Originally Posted by SandPCollector
I lived in Barrington RI from 1964 to 1975. I remember the Cities Service change to Citgo in 1965, the Atlantic change to Arco in 1970 and the Esso change to Exxon in 1972. Flying A was bought out by Getty, but there weren't a lot of Flying A stations that I recall seeing. Getty expanded by rebranding other stations - I remember a Gulf and an Arco station changing to Getty. In addition to those brands I remember Texaco, Sunoco, Mobil, Gulf, Phillips 66 (not many), American and a couple BP stations in Massachusetts during the time I lived there.

Thanks for giving me a trip down memory lane!


Barrington's right down the road! I have a spreadsheet somewhere with a little more detail, I didn't see any BP stations in the directory. Maybe they weren't in RI. And the spreadsheet lists which stations converted to Getty. Also, I was able to tell by the ads in the City Directory that there was one guy who sold his Esso station and bought a Mobil station. I'm not sure how common that was. This period covers my first 10 years and the impression I have of gas stations when I was that young was that they started out as full serve but self serve was emphasized more and more as prices went up. Also, they were more like garages when I was little, then became more oriented towards selling conveniences like soda & cigarettes. I also remember the stations where there's an attendant in a glass enclosed closet sized room, but that wasn't until later. I think Stop & Shop still does that.