The year is 1966; the place is Rochester, Minn., a small Midwestern city served by 77 filling stations. As one pulls into the station, a car-crazy teenage attendant in a blue shirt with his name above one pocket and Apco, D-X or Deep Rock above the other, offers to filler er up and wash the windshield. <\/p>\n
Soon, his equally car-crazy buddies start hanging out. Pop is 10 cents, candy bars a nickel. The station has become part of their social life. They talk cars to the on-duty mechanic who learned his trade in the U.S. Army, being careful to not get in his way. He races at the Olmsted County Fairgrounds on Sunday nights. <\/p>\n
Teenagers grow up, making way for the next wave of the car-crazy culture, but lessons learned over a bottle of orange soda and the smell of high-octane gas will never be matched in todays self-serve, pay-at-the-pump world.<\/p>\n
Lens on History is a weekly photo feature by Lee Hilgendorf, a volunteer at the History Center of Olmsted County.<\/p>\n
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Lens on History: The gas station life - PostBulletin.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The year is 1966; the place is Rochester, Minn., a small Midwestern city served by 77 filling stations. As one pulls into the station, a car-crazy teenage attendant in a blue shirt with his name above one pocket and Apco, D-X or Deep Rock above the other, offers to filler er up and wash the windshield. Soon, his equally car-crazy buddies start hanging out. Continue reading