Nostalgia

Gasoline Brands

A trip down memory lane recalling a couple of big brand names from another era.

Sinclair
Who could forget the big green Brontosaurus logo? I can remember seeing the stations all over, but they were history long before I was old enough to drive and buy my own gas, so I was never a customer. As soon as I saw the cool looking truck below, I remembered the last remaining sign (that I'm aware of) that stood at a closed station on Route 33 East, about midway between Freehold and Hightstown - it may still stand, I've not been down that way in some years and even then it was growing so faded that you could barely make out the name.

Flying A
This was another very cool brand, to kids anyway! We could just imagine that "A" flying right off the sign, but a dinosaur is a pretty tough act to follow - making the "A" a distant second on the favorites scale. The last station I recall was on Plainfield Avenue in Berkeley Heights. It had a Coke machine with real Coke bottles in it (versus the plastic stuff of today) and it took one thin dime to enjoy one! Eventually it was taken over by Getty Oil with their somewhat antiseptic signs and the allure was gone for the kids of the next generation.