Snapshots of History by Mike Avitt

By Editor | October 28, 2026 |

Shafer’s Service Station was located at 100 E. South St. in Mount Ayr. I took this photo in 1979, the last year of operation for this long-term, family business.
The station got its start in 1927 when located at 401 W. Madison St., which was also Highway 3 at the time. Day Shafer, the owner, bought a brick station on the re-routed highway and moved there in 1945. This location would be the home of Shafer’s Service Station until 1979.
John Denhart, Day Shafer’s son-in-law, bought the station in 1950. The name stayed Shafer’s Service Station.
I began working there in 1974 and would work part time, although not continuously, until the closing in November 1979. In my first years I often worked with Randall Brown and Kenny Reynolds. The last two years I worked solo on Saturdays from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. John would come in about 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, put the money in the cash register, turn on the electric gas pumps, set out the windshield washer tub and make sure everything was ready to go. I showed up at 8 a.m., hangover and all, and then John went fishing. After John left I crawled onto the pop machine and tried to get some sleep. Saturday mornings were very busy and I usually got very little sleep.
The pop machine was not coin operated. The customer lifted the lid and selected a soda, then paid at the counter. The Coca-Cola machine was about five feet long and three feet high. I usually filled the pop machine at the end of my shift so I didn’t have to rotate the stock. That is, remove cold bottles so the warm soda would be on the bottom and cold soda on top.
The cash register was manual (non-electric) and John taught me how to make change. It’s a simple matter of addition. A customers buys $1.19 of goods and gives me a $10 bill. Beginning at $1.19, I count back to 10. One penny makes $1.20, a nickel makes $1.25, three quarters makes $2, three ones makes $5, one fiver makes 10. Simple.
At night, John took the currency and the quarters and took them home in a bank bag. The cash register was left with the drawer open, with dimes, nickels and pennies in place, so a burglar would not destroy the cash register while attempting to rob it.
Gasoline was about 58 cents a gallon then and we had three grades: leaded, unleaded and Supreme (high octane). In 1974 we had regular and ethyl. Unleaded cost two cents more. Cars made after 1975 had a smaller gas tank intake opening so the owner couldn’t put regular gas in an unleaded car. Remember that?
I repaired many flat tires on Saturday and most of those were tube-type. Radial tires existed but they cost more so they were poor sellers. I fixed bicycle and riding lawn mower tires, too.
Most transactions were credit or cash. No, not credit card, rather charge account. The customer would just say, “Put it on my account,” and leave. They were supposed to check my record of their charge and sign the ticket, but it wasn’t mandatory. I probably got an average of one credit card per Saturday and it was almost always an AMACO card (we were an AMACO station). The credit card machine was manual and carbon paper made and imprint of the charge, the date (which had to be updated manually), and the customer’s name and card number.
There was no air-conditioning so the entry and bay doors were open in the summer. We had a fan and the floor was concrete so it wasn’t that bad except for the flies.
I have a good memory and I remember Saturdays being busy until about 2 o’clock. It was slow after 2 p.m. and after 4 p.m. it was very rare to have one customer.
We probably had 16 different brands of cigarettes and we gave out Coca-Cola matches with each pack. We sold a great deal of chewing tobacco as we carried more brands of chewing tobacco than we did cigarettes. John chewed plug, snuff and leaf tobacco all at the same time. I smoked non-filters so I helped myself to the Camels!