Ding ding.
Your front tire rolled over a black rubber hose stretched across the drive, and a bell rang in the garage. Before the car had stopped rolling, a man in a uniform and cap was at your window.
"Fill it up?"
He pumped the gas, popped the hood, pulled the dipstick, wiped it on a red rag, and showed you the oil level. He washed the windshield with a squeegee, glanced at the tires, and took your money. You never left your seat.
What the Job Was
The service station attendant ran the pumps at a full-service station. In the decades after World War II, that was simply how you bought gas.
Pumping your own gas wasn't just unusual. In a lot of places, it was against the law. According to NACS, the convenience store trade group, it was "unheard of" to pump your own gas in 1964, and state fire codes in most of the country prohibited it. By 1968, CNN reports, self-service was banned in 23 states.
A Day on the Job
The bell set the pace. Every car that rolled over the hose meant someone had to run out, no matter the weather: summer heat, sleet, a line of cars before a holiday weekend.
Between cars, attendants pumped up tires, sold oil and fan belts, checked batteries, gave directions, and handed out free road maps. Stations made money on those services, not just on the gas.
The Skills Nobody Saw
A good attendant could hear a bad belt or spot a soft tire while the gas was still running. He knew which local roads were closed and how to get to the hospital from anywhere in town. And he was a salesman, too. "Your oil's a quart low" was a sale. So was "those wiper blades are about done."
Tools of the Trade
The driveway bell and hose. The signal that a customer had arrived.
The squeegee and red rag. For windshields and dipsticks.
The tire gauge clipped to a shirt pocket.
The change maker on the belt, because a lot of people paid cash at the window.
The giveaways. Many stations handed out trading stamps, drinking glasses, or other premiums to keep customers coming back.
Why It Disappeared
The law changed. Bit by bit, 48 states rewrote their fire codes to allow self-service. A fire-code expert told NACS that the feared increase in fires "never materialized."
The oil crisis. The 1973 to 1974 oil embargo sent prices soaring, and drivers looked for any way to save. Self-serve gas was cheaper.
The convenience store. According to NACS, only 13 percent of convenience stores sold gas in 1973. By 1983, it was 52 percent, almost all of it self-serve.
Labor costs. A station with no attendants could stay open later and charge less.
By 1980, every state but two allowed self-service: Oregon and New Jersey.
The State That Still Has Them
Oregon held out for decades with a 1951 law. It loosened the rules for rural counties in 2018, and in August 2023 it finally let drivers across the state pump their own gas.
That leaves New Jersey. Self-service has been illegal there since 1949. As CNN reported in 2023, station owners can be fined up to $250 for a first offense if a driver is caught handling the pump, and up to $500 after that.
So if you want to pull up, roll down the window, and say "Fill it up, please," New Jersey is the one state where that is still the only way to do it.
Where It Lives On
A few full-service stations survive across the country, often in small towns, sometimes as a point of pride. And restored vintage stations on Route 66 and other old highways bring back the look, if not the bell.
What did you get free with a fill-up back then? Glasses, maps, stamps?
Sources
- "The History of Self-Fueling," NACS, Feb. 2024
- "Why New Jersey and Oregon still don't let you pump your own gas," CNN Business, June 2022
- "New Jersey is now the only state..." CNN Business, Aug. 9, 2023
- "Oregon lets drivers fuel their own cars," Associated Press, Aug. 4, 2023
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