Many social media sites users post older photographs on Throwback Thursday as a look back to their past. Although my photo isn’t an old photograph, it is taken of something old and of an era lost. This pump’s dollar amount only has room to display $9.99 at the max, which doesn’t take long to surpass that now when filling up. And at one time, all gas stations were full-service, but that era has mostly disappeared after the first self-service opened in California in 1947, except for the states of New Jersey and Oregon with laws prohibiting self serve at gas stations, although this year Oregon counties with populations less than 40,000 people will be allowed to offer self-serve pumps during the night hours only.

So for most, no attendant will check the oil, wash the windscreen, pump the gas and take your money inside to get your change when the world wasn’t in such a hurry. Now it is a quick in, pay at the pump and leave. And it isn’t the man at the pump talking to you but the little screen on the pump showing you news and other information so you don’t miss out on being connected to some electronic device the few minutes it takes to fill the vehicle.

Pump of the Past