Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Collector Story Of The Month. C.S.O.T.M. April

OK lm in. a day late & i have nobody lined up BUT i bet Jarvis (the gentle globe handler) could tell us some 'juicy' stories!!!
Jarvis are you ready? we are!

Well I got an e-mail from Bob needing a last minute guy to fill in... why not... I have a story or 2.

Well my first story will in tale of when I started collecting. It was in Oct. right in the middle of Halloween when we were tricker treating with the kids when my mom saw an old gas pump. She asked if I would help her get one for my stepdad/dad for Christmas. I said sure so right then we went up to the guys house to ask if he had more of them and if so if any were for sale. He said no but the guy up on Hwy 66 and some... couple of night later we went there... same story he had some but not for sale. We even went and look at some that were in the car trader that were for sale... it was a lot more money than she want to spend but we went and looked any way. Well after about 3 weeks of this of talking and hunting I found 2 unrestored pumps and bought them for myself. That is when the bug started for me! LOL We stopped at one house and he told us about Bob and Rick Bonenburger... Rick does the Evansville show. They said they never sell anything but go it wouldn't hurt to go and see. Well we got a hold of Bob and went over to his house one night and that is when I really got hooked. My stepdad has always built motors and was a car nut and Bob new my stepdad... I guess he felt sorry for us and sold my mom a M&S 80 on a tall base which had a crown but we changed it over to Mobilgas. I will say that was some great 2 months running around town talking to guys and meeting other collectors. No broken globes yet! LOL My stepdad was surprised when he got the pump. That was the beginning of me as a collector.

Ok, Story 2

I had gotten about 3 or 4 pumps buy this time when I meet a local collector named Lonnie Adcock... well Lonnie has a little bit of everything in his collection and is a super nice guy. I was over there visiting him... me just getting hooked loved to talk and visit... when Lonnie offered me a globe he was selling. Well I bought that globe and that was my first globe and I was hooked. I think I bought about 2 globes that week off ebay and a set of NOS Mobilgas Special lenses for Scott B. That is when my wife thought i needed a budget and not free rane on the check book. LOL I was just getting my petro stuff in my basement and didn't have a shelf or anything for the globes so I was putting them on the floor next to the old coke machine. The NOS lenses from Scott went on an old coke machine so kids couldn't get to them. Well little did I know that my cat could get on top that coke machine... needless to say my cat broke them lenses and that was 4 years ago and that cat still goes come around me. I landed on the globe on the flor but didn't hurt it. If it wasn't for my wife I would have my way wife that cat. sorry if I offended a cat lovers. LOL Anyone that gets Check the Oil has seen pictures of the lenses that got broke... that was the first set.

I will try to think of some funny stories for the next ones instead of these boring ones. LOL

Ok... here is story 3 of the lenses.

I contacted a woman about a set of Power X over 100 lenses. She had a few sets and was going to list them on ebay and would sell me a pair at a fair price if I would help her on prices or questions that guys might have... I said sure. Well, after a couple of e-mails she said she had a broken lens and was wondering what it was worth. I told her it wasn't worth much... maybe $5 or trash it. She told me she was just going to send it with my 2 lenses and I could have it. Now I started laughing because here she didn't know the story about me and this broken lens must have thought it needed a home with me. Well, when I got the box yesterday from UPS and I was opening it the first thing I saw was that lens and thought one got broke... then I remembered the 3 lens. I thought I would post the 1 good lens and 1 bad one for some funnies since one it was broke already.

St.Louis Mikey... you still carry the demon? I have gotten a couple of lenses now and so far so good.

You know I find myself being much more careful moving or carrying a globe now than I ever have in the past. I only broke 1 globe myself




[This message has been edited by Jarvis (edited 04-13-2005).]

hey, jarvis i dont have any orig. globes except 2 crown globes but i would give u twice what u offered on the broken lens plus pay shipp. its not all bad to have broken globes, if they are cheap and look good. THANKS cggas

$5 ON A BROKEN ORIG LENS....MAYBE EXCHANGING HANDS FOR $10? YOU GUYS ARE "CRACKING" ME UP! LOL!!

COOL STORY JARVIS, YOU REALLY HAD ME FOOLED THERE!

DOC @ TAG/WEST

cggas, I can sign it and it's worth even more! LOL

A friend and I were out scouting the country about ten years ago for some junk to buy when we stopped at an old gas station that was now a welding shop. Turns out it was a Sinclair truck stop.
We found a few good items nothing real great.When we were about done we ask the owner, a fairly old man, if there were any condom machines in the restroom. He said there was and we went into the mens restroom and removed the machine off the wall. As soon as we got it in our hands we could tell it was still full of money so we took it out to the truck and loaded it. We then asked if there was another one and he said there was one in the womens restroom. Same story but this time the owner said let me see that one. He opened it up and sure enough it was full of quarters and he kept them.
Then what he said next I will never forget the way he told the story. "Ya boys that machine made me alot of money in that womens room. I would never fill it with them condoms, the women would put a quarter in but would be too embarrassed to come out and complain, yup, made alot of money outa this here machine"
Certainly not honest but still a classic story I will never forget. Don't have the condom machines anymore but I still have the Sinclair items in my collection.
Tom Buckles.

Tom, that's a funny story. It reminded me of something that happened while I was working for Atlantic Refining in the late 1960's. A friend of mine named Hoyt(we both played football together at University of Miami) worked for Atlantic also. He had this real tough dealer in West Hollywood. Our boss kept busting Hoyt to get the dealer to take the condom machine out of the men's room. The dealer refused and our boss kept hammering Hoyt "get that "D" condom machine out of the men's room!!!". So one day Hoyt went in there and pryed it off the wall with a crow bar and took it to the office and put it on our boss's desk and said "here, it's done".
Well, a few weeks went by. Hoyt went in to use the men's room at that same Atlantic station. When he opened the door, written in 12" red letters with a crooked stick was,
"RU**ERS ARE IN THE OFFICE". Every time I see a condom machine, this comes to mind. Everyone in Atlantic heard the story and got a good laugh from it.
REX

See... you old guys have better stories than us young guys. LOL

Rex,
Seems like there is always someone to find a way to one-up somebody, you never know what people will come up with.

Just goes to prove why this hobby is fun. You don't always have to buy something to have fun and get a laugh. But when you do buy something cool and get a good story that just makes it all the more fun like the time back around 1992 I was boating on the Ohio river and docked at Madison Indiana for fuel. Hanging over the water was a mint 1957 Mobil Peagus sign, the good smaller size. I asked the guy if that sign could be bought, he said "I would like to give it to you for all the trouble it caused me the other day". Seems a yacht from New Orleans pulled up and filled up for a $1000.00 worth of diesel fuel and whipped out a Mobil credit card. This place had not been a Mobil dealer for over 20 years and the guy said that was the only card he had for fuel.

Got the sign hanging in my shop

Hey Jarvis, Rex and I are not old, were seasoned.

Heading out for a weeks vacation, may find something or a least a good story.
Tom.