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Yesterday I was out running errands with SWMBO and our 18 year old grandson. One of those errands was to get a gallon of ethanol-free gasoline to use in my edger. There are only two places that sell it in Greenville.

Daniel's is an old-school service station... white painted cinder block construction with two service bays and a small glass-fronted office with very little more than a small counter and a cash register. There are two full-service pumps (one regular & one premium) up close to the building under the awning. There are two more self-service pumps farther out under nothing but the sky. All of the pumps are the old type with rotating numbers... the original "digital" display.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.1320782 ... 6656?hl=en

I pull up to the self-service pumps and ask my grandson to put one gallon of regular in the can while I go in to pay for it. Inside, there is the old guy running the place and two other old guys sitting around just chewing the fat. At 63, I was probably the "kid" of the bunch. Got the complete picture now?

As I'm paying, a early 20's looking guy walks up to the door and says, "Oh, excuse me. I thought this was a gas station.", and walks away. Us four old guys look at each other for about two seconds and then all bust out laughing. I pointed out that these kids think a convenience store with gas pumps out front is a "gas station".

When I get back to the truck, my grandson is standing at the open tailgate waiting patiently while yet another old guy finished getting gas from that pump. He had watched that old man work the pump, so he knew how to turn it on. He asked me how to tell when he had one gallon, so I had to explain how to read the display.

I just thought I'd share this. It was mildly amusing to me. You should have seen the look on his face a bit later when I explained how the even older gravity-fed pumps worked. Priceless!!!

I'll bet the 20's looking guy wouldn't recognize what we used to call a phone either!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. If I was closer, I would probably frequent that "gas station." Nearest non-ethanol gas to me is about 30 miles away so I just gave up on it and started buying premium for my gas cans.

Lynyrd wrote:I'll bet the 20's looking guy wouldn't recognize what we used to call a phone either!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. If I was closer, I would probably frequent that "gas station." Nearest non-ethanol gas to me is about 30 miles away so I just gave up on it and started buying premium for my gas cans.

Premium is usually older because they sell less of it. For small(80cc or less) engine gas go to a HIGH volume station and just get regular. I worked part time at a gas station for gun money for a few years. Learned a lot from the delivery guys.

Lynyrd wrote:I'll bet the 20's looking guy wouldn't recognize what we used to call a phone either!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. If I was closer, I would probably frequent that "gas station." Nearest non-ethanol gas to me is about 30 miles away so I just gave up on it and started buying premium for my gas cans.

Check out https://www.pure-gas.org/ to see if there are any closer. At the bottom of the page, just click on TX.

Many hardware stores now sell gallon or smaller cans of non ethanol gas, It comes in "straight" gas or premixed 40 or 50 to one, But it's not cheap.

Thank you for sharing this and the link to stations for gas without ethanol. I am a couple of years younger than you and remember the old stations you mentioned. When I was a kid (60's), I remember my grandfather telling me about a conversation that he had with a friend of his that had the Amoco distributorship for Gueydan, LA. He told him that Amoco had done extensive testing on outboard motors (they used large Mercury motors for those tests) running their 100 octane white gasoline against other fuels to see if there was a difference in performance and engine cleanliness. The tests revealed that their 100 octane white gasoline performed much better than their standard gasolines (in all octane ranges) and that the engines were much cleaner. There was one old Amoco station like you mentioned that had one pump off to the side of the station for the 100 octane white gasoline. That was all we ran in any of our 2 cycle engines after hearing about that. Miss those old style stations and those days, thing are much to busy now.

Pawpaw wrote:

Lynyrd wrote:I'll bet the 20's looking guy wouldn't recognize what we used to call a phone either!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. If I was closer, I would probably frequent that "gas station." Nearest non-ethanol gas to me is about 30 miles away so I just gave up on it and started buying premium for my gas cans.

Check out https://www.pure-gas.org/ to see if there are any closer. At the bottom of the page, just click on TX.

Thanks for the link. The closest one to me on the list was the one I already knew about. It's a feed store with one pump. I buy about 20 gal a month in gas cans for the mule, welding machine, weed eater, chain saw, and lawn mower. Those little carbs don't like ethanol.

Lynyrd wrote:

Pawpaw wrote:

Lynyrd wrote:I'll bet the 20's looking guy wouldn't recognize what we used to call a phone either!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. If I was closer, I would probably frequent that "gas station." Nearest non-ethanol gas to me is about 30 miles away so I just gave up on it and started buying premium for my gas cans.

Check out https://www.pure-gas.org/ to see if there are any closer. At the bottom of the page, just click on TX.

Thanks for the link. The closest one to me on the list was the one I already knew about. It's a feed store with one pump. I buy about 20 gal a month in gas cans for the mule, welding machine, weed eater, chain saw, and lawn mower. Those little carbs don't like ethanol.

That's why I wanted the non-ethanol gas for my edger. I use the canned TruFuel premix for my string trimmer and blower.

My riding mower has a 20 hp Kohler engine that seems to have no problem at all with ethanol. That's probably because I use enough gas that it never has a chance to sit long enough to do damage. Even sitting all winter doesn't seem to bother it.

Those were the good old days when you pulled in a gas station to fill up the car. The station attendant whould fill the tank for you then raise the hood and check the fluids and wipe the windows for you.

Take Down Sicko wrote:Those were the good old days when you pulled in a gas station to fill up the car. The station attendant whould fill the tank for you then raise the hood and check the fluids and wipe the windows for you.

AND they employed probably thousands of high school students.

mayor wrote:

Take Down Sicko wrote:Those were the good old days when you pulled in a gas station to fill up the car. The station attendant whould fill the tank for you then raise the hood and check the fluids and wipe the windows for you.

AND they employed probably thousands of high school students.

Yep! And on Saturdays we washed a lot of cars!

Trips down memory: How many of you remember lift a phone off the cradle and an operator asking - what number please and you told them some alpha numeric and they'd dial it for you?

And party lines where you listen in on other people's phone conversations.

It was the exception if an adult didn't smoke?

Remember milkmen and/or icemen?

Elevator operators?

Polio?

Black and white televisions with only 3 channels available and a 21" screen was considered a status symbol?

And, at least in Texas, as a very young minor you could go into a hardware store and buy a gun and ammo?

Or, at an age like 6/10 buy cigarettes and beer for your parents with a note from them it was beer and no note for just cigarettes.

Almost all cars were painted black?

And that's a short list...

Pawpaw wrote:

Lynyrd wrote:I'll bet the 20's looking guy wouldn't recognize what we used to call a phone either!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. If I was closer, I would probably frequent that "gas station." Nearest non-ethanol gas to me is about 30 miles away so I just gave up on it and started buying premium for my gas cans.

Check out https://www.pure-gas.org/ to see if there are any closer. At the bottom of the page, just click on TX.

Absolutely zero stations in the DFW metroplex.

G26ster wrote:

Pawpaw wrote:

Lynyrd wrote:I'll bet the 20's looking guy wouldn't recognize what we used to call a phone either!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. If I was closer, I would probably frequent that "gas station." Nearest non-ethanol gas to me is about 30 miles away so I just gave up on it and started buying premium for my gas cans.

Check out https://www.pure-gas.org/ to see if there are any closer. At the bottom of the page, just click on TX.

Absolutely zero stations in the DFW metroplex.

Not necessarily. That website is user maintained, so it's not comprehensive. You can do a Google search on "ethanol free gas dallas" or whatever metroplex city you want and possibly find some results.

Also, I just now discovered it is possible to remove the ethanol from at least small quantities of gas: http://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic ... 15&t=14679 Note: They say removing the ethanol will lower the octane rating, so you'll either need to start with premium or add an octane booster after you remove the ethanol.

Abraham wrote:Trips down memory: How many of you remember lift a phone off the cradle and an operator asking - what number please and you told them some alpha numeric and they'd dial it for you?

And party lines where you listen in on other people's phone conversations.

It was the exception if an adult didn't smoke?

Remember milkmen and/or icemen?

Elevator operators?

Polio?

Black and white televisions with only 3 channels available and a 21" screen was considered a status symbol?

And, at least in Texas, as a very young minor you could go into a hardware store and buy a gun and ammo?

Or, at an age like 6/10 buy cigarettes and beer for your parents with a note from them it was beer and no note for just cigarettes.

Almost all cars were painted black?

And that's a short list...

Door to door salesman for everything
Leaving the door unlocked so the kids could come in
Push mowers
One phone in the whole house (rotary dial)
TV trays for the rare occasion you were allowed to watch TV during dinner time
Kitchen matches to light the gas oven
Lead core fishing line
Sitting on the porch while your mother air dried her hair after putting in curlers
Drive in movies (with a playground for the kids)
Five and Dime stores