Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion NEW REQUEST, LET'S GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER.

My Father and some of his friends were in the Hobby... As a youngster I didn't collect Baseball Cards, instead I started collecting cans, signs and smalls.... I picked up my first can (Oilzum) around 1963 or so. I still have it...

Been collecting off and on (mostly on) ever since... Lost a good portion of my items in my divorce and lost even more in a lawsuit. Because of "Life's adventures" and the fact I am cheap (not frugal, just cheap)!!!!! Most of the items I acquire are smalls....

Guess I've always been a collector at heart of some sort. Coins as a kid (and still) then sports memorabilia as a young adult. Petroliana, however, came by happenstance... Some time ago I was presented with the opportunity to purchase my dream car--a 1966 Mustang convertible. Purely as a way to accessorize my car, I sought out a 1966 road map to place in the car's glove box. Aware of the company's history in the state and being one of the predominate oil company's in the region during my childhood, I gravitated towards Conoco. As such, a 1966 Conoco road map of Colorado became the first piece in my collection, which remains mostly limited to paper/ephemera from the 1929-'69 period, along with other items of personal interest. While I grew up at the dawn of the self-service age and was a first-hand witness to the death of the full-service station, both my father and grandfather worked as service station attendants at some point in their lives.

I started off by collecting Kansas license plates as a 12 year old. I've always loved anything old or rusty and my collecting really began with my dad who also collected license plates. After I finished 3 complete collections of Kansas license plates from the first issue up until modern day I wanted to begin to start something new. While on vacation when I was 14 years old I came upon an old Texaco porcelain sign at an antique store, I bought it and from there my Petroliana collecting has sky rocketed. It's my passion now and there is nothing else I would rather collect than pumps, signs, etc...

Thanks for the stories, keep them coming, and DB still hasn't told us how he began collecting some of the most interesting petro items.

Jack Sim

Hey I'll bite and add to the collection. My story is like McGuffey's except add 36 years to the age. I have always liked cars but admired them from a far having to raise a family and spend 15 years in college. I would watch BJ Auctions, Picker shows etc but when I went to a car auction and saw the petro stuff I bit. Bit hard too. The ironic thing is showing up a swap meet or auction in my Prius-definitely out of keeping with the trucks, which you need for the big signs I've found out. I too like Mobil, from Peggy to the Gargoyle, its all cool. Grew up in Winnipeg where there were some neat start up companies that have since gone under/absorbed like North Star, ROCO and Prairie Cities Oil. In fact the ROCO refinery blew up in 1962 when I was in school kitty corner to the plant. We did our cold war stuff and cowered under the desks while waiting for the all clear. So needless to say I am looking for ROCO stuff now. Just have to find more room to hang the stuff and I wish I would have started sooner. But this a great forum to learn quickly with sage advice from the members.

Fred

Fred

I was born a poor dumb Norwegian back in the 1900’s. They tell me it was 61. I never really did click with playmates but I loved JUNK. My life plan at around 6 years old was to be a garbage man so I could go through all the good junk people dumped. I was collecting car parts off abandoned cars for my dream car at around 10. Mom & Dad gave me a wrecked car around that time and it kept me busy for hours cutting and hacking away at it. I got it running and drove it around the field. It seems like back in them days there were a lot of abandoned cars and back field dumps and just plain good all-around junk that a kid could keep him busy rooting around in, especially when you hit on an occasional Playboy. LOL I eventually found the crowd that I would click with, it was the drug crowd. It seemed like there was always something for sale and I didn’t spend all my money on drugs so I had some left over for buying stuff that caught my eye. I think I always had an entrepreneurial spirit and would build stuff to drag around the neighborhood to sell and make money (wind chimes, trellises, painting and mowing). My grandpa’s name was “Trading Oscar” and I suspect I have some of his blood in me because I really enjoy trading. Grandpa traded an old car for a team of hoses and started thrashing outfit in Cheney Washington. The first pump I bought back in the 1900’s, I think around 89 brought back the memories of walking from the Cheney farm into town wandering around in the truck junk yard then to the Gull station to ask for Gull or Gulf stickers, ***** I can’t remember. I have a slight memory of jumping up and down on a white piece of sheet metal at the junk yard. I would love to know if I was jumping on a sign. I still like junk and feel more comfortable around a pile of junk than a crowd of people.

When I was around 20 yrs old and I'm 44 right now, I bought a farm near Marlboro, Ohio. There was an original tall Bennett 646B Sinclair pump on the farm across the street leaning over in the weeds. One day I look out the window and the farmer had the pump up on the front forks of his tractor carrying it across the field to a huge hole he had dug, I took off running (probably looked like a scene from "Gone with the Wind") Not to mention I could actually run fast at that time, lol, not now. So he gave it to me and I restored it, that started the fire. So I starting picking around my neighborhood and WHOA did I hit some goldmines. Found seven original globes upstairs in a barn down the street (one box had (2) 15" Johnson lenses). Then there was this man in Uniontown I called "Crazy Jake." He was meaner than a rattlesnake but boy did he have some serious stuff in his building. You would go up and ring the doorbell and he would come to the door with this crazy LSD look on his face "What do you want!" and slam the door closed again , so I would knock again. Finally he would reply "It'll cost you 20 bucks just to look in that building today!" So I would drag a twenty out and hand it to him. He would whistle and this mut dog of his (I swear this was the smartest dog I've ever seen would run up out of nowhere growling at me and follow us). So that's where I found the only Milestone clockface model #40 known (FOR $250 BUCKS). He would hand the cash to the dog and say "hide it." The dog would take off back towards the house with the money. Like an hour later and after several arguments with Jake because he was an absolute bear to deal with, the dog came back with a note saying "supper is ready in 10 minutes." "Sorry he said, your time is up today Goober." Next time you come back, bring a real wad of money OK? And the door would slam shut, let's go times up! Guess I'd better go back over there again soon, sometimes going back to an old source can lead you into something you missed. Happy Easter.

Goober

Very cool memory you have there Goober!!!