Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion What it was like back in the 80s - Part 3

After Iowa Gas in Des Moines and a quick trip home to St. Louis we were off to Dayton, Ohio. Monday morning my wife was off to class on the bus and I had the car and 12 days to look for petroleum items.
I left the Air Force base at the nearest gate and found myself in Fairfield.
Now where would you start looking, well I looked for a gas station and spotted a tanker truck dropping product at a Marathon station. I never talked to the station operator, I talked with the tanker driver. I told him I collect petroleum items (gas pumps, signs, globes, etc.) and asked him if he knew of any jobbers where I might find some old stuff.
He named off about 6 or 7 places all within a 75 mile radius of Dayton, but mostly to the north and east.
The first place I picked was a farm coop in Urbana that had stations and found about 14 Tokheim 39s and 300s and a couple of Wayne 80s. He wouldn't sell me the Erie clockface he had in the building, he said he planned to restore it when he retired. My going rate for this type of pumps was $15.00 and he accepted to offer. I told him I would be back soon.
Driving around old Highway 40 which is just north of I-70 in this area I found a couple of great old antique stores filled mostly with nostaligic items. My wife and I went there that evening and purchased a few boxes of stuff (very little petroleum related, but great old stuff).
It's hard to remember which days I visited which jobber but for the next few days it went like this.
In Springfield, Ohio I purchased a square Tokheim 850 and a couple of 39s. In Plain City, Ohio, a Tokheim 34 and one other pump. I even took time to visit with Ben Staub at his business. This little meeting has led to an over 15 year friendship. Ben and his son Steve run the Ohio Gas swap meet outside of Dayton.
All told I purchased 19 gas pumps, a bunch of signs, nozzles, no globes but a lot of ad glass from various companies and god knows what all. We kept bringing so much of it up to our room in the officers quarters that it started looking like a warehouse. Something had to go. On Friday we shipped 9 boxes of stuff back to St. Louis by UPS.
I happened to have a copy of Hemmings with me and noticed that there was going to be a auto swap meet in Troy, Ohio, only about 15 miles away, on Sunday. We happened to have an old tarp in the trunk so we loaded up a bunch of nozzles, ad glass and other small items to see if we could sell some of it.
We didn't sell a thing, but a guy came along and asked if I purchased things like this. After a quick answer of YES!!!! he gave me directions to his place in Lima, Ohio about 70 miles away.
Monday morning found me in Lima and when he slid the door open to his building I thought I was in heaven.
Against the wall were box after box, each with a NOS Tokheim 39 or 300 door and even a box or two with a NOS side in it. Marathon signs were all over the place and 20+ ECO air meters. On the shelves were NOS Tokheim 34 and 36B faces, NOS ECO reset handles and behind one bench about 500 NOS Marathon ad glass (I still have about 100+ of these in a drawer). All over the shelves were NOS gas pump parts as he repaired pumps for Marathon. There was so much stuff it was hard to remember it all.
Now for the fun part, how much?
He told me to make a pile outside, of the things I wanted, so I made one that would fit in the car. He took a look at it and said $40.00. I paid, packed and headed back telling him I would be back the next day. Before leaving I asked him if he had any old literature (sales or repair manuals on pumps etc.) that he didn't want. He said he did have some at home and would bring it the next day.
Tuesday morning found me back again. I asked about the literature and he said it was in the back seat of his car. Not knowing what to expect I went to the car only to find the complete back seat fill from one side of the car to the other with literature. This is what actually got me started in what materialized into the gas pump book. Again I asked how much, he said $40.00.
Knowing that I wouldn't be able to take all the stuff he had, back to the AF base I made piles, and put the stuff in a place where it would all be when I came back for the gas pumps that all around the area. Each time I made a pile he would say $40.00. This was easy, all I needed was a pocket full of twenties.
Knowing I would have to come back and pick up the pumps I decided that Wednesday and Thursday would best be spent gutting the pumps. I didn't even have a screw driver with me so it was off to Sears. I bought the basic tools and in two days I gutted 19 pumps by myself. I didn't need any help, but I did have to borrow a few tools I forgot.
Friday was an open day, but I did have the name of one more jobber on the south side of Dayton. There is a highway that runs east to west below Dayton that goes through Eaton near the Indiana border.
I started out at the first jobber buying a few little things (I do remember buying another ECO air meter somewhere) and asking him where the next jobber could be found. It seemed that every town on this road had a jobber, didn't find much until I got to Eaton.
After telling the jobber in Eaton about my quest he showed me an array of nice clock face pumps that were stored in the back of his building. They weren't for sale (again he was going to restore them when he retired) but he did say I could have anything off his junk pumps that were out along the fence. Luckly I had the tools with me and I went to work. I was pulling faces, bezels, handles, just about anything that I could remove from them. He didn't want anything for them, just take what I wanted. It was getting dark and I was still working so he told me to lock the gate when I was finished. Before he walked away I told him that I wasn't going to take anything off of a Tokheim 36B he had there. This was one of the nicest unrestored 36B I had ever seen and I thought it would be a crime to remove anything. I told him I would try and get back to this part of the country soon and if the pump was still there I would purchase it (it took 2 years before I was back, the pump was still there, nothing was removed and I purchased it for $50.00 and he even used the fork lift to put it in my truck).
Saturday we loaded up the Camry, the back end was dragging the ground and my wife was complaining about what I was doing to her new car. We even stopped in Cincinnati and picked up her daughter and our grand-son. She still laughs at making room for them in the back seat with all the stuff we had.
Two weeks later it was back to Dayton with my son, a truck and a empty trailer.
That story tomorrow.

AWESOME

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Hubba the GAS GEEK , OIL FREAK of Shoreline WA

Maybe you or somebody already said this earlier, but I think these stories could be turned into another book. "Jack Sim's Early Pump Hunting Stories". I love it. Please tell us more. I only dream of somebody telling me 40 bucks for that pile over there. ~Jason

Great stories Jack. Please tell us more...

Scott

Great job Jack.. This is like a soap opera you keep us waiting for more of the the story.........The Days of Jack's Lives..

Keep it up Scott in KC

Jim, It's quite obvious that you fell in a pile of SH............UGAR! And what sweet stories of the hunt you tell! More....more.......Encore!

DOC @ The American Garages.

awesome, jack

Jack, you are making my eyes water.

Lee

Great story Jack!!! I can't wait for the next chapter. Thanks

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Frank