Remember Gas Station Give-aways?

[TerryB]

We are paying $2.59 for regular here in my SE part of PA.  Much better than the days of $4.00 stuff.  Still, the $0.29 seems like a better deal regardless of inflation effects.  

 

Terry

[8E45E]

Roadmaps were ALWAYS free back in the day.

 

I remember the 'double horseshoes' which were also given away by British American (B/A) in Canada.  Esso had the tiger tails, Texaco had their Starburst bonuses where you got a voucher stamped everytime one filled up, and was redeemable for glassware.  Union 76 has orange Styrofoam antenna topper balls as well as miniature oil can banks.  Royalite had a weekly televised contest called 'Royalite Windfall' where one could enter the contest, and win all kinds of merchandise, including appliances, color TV's, etc.

Who doesn't remember Esso with their NHL 'Power Players' stamps and the album to keep them in?  Gulf also had 'Free real coins' of the world, at one point, followed by mineral samples in the early 1970's.  Petro-Canada had Olympic glassware everytime the Olympics were held in the 1980's and 90's.

 

Craig

[DAVES89]

I remember stopping for gas [Marshfield Wisconsin] with my dad in 1970 during the "gas wars". We paid 14.9 cents per gallon with the attendent pumping the gas plus a promotional give away. My dad chuckled on that for some time that day.

Edited April 21, 2017 by DAVES89 (see edit history)

[Larry Schramm]

On ‎4‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 11:50 AM, Dandy Dave said:

I've posted photos before of a few Items I have kicking around. One off of the top of my head is a little Esso foot ball made of Styrofoam. Also some of the aluminum Sunoco coins with the early cars on them. My most found memory was a cardboard pop out of the lunar module that was available at Gulf Stations.

 

  

 

I have one of those assembled and one still in the sheet unassembled.

[TerryB]

Here's another give away item from a local Sunoco dealer, back when smoking cigarettes was common.  The box of Camel cigarettes is actually a prop, it's just an empty cardboard box.  From the phone number I would guess the age to be 1940s or early 1950s.

Terry

 

 

[8E45E]

On ‎26‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 1:55 PM, TerryB said:

The box of Camel cigarettes is actually a prop, it's just an empty cardboard box.

 

 

Probably a good thing, after reading the label on the container that's holding it up!!!

 

Craig

[Tina]

I have found a Gulf Gas aluminum ice cream scoop. I believe to have been a give away. I can’t find any info on it. Anyone have any info like when they gave them away? What it is worth? Are they common etc. Any info would be appreciated.

    Tina

[3macboys]

It's funny how some of these ghost threads pop up at the right time.  I was just thinking the other day that there is no longer any give aways.  In the mid 80's when I was in high school one of my friends worked at the Texaco station just behind the small electronics store that I worked at doing deliveries.  The store had their gas account there and I reaped the rewards of glasses and batteries. The discussion while filling up was always what car we wanted as it was attached to a GM dealership.  The gas station is long gone but i still get together regularly with my friend.

[Crusty Trucker]

Back in the '50's, my mother won a free steam iron with a lucky ticket she received for buying gas at an independent station. I think it was the only "free-be" she ever received in all of her 94 years.

[Tina]

3 minutes ago, 3macboys said:

It's funny how some of these ghost threads pop up at the right time.  I was just thinking the other day that there is no longer any give aways.  In the mid 80's when I was in high school one of my friends worked at the Texaco station just behind the small electronics store that I worked at doing deliveries.  The store had their gas account there and I reaped the rewards of glasses and batteries. The discussion while filling up was always what car we wanted as it was attached to a GM dealership.  The gas station is long gone but i still get together regularly with my friend.

I love and collect the old pictures with frames that had thermometers and the names of their businesses on them. They would also have a calendar attached to the back that you would tear off each month. Sometimes I get lucky and the calendar is still full intact on the back. It is great because it validates when they were given away.  Love the phone #’s on them too. 

[Tina]

8 minutes ago, Crusty Trucker said:

Back in the '50's, my mother won a free steam iron with a lucky ticket she received for buying gas at an independent station. I think it was the only "free-be" she ever received in all of her 94 years.

The good ole days!

[Restorer32]

My ex brother-in-law drove tractor trailer for Harley Davidson Transportation in the 1980's.  Their drivers were allowed to fill up at whatever station they chose so they chose diesel stations that gave S&H Green Stamps.  He had well over 100 books of stamps before Harley realized what was happening and restricted where they could fill up. I think we nay still have one of the glasses Phillips 66 gave out in the 1970's.

[SC38dls]

10 hours ago, Tina said:

The good ole days!

Today will be the good old days in 30-40 years. A lot of the good old days are good because we remember the good parts and that is very good!  Besides I have a selective memory and hearing according to my wife from the good older days. 
dave s 

[Walt G]

A good friend and my mentor with old cars ( pre WWII) in the early 1970s had a gas station on Jericho Turnpike in Mineola NY on long island. I recall them giving away coffee mugs with the fill up of gasoline they sold. I helped pump gas while they worked on/repaired  cars in their garage. The building still exists but has been converted to a dry cleaners for decades . The weather vane at the top of the structure that was built in 1935-36 was a sheet metal sedan of that era done in relief and that now resides on the top of my garage safely casting its shadow of memories every day.

[TerryB]

Here’s a very common give-away in the snow belt area.  This one is from a very good friend’s business.  He passed away suddenly in the 1980’s.  

[JACK M]

Didn't the banks used to pay one to open an account?

[auburnseeker]

20 minutes ago, JACK M said:

Didn't the banks used to pay one to open an account?

Now they charge you to have it.  

Mine wants 10.00 for a bank check drawn on my checking.  I'm like well just give me 10G in cash then.  They don't like that.  

I found the secret though is you have to have the check drawn on your savings then there is no fee.   Now I transfer it to my savings from my checking then get a free check.  How stupid.  Especially since the wife and I along with the kids all have several accounts there, I have their credit card and they hold our mortgage.  So much for small town service and this isn't a big chain bank. 

[Lahti35]

Still may favorite after all these years...

 

We had one in the cabin bathroom when I was a kid. Loved the smell, I had a stuffed dinosaur I called Dino also. The original one is long gone but I do have one I open up to get my fix now and then, takes me back... Still love the smell decades later!

[TAKerry]

I had dozens of those ice scrapers over the years. I started to drive in 1980 and dont remember a lot of gas station give aways, I do remember the NFL team glasses that came with a fill up. I still have a dozen of them floating around somewhere. Even more so is remembering a gas station! Not a convenience but a real gas station. 

[MikeC5]

I like the Dino soap!  I do rememebr a local car wash that gave you a free wash when you filled up.  I still have some of those crappy Shell steak knives in the drawer too... 

[Swear57]

My dad work for the local farm co-op delivering fuel to the farmers. The only thing I remember were ice scrapers. I remember S&H green stamps from the grocery store. The price of gas today at Safeway was $4.17 the Chevon was $4.60 I wish I had $2.00 gas diesel was $4.80 here in eastern OR. There is some neat memorabilia out there.

[Tina]

17 hours ago, Walt G said:

A good friend and my mentor with old cars ( pre WWII) in the early 1970s had a gas station on Jericho Turnpike in Mineola NY on long island. I recall them giving away coffee mugs with the fill up of gasoline they sold. I helped pump gas while they worked on/repaired  cars in their garage. The building still exists but has been converted to a dry cleaners for decades . The weather vane at the top of the structure that was built in 1935-36 was a sheet metal sedan of that era done in relief and that now resides on the top of my garage safely casting its shadow of memories every day.

 Wow that sounds really cool. I would like to have one like that. Glad you got it.

[Walt G]

Tina

It was just a generic coffee mug that the gasoline company bought in quantity ( obviously) and did not have the gas companies name on it or anything. Was nothing special. We had a few but over the decades they got busted etc. so don't have any anymore. Welcome to the forums.

[Paul Dobbin]

  My favprite was "Tony the Tiger's" tail at the Esso Station.   Got mine while stationed at Shaw AFB in Sumpter SC in 1964-65.   Hung it out the gas

  cap on my 1959 'Studebaker Lark VIII with it's 289 V8 that could dust off the new Mustangs on the base.   I still have 5 books of S & H Green Stamps

  from that period.

[NailheadBob]

I had a job in gas station in early 70’s and during gas shortages we had gas rationing, $5.00 limit and car lines very long, and suspended giveaways, Guy came in with VW beetle got his $5.00 and paid with paper roll of quarters $10.00 like you get from bank, I gave $5.00 cash back and he complained no giveaway, closing the register that night to find out he inserted a penny in between each quarter, so he got his giveaway by screwing us out of money 

 

 

Bob

[JACK M]

I recall the give aways, but I was always broke and they don't give rewards for a dollars' worth of gas.

Only fill ups.

I did have a buddy that worked at a gas station that had a car wash once. I got a few evening car washes comp'd.

[Andy J]

I started driving in 1968 and I don't remember any gas station in my town giving anything away. However,I worked at a Phillips station when I was out of school for the summer and the Phillips petroleum company put quarters in some of the 10W-30 cans of Phillips Trop-Artic oil,their best oil at the time. It seemed about every sixth or seventh can had a quarter in it.

[SC38dls]

I worked in a junk yard on Saturday’s and my pay was free parts from the three 57 DeSotos they had in the back of the yard. I also got free gas each week. I had to siphon the gas from the wrecks. 
dave s 

[TAKerry]

I started driving in 1980. I think that was about the time of the second wave of gas crisis. I remember gas was fairly inexpensive and then when I got my license the prices shot up. I am the youngest of 5 and shall I say I was spoiled just a bit when I was a kid. Dad had a contracting business and there was a local gas company that had a system for select clientele. Maybe a couple of dozen people had access to the gas pumps 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. There was a keypad on the pump, you entered your PIN and the pump came on. Pop gave me the number and told me fill up whenever I needed gas. It was a groundbreaking idea at the time well before 24 hr stations were around in my area and pay at the pump wasnt even a thought. This transitioned into me getting a gas card as part of my 'salary' working for him. When my brothers and myself took over the business the gas card followed along. I was indirectly paying for it but never really 'bought gas' out of my own wallet. It wasnt until about 8 years or so ago when I opened my business that I started paying for it on my own!

[SteveMaz]

I remember my father getting me a Noah's Ark toy from Arco when a was little. You would get a pair of animals with each fillup and then at the end of the promo you got the ark. This was around 1970 or so. My parents also have a set of "fine" china that they always said was a gas station giveaway. I also have a set of Presidential coins that I got from Sunoco in the mid- 1990s.

 

[28 Chrysler]

76 stations gave away the orange antenna balls to find your car in the parking lot.

My car was the dirty one without one.

[Giftman]

In the fall of 1972 my neighborhood pals and I were simply obsessed with sports, and collecting all kinds of sports-related stuff (And just like most, my mom trashed all those valuable later…who knew?)…Anyway, I can remember making my father pull into every Sunoco station so I could bolt from the car and ask for “a book of stamps.” The passion felt then is similar to now with classic automobiles. I believe the best night of my young life was when I visited the same attendant for the third time within a week, and he finally just reached into the drawer and gave me a stack of stamp books. I about lost it….wow, great memories! 

 

 

[SC38dls]

Gift man I can’t tell you about the best night of my life involving a car, well a backseat of a car anyhow. !  
dave s 

[Marty Roth]

GULF NO-NOX

 

 

Claiming you got "Extra Kicks" in horsepower with "NO-NOX".

Gulf  ads in or around 1965-1966 showed a mule kicking the rear hooves.

The give-away item was a plastic stick-on pair of Horse Shoes !

 

I used mine to stick onto a dent in the left quarter panel of my $45 blue 2-door 1959 Chevy Del-Ray, 6-cylinder, 3-on-the-tree and very noisy differential 

(but it got me to work and back while I was working on the other '59 Biscayne, a $65black 2-door, 283/stick with overdrive)

Both were replaced by a 1960 and 1964 Valiant V-200 model, and eventually, a new '69 Pontiac Custom"S" when I planned to move from NJ to Louisiana

[Tina]

On 12/2/2022 at 5:58 AM, Walt G said:

Tina

It was just a generic coffee mug that the gasoline company bought in quantity ( obviously) and did not have the gas companies name on it or anything. Was nothing special. We had a few but over the decades they got busted etc. so don't have any anymore. Welcome to the forums.

Thank you

 

[J.H.Boland]

Back in the late 1960s, I worked for a BLM dealer (Austin/MG/Jaguar) and drove an Austin 1100. It seemed to run best on BP gasoline. A nearby BP station had a promotion for avocado glasses, one free with each fill up. These have survived those 55-odd years.

[TerryB]

This time of year gas company calendars were popular give away items.  I’m surprised none of them have been pictured yet.  My dad bought Esso gasoline regularly from a local gas station and we always had a new calendar each December.

[TerryB]

The famous Esso tiger tail.  I’ve had it forever.

 

[TAKerry]

2 hours ago, TerryB said:

This time of year gas company calendars were popular give away items.  I’m surprised none of them have been pictured yet.  My dad bought Esso gasoline regularly from a local gas station and we always had a new calendar each December.

I remember the local gas stations giving out calendars. Some were pg others not so much. Those were put up in the shop.

 

We had a Sinclair station ( I was surprised to see that brand going strong on my recent trip to the rockies) in the middle of town. Dad renovated it when I was a kid and they took down the big 2 sided light over the one pump island. Pop installed right beside our in ground pool so we could swim all through the night. That was the ultimate give away!

 

Small 1 light town, we had a Sinclair, Gulf and Sunoco. Along with an AMC dealer, a Ford dealer and a Dodge dealer. All on the same road in less than a mile from end to end.

[rocketraider]

On 12/3/2022 at 12:02 PM, 28 Chrysler said:

76 stations gave away the orange antenna balls to find your car in the parking lot.

My car was the dirty one without one.

Country store in our farm community sold Pure Firebird and later Union 76 gas. They gave away those orange antenna balls. My Mama thought that was a fantastic idea. She'd be able to easily find her car in a parking lot!

 

She had me put it on her 69 Impala and we went to Kmart. We came out and more than half the cars in that parking lot had orange antenna balls!

 

If someone tells you genteel Southern womenfolk won't bow up and hiss like a Halloween cat, don't believe them!