#243677
Sun Mar 27 2011 05:01 PM
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 13
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OP
Member
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 13 |
Dear Fellow-Petroholics:
Hello!  I'm searching for an Orange Disc for any late-1930s' Gulf-branded pump; whether built by one of Gulf's four contractees (i.e., Bennett, Southwest, National/Tokheim, or Erie)...or by any other manufacturer with Gulf-specified cabinets.
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[img:left][img]http://url_to_image/Desktop/My_Pictures/Three-in._Gulf_disc_II,_for_E-mails[/img][/img]
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Speaking of cabinets: no, this wasn't/isn't a porcelainized-steel disc of 10-12 inches or so. Notice (from tire-tread underneath) that it was only three (or two-&-1/2) inches in diameter; Gulf's own design placed it under glass-pane (yet out-in-the-open-weather), on chrome-plated frame.
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Am no pump-collector or restorer; am merely an oil-company-trademark-collector, chrome-emblem-collector, & cartoony-mascot collector...who's a BIG fan of Gulf Oil. First subject-matter I ever doodled (one-&-one-half-yrs.-old, 1965) was lollipop-shaped-signpost, with pre-1964 Orange Disc. Down here in rural southeast, Gulf had been strong retailer for at least 50 yrs.! Despite "homey quaintness" of many, many country-stores with Orange Discs outside (they, not Disney or NBC, began my toddler-fascination with Gulf Oil)---by its Holiday Inn/NBC News/NASA/Disney decade, one of USA's ten largest corporations was in fair-way to cover all 48 continental states.
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Any "oldgas.com" member with a surplus-spare: Please reply as quickly as possible. Any condition is O.K. Ask me about lots of surplus automobilia, petroliana, and soda-pop signs & small "trinkets"--or commissioned artwork--for trade or partial-trade.  THANKS loads!
Yours for a very happy Purim & Passover (or Good Friday & Easter),
Michael Shepherd
Last edited by bnnvlle98pk.ave.; Sun Mar 27 2011 05:13 PM. Reason: Could not see my "inserted" photo
ESP. collect molded/embossed "wall-signs" & all-plastic globes. Can supply graphic-design for your small business; or paint/sketch family portrait, favorite vehicle, Granddad's station or car/truck agency, &c. Also draw in Disney-esque draughtsmanship.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 13
Member
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OP
Member
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 13 |
Dear Fellow-Petroholics:
Thanks for reading this postscript, epilogue, or whatever it's called. Here's the country-store which began my fascination with Gulf Oil Corp. "Smalley's Store" was once located on U.S. 43/Ala. 13, between Berry (small, railroad-town in Eastern Fayette Co., towards B'ham.) and Northport/Tuscaloosa/Univ. of Ala. We used that highway to visit my maternal grandparents. ********************************************************************************************************************************************** This one-to-four-yr.-old (1964-late'67) had no idea that Crimson Tide football-mania had its roots in mid-1960s! Dr. Horton Foote, (Auburn University's) Dr. Wayne Flynt, and Southeast's other sociologists & historians suppose this was because White Gentiles---(deservedly) bested & humiliated by news-media, during Civil-Rights struggle---jes' had to grab f'r SOME-thin' we-unnz could say we wuz first in, boy. Some-thin we could sho'nuff brag 'bout! (  Rah, rah, rah [yawn]...sis-boom-bah....  )
Neither did I know that "Big Oil's 50 Sisters" were in ruthless price-war during booming, mid-1960s-through-1973. No; I was into Gulf Oil, Pure Oil, and (slightly into) Phillips, a relative newcomer into Ala. (Those three trademarks dominated franchised country-stores at nearly every county-rd.-intersection on Hwy. 43, 45 yrs. ago. Could eventually doodle scenes from...write-down slogan(s) from...any commercial about the "FIRST-CLASS Gasoline that WON the West!" or Pure Firebird's sponsorships of NASCAR, or one corporate giant: Gulf-a-Holi-Dis-N-B-Cape Canaveral, or Orange Dis-Ney InN-B-C, or whoever.
Over later course of childhood, this aspiring auto-designer (or animator) began to collect both chrome-emblems & fresh, 1974 showroom brochures (Oct., 1973, age ten, 4th Grade, during my Hanna-Barbera "teens-solving-mysteries" phase)...model-cars (Feb., 1975, 5th Grade) ...antique-magazines (same years)...and as much animated Robin Hood (Disney, 1973) & Hong Kong Phooey "stuff" as I could see. Then...in Feb., 1976 (6th grade, during my brief, Filmation phase)...my great-aunts gave me packet of several road-maps. Although most were from oil-companies native to her Okla.--three were antique Gulf & Pure Oil maps from 1945-1960. Two were Gulf, and one "Info-Map" was the oldest one I'd ever owned up-to-then: you know, the one with ornate sign-post above a 1939-'40 grille & headlamps, all on navy background.) And, luckily, all three used the "classic" logos, before plastic-signage of 1950s (and their still-limited technology) would soon call for facelifted graphic-symbols. Even before my parents took this 12-yr.-old to B'ham. (to tour Ala. School of Fine-Arts)---I became even more-serious collector of "petro-mobilia." Even began to sketch ideas for full-service architecture...during a year when the USA saw fewer of 'em, and more of the survivors became "Self-Serve, 24-Hr. Food-Marts." This 12-yr.-old LOVED Gulf's German chocolate, board-&-batten architecture(and H-B's Dynomutt?!) back then! 
By 1975---Smalley's Store became history. This eleven-year-old never knew (was in my Hong Kong Phooey & Cadillac phase in early-mid '75), but: in Gulf's reliable source of crude (ever since 1946)---the Kuwaiti emirate---(understandably) nationalized her fossil-fuels-industry, that year. Gulf would have to "celebrate" her 75th Diamond Jubilee, by groping for other nations' crude, coal, & natural-gas on the open-market. (And by having one-half of her corp. hdqts. in a "Rust-Belt" city, unless Gulf moved everything into their Houston tower....) Those very developments which had closed-down one-half of North America's full-service stations (or so it seemed, by the time Detroit rolled-out her "new," 1977 models)---or would finally do so by early 1984---gradually doomed N. America's network of rural, "Mom-&-Pop"-owned mercantiles & small garages. (Plus few, remaining trading-posts West of Rockies.)
By the 1979 "2nd Energy Crisis" (remember when Gulf spent several millions to freshen-up their retail-architecture?), and subsequent, 1980-'83 recession ...only a much-smaller network of convenience-stores occasionally dotted rural-roads. (You know; with their ice-machines, Blue Rhino-branded propane-tanks, booze,& tobacco...all under boxy, freestanding, corporate-designed, pump-island-canopies...notice one, and you've seen practically all of 'em.) Because of that gradual shrinkage of rural, country-stores---and because of Gulf's shrunken, retailing-area in continental U.S. (Gulf, you'll recall, had to fight  for its survival, against  one T. Boone Pickens)---sssuurre was ironic that O.P.E.C. soon greeted early-1984 with new, crude & natural-gas discoveries! At least those rural "C-stores" have remained to this day, if & whenever your baby "conks-out," between one town(or city) and the other....or you want delicious-yet-"cholesterized," "deli" meals....or you have a Gulf Travel-Card...and live anywhere from Maine through Ohio...!  ************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Another "at least": Fortunately, the Smalley's old building still stands. (Rickety by now...but, by Dick Cheyney's underwear's, she still stands!) My own watercolor (circa 1992) was the third in my series of watercolors for hand-signed "prints"---all of which I'll submit to "Shop Talk's" "For-Sale" column, very soon. You can BET I will!...for each "print" (from all 24 or 25 watercolors...so far) are fund-raisers for Okla. City's (Protestant-based) Feed the Children Int'l. Until then---let me thank every oldgas.com member, in advance, for providing information about three-inch, "GULF" discs remaining for sale or trade.
Yours for a very happy Purim & Passover (or Good Friday & Easter),Michael Shepherd A C T S 4 : 5---1 2
.JPG "Smalley's Store, U.S. 43, Tuscaloosa County, Ala., 1935 (1996 painting).JPG
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Last edited by bnnvlle98pk.ave.; Mon Mar 28 2011 02:54 PM.
ESP. collect molded/embossed "wall-signs" & all-plastic globes. Can supply graphic-design for your small business; or paint/sketch family portrait, favorite vehicle, Granddad's station or car/truck agency, &c. Also draw in Disney-esque draughtsmanship.
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