Hey, kids, you don't know what you've missed. Think that pulling up to a self-serve pump, inserting your credit card and holding a nozzle while a computer fills your gas tank is fun? The ways in which fuel gets into that tank have changed numerous times over the automobile's history but I can assure you it was more interesting not so long ago. I can recall, as a youngster, when every pump had a glass top containing the very gasoline that was being gravity-fed into the car. During much of my adult life the term "service station" actually meant something, for every fuel stop came with a windshield wash and an oil and tire pressure check. Even the road maps were free. And using the washroom didn't require a key.

I was reminded of this when going through some unused images from the recent "Barrett-Jackson" auction in Scottsdale. I'd been literally stopped in my tracks by what appeared to be the contents of The Texaco Oil Museum. Why on earth, I thought, would Texaco get rid of such valuable memorabilia? Well, it turned out to be a private collection, owned by someone who, perhaps like me, had a nostalgic desire to pump gas the old way. According to auctioneers "Barrett-Jackson" it took the collector 27 years to assemble and included "a restored 1922 Model T delivery tanker pickup, a restored 1953 Chevrolet 1/2 ton tanker delivery truck, a beautiful turn-of-the-century horse-drawn fuel, oil, and gas wagon with life sized display horses. In addition there are restored gas pumps, a pair of six-foot neon porcelain station signs, tin and porcelain signs, lubesters, gas carts, tire inflators, garage items, gas and oil cans, plus much more."

Someone paid $181,500 for this valuable collection and hopefully will display it where today's generation can discover that filling up was once a special event. As a reminder, Mother Nature dumped snow and hail on me and my GM media car (a convertible, ironically) while filling up in "sunny" Scottsdale.