Old Photo - When Filling Stations Were Fun

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: Old Photo - When Filling Stations Were Fun
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jay - In Northern California on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 11:04 am:


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 11:13 am:

That's great. Wonder if there was a sign over the toilet? "Don't flush until airborne."

rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gary H. White - Sheridan, MI on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 11:17 am:

OR --- "Don't Flush While Stopped In The Station."


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dana A. Crosby in Glendale, Az on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 11:52 am:

I feel my next workshop taking on a new "air"....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Coiro on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 12:43 pm:



Shortly after WWII a guy named Art Lacey went to Kansas to buy a surplus B-17. His idea was to fly it back to Oregon, jack it up in the air and make a gas station out of it. He paid $15,000 for it. He asked which one was his and they said take whichever you want because there were miles of them. He didn't know how to fly a 4-engine airplane so he read the manual while he taxied around by himself. They said he couldn't take off alone so he put a mannequin in the co-pilot's seat and off he went.



He flew around a bit to get the feel of it and when he went to land he realized he needed a co-pilot to lower the landing gear. He crashed and totaled his plane and another on the ground. They wrote them both off as "wind damaged" and told him to pick out another. He talked a friend into being his co-pilot and off they went.



They flew to Palm Springs where Lacey wrote a hot check for gas. Then they headed for Oregon. They hit a snow storm and couldn't find their way, so they went down below 1,000 feet and followed the railroad tracks. His partner sat in the nose section and would yell, "TUNNEL" when he saw one and Lacey would climb over the mountain.



They landed safely, he made good the hot check he wrote, and they started getting permits to move a B-17 on the state highway. The highway department repeatedly denied his permit and fought him tooth and nail for a long time, so late one Saturday night, he just moved it himself. He got a $10 ticket from the police for having too wide a load.

(article from the internet)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Henry Petrino in Modesto, CA on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 12:48 pm:

That's a GREAT story, Bob. Thanks for posting it!!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hal Davis-SE Georgia on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 12:55 pm:

Love it! Both of them.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 01:08 pm:

Hard to believe he paid $14K for it. Bill Lear Jr. got a new P-38 for $1300.

I climbed up in the cockpit with an older brother when the bomber station was almost new. A lot of the instruments were missing already. It was a real treat, nonetheless. I've been back a time or two since.

rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. J. "Art" Bell on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 03:33 pm:


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Sanders-Auburn Al on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 04:08 pm:

This was a local landmark known as The Bottle, built in the 20's, sad that it is long gone....The area is still called The Bottle to this day.




Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 05:28 pm:

Anybody remember the drive-in on old US99 between Bakersfield and Fresno that had a plane stuck into the roof to look like it had crashed into the building?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Keith Gumbinger, Kenosha, WI on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 05:32 pm:

Art - Thanks for the picture. Is that the way it looks now? It looks like the front of the fuselage is missing?

Also thanks to Bob Coiro for the pictures and story.

I've got to go and see that some day.

Keith


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Eubanks, Powell, TN on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 05:59 pm:

The first picture is of a station called the "airplane service station" located on Clinton Hy, Powell Tn. The building still exists beside the hy and is being restored.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Michael Deichmann, Blistrup, Denmark on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 06:08 pm:

At the Nordic Industry, Agriculture and Art exhibition in Copenhagen in 1888 the brewery Tuborg made this bottle:

It had the first elevator in Denmark and stood on what is now the townhall square. It was an outlook tower.
After the exhibition it was moved to the breweries in Hellerup north of Copenhagen where it still is.
And there probably was som sort of filling station at that exhibition back then.....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. J. "Art" Bell on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 07:06 pm:

Hi Keith

Here is what I think is a current satellite view, the earlier photo was watermarked "Google March 2009".
It's now a just restaurant.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Keith Gumbinger, Kenosha, WI on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 07:12 pm:

Thanks, Art. I wonder what they're doing with the front of the Fuselage. Hopefully, they're restoring it.

Keith


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. J. "Art" Bell on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 07:15 pm:

Looks like parking for Model T’s is a bit down and to the right of the plane.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ken Lauderback, Milwaukie Oregon on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 09:21 pm:

The "bomber" as pictured is about a mile from me. The nose section is still removed. It has been off for probably about 20 years now, ostensibly for "restoration". The last time I saw this section, it was in a separate "museum" building, in the area of the building with the red roof in Art's picture above. At one time, prior to Art Lacey's death, there was the intent to restore the aircraft to airworthy condition. I think, although not absolutely certain, that his grandson now has control of the project. The nose section has been at least partly restored. I was told a number of years ago by the grandson that the cost of the project was the major factor that was keeping things from moving along. The gas pumps that used to be there have been gone for quite a few years; it is primarily a restaurant now--the building in the upper right of Art's photo.
As you can see in the early photos in Bob Coiro's post, there was originally a stairway up into the aircraft. When I was a child in the 50's, we lived in Salem, about 50 miles south of here. On rare occasions we would drive up to Portland on Hwy. 99E and I can remember seeing the airplane and the stairway. By the late 1960's this stairway was gone. Sometime in the late 1970's, ( and incidentally the first time I met Art Lacey) a friend and I stopped there to look at the airplane. I mentioned to Art that I would love to see the inside, and he said "Okay, let me get an extension ladder!" I was so surprised! Anyway when we climbed up into the plane, I was nearly sick. Over the years of being openly accessible to the public, it had been so extensively vandalized that the damage was just unbelievable. Of course, all of the instruments were gone--literally ripped out of the panel. The sheet metal pilot's seat was physically torn in half across the back. Anything that could be taken, and many things that theoretically couldn't, was gone! It made me ashamed to be the same species as the "people" who did this.
As an aside, there are a number of versions of Art's acquisition of the aircraft. There was "his" version, there is the locally told version, and there is another version told by the man who actually did fly the airplane out here to Oregon. I have seen his logbook, and I know that part at least to be true; Art himself was in the airplane but he was not a pilot (in spite of what he liked people to think.) Now, I have to stress that I didn't know Art Lacey well; I did speak with him on a number of occasions and he was quite a character. Neither do I know the pilot well, but as I say, I have seen his documentation of the flight. Much of what Bob posted is apparently true, but there are some discrepancies as well. According to my pilot acquaintance, there were two aircraft damaged, but the damage happened on the ground prior to any flight occurring. His story is that Art decided to taxi one of the airplanes but didn't bother to find out that all hydraulic fluids had been drained from the planes. Supposedly he got one of them moving but due to lack of any braking managed to collide with another. The story of these two being written off as "wind damaged" is apparently true.
Also, he claims that the price was much, much, less--on the order of $500. He said the aircraft could have been purchased outright for some higher figure (maybe that is the $15,000) but that for the $500 you got a "Class 'something-or-other" lease which basically said you could do anything you wanted with the airplane but the government still owned title and they could recall the airplane in the event of some national emergency, and supposedly that is what Art Lacey did. Again, I can't personally verify either story but tend to believe the pilot with the documentation. There is much more to the story and it is definitely a "local legend" around here.
Sadly it isn't looking good for the condition of the airplane. I have always wished the family would let the airplane go to some museum or group who would restore it, if that is still possible given everything it needs, or at least use it to keep some other surviving B-17 flyable. I can't help thinking of it as a candidate to replace the unfortunate "Liberty Belle" that burned last year. I know over the years the "Confederate Air Force" (or, as they are now called due to the over-the-top politically correct critics the "Commemorative Air Force")has had some hand in at least helping to preserve what's left of the airplane. I would still love to see it restored; I drive by it several times a day and I try not to think too hard about it because it just makes me sad to see it sitting there deteriorating.
Anyway--that's my long-winded two cents worth!
Ken


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. J. "Art" Bell on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 09:45 pm:

It’s interesting that Jay’s ‘Old Photo’ posts which are always true Gems’ on their own,
often get high jacked (well sort of) to bring out great stories and details such as provided
in this instance by Bob and Ken
2 ‘Thumbs Up’ to all.

Regards
Art


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jay - In Northern California on Monday, March 19, 2012 - 10:36 pm:

I am really glad to see Bob's neat photos and story and all the other folks additions here as well.
Great stuff everyone it's been fun following.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Battell (Wisconsin) on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 09:04 am:

There is a news story about the Bomber and the restoration project at: http://www.katu.com/news/specialreports/95638799.html

You can see a nice picture of it by using Google maps with the address of: 13515 S.E. McLoughlin Blvd., Milwaukie, Oregon 97222

More airplane gas stations are at: http://www.agilitynut.com/gas/airplanes.html

John & his Baby Ace


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Erich Bruckner, Vancouver, WA on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 10:50 am:

Hey Rose City Model T Club members......Several of our tours put us in Oregon City area, just down the road from the bomber.. I think it would be fun to drive Lizzy a short way north on 99E to see the old bird and take a photo or two.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mark Gregush Portland Oregon on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 09:19 pm:

Erich;
Your right as all the tours that start at the Oregon City Shipping Center you take 99E to get there.
Even though we took 99E into Portland I really don't remember the plane as a child, born in 1956, later yes. It's one of those things that just has just been there and after a while you see it but don't think about it except, when will the nose be back on!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 11:56 pm:

I was just able to tie my first climb up into the bomber to Oct. 1946. The next was June 1950. It must have been pretty complete the first time.

Both times, we were on our way to visit my oldest brother in Aberdeen/Montesano.

rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 03:35 am:

"Anybody remember the drive-in on old US99 between Bakersfield and Fresno that had a plane stuck into the roof to look like it had crashed into the building?"

Yes, Steve I do. Hadn't thought about that in decades. Those were the days. Hwy. 99 had 'Burma Shave' signs on it about every mile. I graduated from Fresno High in 63.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By William L Vanderburg on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - 06:27 pm:

That plane as a gas station wasn't the only one in the world. There was another one in NC at one time just outside of Salisbury, NC near where the Interstate runs north of the Yadkin River. Don't remember if it was a 17 or 24, but it was there as my dad remembers it. It's gone now.....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 05:51 am:

Here's one to restore:



Rainbow is a laid back community just a few miles south of Temecula.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Eubanks, Powell, TN on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 09:19 am:

The first picture is the airplane service station located on US Hy 25W going out of Knoxville, TN. It still exists today and is being restored. It once had a rotor blade above it as well as the prop on front.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Roar Sand on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 10:29 am:

Michael,
What's with the spelling of København on that beer bottle? I don't remember having seen it spelled with an "i" in it before.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Patrick on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 12:12 pm:

Regarding the B-17. Don't hold your breathe in anticipation of the nose ever being put back on while it currently sits on the roof. It appears that the family is getting serious about restoring it completely, so I doubt very seriously that they will be installing that beautifully restored nose and cockpit back onto the dilapidated plane, outdoors, when they are in the planning process of removing the plane from the roof and moving it into some sort of hangar, indoors, to begin extensive restoration to the rest of it.

I think they should put out a public regional notice saying something like: "Anyone, who may have removed parts from the "Lacey Lady", or, who may have acquired parts from her, over the years, is welcome to donate them back to the bomber, no questions asked, for a free meal for the family, at the restaurant". Jim Patrick


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 01:24 pm:

They could move it 50 miles down 99W to the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville, where they would do a first class resto. They already have a B-17 you can climb in.



http://www.evergreenmuseum.org/
rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 09:14 am:

Yup, that's where the H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose) ended up. My boat was moored in San Pedro way back then. We watched them pull that thing out of the Hughes hangar when the California Aero Club got hold of it. You can't grasp what a monster that thing is until you see it up close.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By franklin kame on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 04:29 am:

nice pictures....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Verne Shirk on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 09:54 am:

The woodworking teacher where I went to high school (1969-71) had worked for Howard Hughes and helped build the Spruce Goose. Orie Jones was his name. He had some "drop offs" from the wood structure which he used to make things around the shop. I didn't take woodworking in high school but did ask Mr. Jones if I could come in before and stay after school to build the body on my '14 Huckster Wagon (see profile photo). He said that would be OK with him. He showed me some joints and gave me other tips about building the body. By the time I got the car done (about 3 years out of high school) he had retired. I took it by his home and he was glad to see it. He said, "just a minute" and disappeared in his shop at home. When he came back he had one of them big old fat tire gauges from the era. I thanked him for it. I had several of them at home but it turned out, his was the only one that worked!!! He was a neat guy. Now they don't have a woodworking shop in high school. I'm glad I had the opportunity to get some woodworking experience from such an "expert"!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John P. Steele, Montana on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 12:41 pm:

Thanks to Jay for posting the picture, Bob for the B-17 story and Art and Ken's additions to it. My dad was a B-17 pilot and flew 30+ mission out of Nuthampton, England with the 398th bomb group. He never talked about it except for how tough the plane were. They could be all shot up and still fly. We still have his Flight books, orders, etc.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 01:25 pm:

You should read his logbooks, John. I bet there is some mention of action.

We just lost another B-17 pilot, Sen. George McGovern.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Harold Schwendeman - Sumner,WA on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 02:12 pm:

Boy! Talk about thread drift! But this discussion has become quite interesting. As long as we're now into B-17's, here's the best B-17 story I've ever read! Some of you might have seen this on the internet a couple months ago, but if not, I can guarantee that if you read this, you'll probably never forget it:
http://picklyman.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/b-17-mid-air-collision-1943/


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob McDonald-Federal Way, Wa. on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 02:20 pm:

John
I was part of the 398 Bomb Wing during the Korean conflick,(in Japan) but we had up graded to B-29s buy then. They left in the late afternoon and was back buy morning,7 days a week.
All part of SAC then. Flew in one from Ca. to Guam then to Japan and back. What a first class plush ride that was. Ha Ha Oh to be young again.

Bob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Patrick on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 07:42 pm:

With the "I'm invincible, it can't happen to me" attitude of all young men (remember?), you had to be young to do what those young airmen did in the Army Air Corps during WWII. 8 hour missions at 30,000 feet where temperatures, on a warm day, were 30 degrees below zero and death was stalking them constantly. I will never cease to marvel at the courage of those heroes. Jim Patrick


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Joe Van Evera on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 08:52 pm:

Ricks, I think McGovern flew in B24's. There is a terrific story of a bombing run and an "errant" bomb which haunted McGovern for years, until he found out that the bomb did not kill innocent people as he had thought. It's a great story, but I can't remember where I read it....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 10:18 pm:

You're absolutely right, Joe, thanks. Here it is from wiki:
----------
On March 14, (1945) McGovern had an incident over Austria in which he accidentally bombed a family farmhouse when a jammed bomb improvidentally released above the structure and destroyed it, an event which haunted McGovern.[47] (Four decades later, after a McGovern public appearance in that country, the owner of the farm approached the media to let the Senator know that he was the victim of that incident but that no one had been hurt and the farmer felt that it had been worth the price if that event helped achieve the defeat of Nazi Germany in some small way. McGovern was greatly relieved.[48][49])

On returning to base from the flight, McGovern was told his first child Ann had been born four days earlier.[47] April 25 saw McGovern's 35th mission, which marked the fulfillment the Fifteenth Air Force requirement for a combat tour, against heavily defended Linz. The sky turned black and red with flak – McGovern later said "Hell can't be any worse than that" – and the Dakota Queen was hit multiple times, resulting in 110 holes in its fuselage and wings and an inoperative hydraulic system. McGovern's waist gunner was injured, and his flight engineer was so unnerved by his experience that he would subsequently be hospitalized with battle fatigue, but McGovern managed to bring back the plane safely with the assistance of an improvised landing technique.
------------

60% of B-24 crews died over Europe, and only 55% of the Kamikaze defending Japan died.



Dustbowl near Mitchell, SD, 1936. Pic is on the Wiki McGovern page.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Garrison on Sunday, October 28, 2012 - 03:15 am:

I'll bet Ole George didn't park there the next night.

I was going to mention how impressed I was just driving by the Evergreen Air Museum. I was on my way back to Salem from the coast to catch the bus up to Portland and back to Minnesota. Seeing that big old plane in the windows of that building was very impressive.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gary H. White - Sheridan, MI on Sunday, October 28, 2012 - 08:06 pm:

According to one source the US aircraft losses in the WWII Europe were:
B-17 4754
B-24 2112
P-47 1043
P-38 451
P-51 2201


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Sunday, October 28, 2012 - 08:29 pm:

Does anybody know if the B-24 with "Tin Lizzy" nose art survived the war?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, October 29, 2012 - 12:17 am:

Mention of the Spruce Goose takes me back to 1947 when I was six. We lived at the southwest corner of Gulf Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Wilmington. Our house faced Gulf, and next door on PCH was a cafe. When the plane was moved from the Hughes plant at Playa del Rey to the harbor in Long Beach, a house moving company did the job. They took it in four sections: fuselage, tail assembly, and two wings. The driver of the truck carrying one of the wings stopped for a coffee break at the cafe and parked beside our house. I wasn't up on all the latest news, but my neighbor Scott Shell, who was a year older, told me it was part of the world's largest plane.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Monday, October 29, 2012 - 01:13 am:

Fun story, Steve. That feat was played a little differently in Oregon. They barged it up the Pacific, into the Columbia, through Portland, and up the Willamette to near Dayton, which is just a few miles from the present museum. The Willamette is not that big a river, but the road trip was rural, so not the obstacles.

It sat outside in shrink wrap for several years until the museum was built. The museum would have been built much sooner, with $2 Million pork money, but Sen. Bob Packwood got caught with his pants down, and got drummed out of the Senate.

from wiki:
Robert William "Bob" Packwood (born September 11, 1932) is a U.S. politician from Oregon and a member of the Republican Party. He resigned from the United States Senate, under threat of expulsion, in 1995 after allegations of sexual harassment, abuse and assault of women emerged.

rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Monday, October 29, 2012 - 01:33 am:

Fun story, Steve. That feat was played a little differently in Oregon. They barged it up the Pacific, into the Columbia, through Portland, and up the Willamette to near Dayton, which is just a few miles from the present museum. The Willamette is not that big a river, but the road trip was rural, so not the obstacles.

It sat outside in shrink wrap for several years until the museum was built. The museum would have been built much sooner, with $2 Million pork money, but Sen. Bob Packwood got caught with his pants down, and got drummed out of the Senate.

from wiki:
Robert William "Bob" Packwood (born September 11, 1932) is a U.S. politician from Oregon and a member of the Republican Party. He resigned from the United States Senate, under threat of expulsion, in 1995 after allegations of sexual harassment, abuse and assault of women emerged.

rdr


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