Snapshots of History- Shafer’s Service Station

By Editor | October 30, 2024 |

Shafer’s Service Station in Mount Ayr – 1979.

By Mike Avitt
Shafer’s Service Station closed in November 1979 and I took several photos before the building was razed to make way for the new Tingley State Savings Bank building.
The old filling station was located at 100 E. South Street and was started by Day Shafer way back in 1927.
Day moved to this location in 1945 and his son-in-law, John Denhart, bought the business in 1950.
I started working here in the summer of 1974 and would work here off-and-on, part time, until November 1979.
I’ll tell you some things I remember. You young folks, pay attention.
Gasoline was about 44 cents a gallon when I started work and there were only two grades; regular and ethyl. Ethyl was the high grade. I think unleaded came in about 1975. Cars made after 1974 had a smaller gas pump receiver so the regular gas nozzle would not fit into a car made for unleaded gas. Unleaded cost more which caused some folks to want regular gas in their unleaded car.
There were three grades after 1974; regular, unleaded, and unleaded supreme.
Soda pop came in 10 ounce glass bottles and the steel cap had to be removed with a bottle opener or pliers. Pop was 10 cents in 1974 and 25 cents in 1979.
We carried about eight different flavors with Coke and Pepsi being the only diet brands on hand. Pepsi, Coke, and Mountain Dew were the popular brands. If you took the bottle with you, that was an extra 3 or 5 cents.
We sold candy bars, peanuts, and chips for 10 cents and higher as time went on. Seems like Wrigley’s Gum was 5 cents.
Chewing tobacco was a big seller coming in snuff, plug, and leaf varieties.
We had a concrete floor so spitting on the floor was common. But, not in the walking path because we had an occasional barefoot customer.
Yes, in the summer some younger folks were barefoot. Not so today.
Tire repairs were common on Saturday and I might get as many as ten. Most tires were tube-type because radials were more expensive.
A tire repair was $2.75 as I recall. Snow tires had metal studs on the driving surface and sometimes I pulled those after they wore down. Those studs made quite a racket on our brick streets.
Payments to the station were mostly on charge accounts. We had mostly regular customers and they had credit.
Others paid by cash or check, but mostly cash. On Saturday I might get one or two credit cards. These were mostly AMOCO cards as that was our brand. But I often got Standard Oil and, once in a rare while, American Express cards.
The cards were processed by placing them in a device and then placing carbon paper over the credit card. A bar was then slid across the device pressing the carbon paper against the card. Also on the device were raised numbers on a dial so the purchase amount and date could be recorded. The customer then signed the carbon paper and was given the copy while the top sheet went in our cash register.
By the way, our cash register was non-electric so purchases could be made when the electricity was off. But, the gas pumps were electric, so they wouldn’t operate.
Because of our location, people often stopped to ask directions or use the restroom. The mens’ room was accessible from the service station lobby, but the ladies’ restroom was only accessible from the outdoors. It was chilly in there in the winter. It was clean because it rarely got used.
Our main bay had a hoist and oil changes were common. It seems like an oil change was ten dollars. People drove less then. And I mean a lot less.
Cars were cool and simple. I could change a headlight or taillight back then but not today. Most cars fifty years ago had their gas tank under to trunk and I put gas in a car by pulling down on a spring-loaded rear license plate. Remember that?
There were nine service stations in Mount Ayr in 1974. None today.