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STLtoday - Got Gas? Petroliana Could Be The Answer! INTERNET HOME OF: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Suburban Journals | St. Louis Best Bridal | Ladue News TUESDAY | APRIL 29, 2008 HOME NEWS BUSINESS SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT LIFE & STYLE SUBURBAN JOURNALS JOBS AUTOS HOMES SHOPPING #1 ST. LOUIS WEB SITE STLtoday.com Web ADJUST TEXT: + | − BUY A CAR BUILD A CAR SEARCH PRE-OWNED FIND A DEALER SEARCH HELP YOUR ACCOUNT LOGIN SAVED AUTOS SAVED SEARCH Autos > Old Car Column > Story Got Gas? Petroliana Could Be The Answer!Bruce Kunz01/02/2007 A recent display from an It's a Gas event. Headline: Got Gas? Petroliana Could Be The Cure! High Octane Trivia Questions(tm) of the Week: 1. What was the original name of the Mobil Oil Company when it was incorporated back in 1866? 2. What was the common name used to denote “high octane” gas back in the fifties and sixties? 3. What is a “lubester”? 4. When and where was the first “filling station” built in the United States? Answers may be found by visiting my web site at: http://groups.msn.com/the-fin-man/triviaanswers.msnw. Okay, you’ve parked your collectible car carefully in the garage, disconnected the battery, drained the fuel tank and wrapped your prize possession in a protective car cover for the winter. What are you going to do between now and the Easter car show, to feed the burning need for a nostalgic motoring fix? Consider a weekend trip to Columbia, Missouri for the 15th annual It’s A Gas show and swap meet– a veritable treasure trove of vintage petroleum collectibles. This event, being held on Friday, January 12th and Saturday, 13th, is one of the best in the midwest and will attract nearly one hundred vendors from all across the country, some from as far away as California. They’ll arrive around sun up on Friday in motor homes and pickups, towing trailers stuffed with fascinating petroleum collectibles as small as a matchbook and as large as... well, you never know. I’ve been a regular at this event for many years, mostly as a spectator and buyer but occasionally as a vendor. It’s a great way to spend a weekend and, even if you’re not a collector, you’re sure to spot some very interesting things while perusing the aisles of this all indoor event. When I go to It’s A Gas, I’m like a kid again... the proverbial “kid in a candy store.” Each annual visit results in a trinket or three to haul back home. Among last year’s “must haves” was a radio controlled, 1/8 scale formula racer, new in the box for $80.00. My purchases, in years past, have included a restored, sixties vintage Johnson Gasolene gas pump; a neon sign; a real “walk/don’t walk” electric signal; a large illuminated Shell Oil sign; a brand new gas pump nozzle; a six foot diameter, porcelain, Texaco star sign, circa 1946; a vintage filling station uniform including shirt, pants and cap and miscellaneous tin signs and “smalls” too numerous to mention. My chief financial officer Kathy Kunz (otherwise known as “spouse”) is often a hard sell. She seems to think that the three gas pumps I currently own, is at least two too many! I told her that, at a recent Christmas party held at Bill Bierman’s Creative Customs custom body shop, I met a man who owns over sixty vintage pumps. She was not impressed... particularly since Sabrina, our youngest daughter, is getting married next September and suddenly discretionary income has become as rare as fossil fuel. That said, I’ll still make the pilgrimage to Columbia once again for 2007 and if I can scrape up a few bucks from my “mad money” funds, I may be able to bring back a few small items. My fascination with anything auto related began at a very early age. As I’ve mentioned often in this column, my father owned a Mobilgas service station during my wonder years. Prior to my birth, Dad (Charlie Kunz) was a diesel mechanic, working for Busch-Sulzer Diesel Engine Company during WWII and spent time installing huge engines in the Panama Canal locks system. These massive engines had pistons with diameters as large as thirty-six inches. I remember a photo of him and some fellow workers posed at the Busch-Sulzer plant in St. Louis, in front of a large railroad tank car. The tank car was fitted with a large pipe at each end and was used as a muffler for the giant engines which turned at incredibly low rpms. When his assignment in Panama came to a close at the end of WWII, my dad formed a partnership with fellow Busch-Sulzer mechanic Harold MacFarland and opened Han-De Super Service, a full service Mobilgas dealer at the corner of Delmar and Hanley Roads in University City, Missouri. By the time I was old enough to lift a pump nozzle, my dad put me to work after school and on Saturdays. I always looked forward to Saturdays as, for breakfast, we often ran down the hill to the corner of Delmar and North and South to get in line at Petrofsky’s Bakery where some of the finest stolens and sweet rolls were served up fresh from the ovens. On late nights during the week, dad would send me to Velvet Freeze on Gannon Avenue just a few doors up from North and South to get milk shakes. One of his favorites was a Pineapple shake with a raw egg whipped in it. No wonder I developed a life long sweet tooth! Delmar and Hanley was the only intersection in the entire St. Louis area with a gas station on all four corners. There was dad’s Mobil on the NW corner, Joe Fischer’s Sinclair on the NE, a Shell (don’t remember the owner’s name) on the SE and a Texaco on the SW. The Texaco, as I recall, changed to another supplier in later years. Dad’s just a short bike ride from another Mobilgas station owned by the father of St. Louis auto mechanic and radio host David Finkelstein. Although Dave and I are probably about the same age, we didn’t know each other way back when. When dad felt up to it, he’d throw my Schwinn Traveler in the back of the car and take it to work with us. When things were slow, he would let me ride around the area in U-City and Clayton. I looked forward to these bike rides, especially in September when the new cars were hitting the tarmac at Clayton automobile “agencies” like Forest Cadillac, Barford Chevrolet, Sutton Ford and LM Stewart Chrysler Plymouth to name a few. Meanwhile, back at the shop... it was business as usual, servicing the clients of the neighborhood, the doctors, the lawyers, the small business owners and the clergymen. Service with a smile was the rule and, under no circumstances, was I to address my elders by their first names. It was “hello Mr. Smith” NOT “hi.” And while the pump was running, I would clean the windshield and of course check the oil, water and battery. The recommended oil change interval was 1,000 miles in those days and tune ups were performed every ten thousand. No, they sure don’t make ‘em like they used to... and that’s a very good thing! Brake jobs were always fun. At first I watched as dad removed the wheel and tire and brake drum from a car. Next, he would take a high pressure air hose with a powerful nozzle attached and blow off the brake shoes, hardware and backing plates... creating a dense and nasty cloud of asbestos dust which spread throughout the three service bays. There was no OSHA in those days and we had yet to learn of the dangers of asbestos inhalation. After a really greasy repair, it was not uncommon for us to fill a shallow pan with leaded gasoline and, using a stiff parts cleaning brush, drench our hands and arms up to the elbow with the toxic chemical. Dad, who also worked for an asbestos shingle manufacturing plant in North St. Louis in his younger days, lived to the ripe old age of 89. I’m sure many others were not so lucky. You know how some smells, which may be considered offensive, if not downright obnoxious, by some, can somehow seem curiously attractive to others? For example, some people “like” the smell of diesel exhaust... or cigarette smoke for that matter. One such nostalgically fond olfactory memory for me was the smell of the vulcanizing process used to repair inner tubes. By the late fifties and early sixties we weren’t doing many such repairs as most automobiles were equipped with tubeless tires and patching tubes was fast becoming a dying process. To me, however, it was not only a curious olfactory sensation, but also a somewhat fascinating process to witness. (Call it simple things for simple minds if you wish.) The process began by placing the inner tube over a wall mounted anvil of sorts which held the ailing tube in place. The puncture was centered at the top of the plate facing up. A solvent was rubbed on the wound to clean it and make the patch more likely to hold. The patch was a compound packed into a tiny cake pan of sorts about 1.5” wide by 2.5” long and about an eighth of an inch deep. The shiny and tactilely supple patch side was placed down on the repair site and a screw down clamp held the patch in place. Finally, a pointed object such as a scratch awl, was used to lift up bits of the compound on the back side of the patch. A match was used to ignite the lifted compound crumbs which instantly began to sputter and sizzle. A fiery line advanced across the tiny pan toward the opposite rim, causing a plume of black smoke to rise toward the ceiling of the shop and creating a strangely pleasant odor. The heat generated by the burning compound melted the rubber patch and caused it to bond with the surface of the inner tube. The clamp was lifted and, presto... another ailing inner tube was given a second (or third or fourth!) life. These are but a few of my fond memories of Han-De Super Service. Had we only known then what we know now about the lifelong fascination many people would develop for petroleum related products, dad and I would have filled a warehouse with oil cans, old gas pumps, signs and other automotive related items. All I (quite accidentally) managed to save from those days was a large, sculptured, porcelain Pegasus that once spread its wings proudly on the outside wall of Han-De Super Service and a, possibly very collectible, promotional item... a small, red leather clothes brush with a zipper surround. When opened it reveals a travel kit with a needle and tread, shoe horn and other small necessities to aid the weary traveler. Emblazoned on the red leather exterior is the Mobil Pegasus in gold leaf. I have never seen another and have no idea what it may be worth. Perhaps I’ll take it to It’s A Gas this year to see if I can find someone there who knows something about it. Of course Han-De Service, as we called it for short, was closed on Sundays. These were the days of the “Blue Law” in Missouri and only a handful of necessary businesses were allowed to be open on the “day of rest.” I’m not sure, but I suppose we could have been open if dad and his partner wanted to, because gasoline, I think, would have been considered a necessity. Sunday’s were much more laid back in those days. It was the day to go to church, visit friends and relations, have a bar-b-que, go on a picnic or visit the St. Louis Zoo or museums. What you didn’t do was work. If there were household repairs to be made, they could wait ‘til the work week started. There were no trips to Home Depot or Lowes. The big hardware store back then was Central Hardware and, as with most other retailers, they were closed on Sunday. I’ve often reminisced about those days of the Blue Law and thought perhaps we were better off then. Well, enough about that... it’s Sunday and I have to get to Lowes before they close. For more information on Blue Laws go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law Match books, lavatory signs, rubber tire ash trays, porcelain advertising signs, thermometers, glass oil bottles and more... it’s all there for browsing, buying and/or trading. (Did you know that before there were plastic oil bottles there were aluminum cans, cardboard cans, tin cans and glass bottles?) Most of what you’ll see will be petroleum or automobile service related, and the term for these collectibles is “petroliana.” Look the word up in Webster’s and you’ll come up blank, but enter it in Google’s search engine and you’ll come up with 96,200 entries in 0.13 seconds. Some notable specialty collectibles in the Petroliana business are early glass oil bottles, vintage gas pumps and the glass globes which topped mid twentieth century pumps. Not only will you find petroliana at the show, you will also find other nostalgic pieces such as ice cream parlor items, railroad collectibles, traffic lights, neon advertising signs, toys and other semi-related items. If you’ve never been there and you have the slightest interest in nostalgic items having to do with automobiles, travel and items from the sixties, fifties and earlier, you owe it to yourself to go. It really is a gas! Whether it’s a beautifully restored vintage gas pump for a few grand, or a fifties road map (before the interstate system) with a Derby logo on the front for a few bucks, you’re going to see things that bring back fond memories of the golden days of motoring. It’s A Gas is held at the Boone County Fairgrounds in Columbia, Missouri... an easy drive from St. Louis or KC. Friday, January 12th is “early bird” shopping and swapping. Admission for Friday AND Saturday is $25.00. If you’re not interested in speculating on early bird bargains, you can visit all day Saturday for just $5.00. For more information contact John Troxel at 573-896-8609 or Mike Russell at 573-442-(I like that)6759 or 573-592-1991. You can e-mail the It’s A Gas guys at pcoating@ktis.net. However you contact them, please be sure to tell them the FIN MAN sent you. If you have any petroleum related collectibles stashed away in your attic or basement that you would be interested in selling, contact me at mailto:the_fin_man@msn.com or by phone at 314-954-0200. I’ll help you move your items either by purchasing them myself or finding a serious buyer. Do you know the difference between antique, collectible and Classic Cars? Spend a week at the beautiful YMCA Trout Lodge on Sunnen Lake in Potosi, Missouri, June 3rd-8th or August 12th-17th, 2007, reminiscing about your first car while learning how to be an old car hobbyist from The FIN MAN himself. The 6-day, 5-night program for adults 55 and older, runs $548 each double occupancy, $628 single and includes The FIN MAN’s presentation, PLUS two additional programs, one discussing antiques and collectibles (what’s hot and what’s not) and the other covering Route 66, Main Street USA, plus lodging, meals, classes and entertainment. An evening of wine tasting is provided by a local winery. For more information or to register, go to the YMCA of the Ozarks web site at: http://www.ymcaoftheozarks.org/OlderAdults/index.cfm. Please tell them you heard about it here. Bruce Kunz is available for your group’s special event and is currently booking dates for 2007 and 2008. During his appearances, he presents an overview of the collector car hobby plus a detailed look at American cars from the fifties and sixties. His program includes a Power Point presentation with images of collectible automobiles and various associated nostalgia and Americana. Guests also have the opportunity to play “FINS for FUN” (which inspired his nickname), the video car trivia game Mr. Kunz first produced in 1987, in which players compete for auto related prizes. For more information, click on this link: http://groups.msn.com/the-fin-man/seminaragenda.msnw. Bruce Kunz is a member of the Society of Automotive Historians, the St. Louis Chapter of the Buick Club of America and the Monte Carlo Owners Association of America. He welcomes your comments and suggestions. 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