Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Standard Crown Horror Story

The year is 1955 and my father who is home on leave from the Air Force is asked by my Grandfather John to ride along with him on a little job.They finally make it to Watertown,S.D. to the big Standard warehouse. Turns out they went there to remove all of the contents as the warehouse was sold to a Standard jobber. Turns out most of what was left in the warehouse were crowns, 400 of them new, used, some in boxes,some not.Before I go on you must know that the crowns back in the 50s were a dime a dozen to the company and when the company gave orders you followed through. Well to make this story short my dad and grandfather were there to destroy! After they started to place the boxes of globes in the back of the truck they soon came to the realization that they would not all fit so the decision was made to use the concrete floor as a means of solving this problem. Yep!, over 400 crown globes of all colors turned back to sand on the floor of that warehouse that day.It was the only way to fit em all in dad said as he scooped up the remnants with a scoop shovel and filled the box of the truck.Hope I didn't disturb to many with this true story bit I felt it needed to be shared. This story was not intended to drive the price of globes up . Have a great day and cherish your crowns lol.

Well ,I will say I am glad you didn't attach a pic! That's kind of like the metal drive stories my grandfather remembers , makes you sick for sure.

Yes indeed! The mental images are bad enough for me also.

I've heard similar stories from guys in the business "back in the day". A local jobber who started as Hi-Speed in 1933 told me when the Pure and Union 76 merger happened they had to go out and destroy all of their Pure globes and change the branding. He said the railroad tracks near the bulk plant was a good place to do the nasty job, lol!
Darin

Stories like these make me cherish my collection .It is amazing any of the stuff we collect can still be found!

58 years have gone by and now UPS,USPS & FedEx have adopted your Grandfathers tactics.

We did the same thing in the 60s... We also would bury globes, signage, pumps, cans... etc... at Stations that were being "refurbished"... These items were used as fill. Afterwards, more fill was added, then 3" minus which was smoothed and finally 3/4 minus. Afterwards the rollers would come and pack it all down. And then the Asphalt trucks would lay down the new driveway for the Station...

Amen to that Rick.

That's the total truth about today's shipping companies ColdPizza!!! They have 2 globes of mine for trophies also. I refuse to ship any high dollar globes anymore...And Bob, that story you tell makes a person want to invest in ground penetrating radar !.

A friend in Claremont, Calif. worked for his father's service station service company, he has told me many times when he took Retired Pumps to the scrapyard or dump & pushed them off the truck, pre-visibles, visibles, clockfaces, etc. Many still had porcelain signs attached & good glass cylinders in visibles.

most of this stuff went to the dump...

I have plenty of other horror stories also but I think the Crown story tops all that I have. Pops has often told me if he picked up every sign he came across he would still be picking them up . Ouch! Once again, Hats off to all of you out there that are Stewards to these items. I appreciate and show pride of ownership in the things I have as I am sure all of you do to. Long Live History!!!

i will give my crowns a hug tonight! lol!

I have a similar story...I work for an electric and gas utility and one of my jobs was to give estimates to install and remove power lines, etc. The railroad was putting a new siding and the old Texaco bulk plant needed to be moved.

I went inside the building to look at the service and it was full of NOS Fire and Sky Chief globes, pump plates, boxes of restroom signs, keys, and probably 100 or so signs from flange,marine, 60s aviation, Havoline,oil racks and signs, banjo signs etc. The distributor asked if I wanted anything as they were hauling it to the dump the next day. I didn't collect then, so I didn't take anything. I wish I knew then what I know now.

Makes you wonder what we are throwing away today that will be collectible tomorrow....

****...that's a terrible story

How long ago was that Alex, just curious?

I believe it was spring of 1980 or 81.

That is something to hear these stories, not to change this topic but with all the latest stories with items being dug up and found ,I was counting the places around my area that were once gas stations and I came up with 6 very quick . One location thats full of brush and snakes it looks like ,I know of for sure from the locals was a station since the 30's and I have been told it changed hands many times throughout the years , as it was rebranded from one station to another what are the chances that some of the signs may have been thrown out back and could be there? This winter I think I may contact the land owners of a few and ask permission to search around them , from what I have seen on here from others ,I think this would be a great past time, and for sure have the camera ready to take the ( as found) pics that we all like as well.

Admiral is a huge brand here in Michigan. I know the man in charge of maintenance for the entire company. He told me that in the mid 80s when the company was expanding, they bought out a Sinclair distributor, and moved into their warehouse. The old distributor left pumps, signs and globes. Lots and lots of them. He told me they kept two 22 cal. rifles by the back door. If they had a bad day they'd go into the back lot and shoot dinosaurs. He says he put hundreds of rounds into that lot. When they ran out of globes, they turned to signs and pumps. In the early 90s they paid a guy $700 to haul all of it to the scrapyard. He said that if he had even half of the stuff that was back there he could have retired by now.

I'm telling you all right now,these things are cyclable.
..when Betamax & Beepers come back,I'm going to be a hundredaire.