tank of diesel. That was back in july 2010, in Switzerland. I hoped it was the last time I had to see a 3 figure number for 80 liters. The last time I refueled, in february, it was still over €100. If I would refuel today, it would again be less, but I still have half a tank of diesel, and now probably a bit of water, and some biofuel debris.
Hey, I didn't mention it!!

I remember the good old days when French diesel was so much cheaper than UK that you left the UK with an empty tank and came back with a full one. Last time I went over it was the opposite way around

 

[GrannyJen]

You've set me off now! Remember rationing? I got done for speeding in my MGB on the M5, exceeding the "economy" 50 m.p.h. speed limit. Everyone was exceeding it and I think that I was singled out because of my car, to make an example. Lots of traffic slowing down after seeing me on the hard shoulder being given a ticket.

20 years on and the 50mph limit was still federally imposed on US freeways. Driving huge distances researching the East to West emigrant trails I managed to accumulate a sea to shining sea collection of citations. It was almost impossible even with Cruise control not to creep over the dreaded 50 with big, lazy US cars and superb freeways.

I will never forget the sheriff of Hastings County, Nebraska, pulling me over and wondering why I was smiling. Nebraska was the missing piece in my jigsaw

 

[Borris]

Ah, but who asked for a squirt of Redex?

 

[Duxdeluxe]

Anyone remember the little Esso man you could get for your key ring

 

[clarinetbcn]

When I was 16, a friend of mine came up to me in high school and said, "Hey, you want to go to New York?" We were bored with school, so I said sure. We were all good students, so we invented a travel study proposal saying that since we were in the west, we had never seen anything old, and we wanted to get a sense of the history of our country. To our shock, it was accepted, on the condition that we do all the scheduled home work while we were away. So, in 1971, during the school year, six of us, 3 guys 3 girls, nobody over 18, set off on on a 10,000 mile six week journey in my parents' '68 VW bus armed with a file of nearly 50 notarized documents from school, parents, insurance company. We crossed the country alternating camping grounds (4 in the bus, we had removed the third row and built a platform to support a full sized mattress, and 2 in a tent) and staying with friends/relatives. The trip to New York was even more amazing than we had imagined, then continued up to Canada and back through the north to California. Life altering trip. We were arrested twice as runaways. The second time was in Illinois, where we were taken to the police station, and out came the file of notarized papers, enough for everyone there to have 2 or three of something. The guy who arrested us said threateningly, "I'm going to call your parents." We said yes, yes, call Victor! Victor, the father of one of the guys, was a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, the most powerful civil liberties group in the country. We could all overhear Victor screaming over the phone that unless we were all outside calling from a phone booth telling him that we had been released within 10 minutes, he would have a law suit on his hands that he would never forget. So he took us outside, this big fat guy in cowboy boots, big Texas hat and aviator sunglasses, put his hand on his gun and said to us, "Alright, you can go...but I want you out of town by sundown."

That's when my love of busses started.

 

[Nick Stubbs]

Green shield stamps, free glasses, world cup coins..

 

[Vagophile]

Green shield stamps, free glasses, world cup coins..

I got a super leather briefcase with Green Shield stamps. I used it to carry my rugby kit. I still had it in later life and it was stolen from the back of my VW Kombi in Paris; the thieves smashed the back window.
Somewhere I've still got some world cup postage stamps overprinted with "England winners"

 

[Vagophile]

The demographic of this forum is beginning to reveal itself.

 

[GrannyJen]

When I was 16, a friend of mine came up to me in high school and said, "Hey, you want to go to New York?" We were bored with school, so I said sure. We were all good students, so we invented a travel study proposal saying that since we were in the west, we had never seen anything old, and we wanted to get a sense of the history of our country. To our shock, it was accepted, on the condition that we do all the scheduled home work while we were away. So, in 1971, during the school year, six of us, 3 guys 3 girls, nobody over 18, set off on on a 10,000 mile six week journey in my parents' '68 VW bus armed with a file of nearly 50 notarized documents from school, parents, insurance company. We crossed the country alternating camping grounds (4 in the bus, we had removed the third row and built a platform to support a full sized mattress, and 2 in a tent) and staying with friends/relatives. The trip to New York was more amazing than we had imagined, then continued up to Canada and back through the north to California. Life altering trip. We were arrested twice as runaways. The second time was in Illinois, where we were taken to the police station, and out came the file of notarized papers, enough for everyone there to have 2 or three of something. The guy who arrested us said threateningly, "I'm going to call your parents." We said yes, yes, call Victor! Victor, the father of one of the guys, was a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, the most powerful civil liberties group in the country. We could all overhear Victor screaming over the phone that unless we were all outside calling from a phone booth telling him that we had been released within 10 minutes, he would have a law suit on his hands that he would never forget. So he took us outside, this big fat guy in cowboy boots, big Texas hat and aviator sunglasses, put his hand on his gun and said to us, "Alright, you can go...but I want you out of town by sundown."

That's when my love of busses started.

Having driven East to West many times it never ceases to amaze me how you can leave New York or Philadelphia and once over the Appalachians how quickly you can get into small town attitudes before arriving in the all embracing state of California.

I'm afraid the plain states left me screaming to hold on to my sanity and sadly South of Virginia and west of Tennessee left me often terrified!

 

[larrylamb]

Anyone remember the little Esso man you could get for your key ring

Were they before or after the Esso Smurfs? I remember collecting them at school.

 

[Keith Smith]

We had a garage just down the road from where we lived where the owner had the idea to have fully serviced pumps "manned" by young women just wearing skimpy shorts. Not sure if you got a Smurf as well but the place was packed! This was about 1973; in another time and another world.

 

[T6 CFO]

The demographic of this forum is beginning to reveal itself.

The older ones are having a kip.


Mike

 

[Joker 1299]

I remember going to the Metor Ford dealership in Birmingham with my dad to fill our Hilman Minx with leaded petrol for less than 10 shillings a gallon! Eeeek!

My dad had a Hillman Minx Californian

 

[B J G]

Recall coming back from Germany in '74 where Nato Forces got duty free fuel for about 7p per litre and having to pay 35p per litre here.
Could get Gerry cans on loan to take a stock with you when leaving Germany on leave/holiday
Toured Switzerland/Italy/Austria with a pop back into Germany for fuel top ups as required.
A friend managed to drive from Germany to the Spanish Grand Prix and back without having to purchase any fuel using this method. Cortina 2ltr GT.

 

[GrannyJen]

Green shield stamps, free glasses, world cup coins..

I had a very embarrassing moment with green shield stamps!

During the fuel allocation period post Yom Kippur war I helped a dealer out who then sent me about six books of stamps as a thank you.

I disclosed this gift to my employers, satisfied that no "bribe" had taken place they said I might as well have them.

Off I toddled to the Green shield shop in Queen street, Manchester .... presented a shed load of stamps all consecutively numbered, and before I new it I was being "interviewed" by security who wanted to know where I had nicked them from

 

[pjm-84]

My old man used to have an one of these

DAF F241 series - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

and would fill up every other night at the local Shell garage. We had more glasses and decanters then a glass shop.

 

[Velma's Dad]

My earliest truck driving experiences were in these:


And later on: