Wednesday, June 26, 2024

The Big Leaner Plus Dateline Flying A

 June 26, 2024

   Every morning Uno and I walk past this giant, leaning saguaro on the way up to Morningstar. Is it my imagination or is it leaning more than it was last week? 

The Big Leaner

   I'm not sure, but that sucker weighs about 5,000 pounds, so I have been walking by a little quicker than normal and I fully expect it to come crashing down any day now. Or, it could still be there a century or two after I'm gone. Either could be true. By the way, do you see Uno in the picture? 

His snout in the rocks, sniffing for game


Jugs Iced Free By BBB, Indeed!

   Meanwhile, back on Route 66 back in the day.


  Thanks to my band pard Rob "Rooster" Mathiasch, here are a couple golden oldies if you have ever worked in a gas station when it was full serve. Seems hard to believe from this vantage point, but there we were.


Dateline Flying A, 1961


The Service Station, 1957


  Crazy. How did Flying A have all those seemingly superior products, "100+ Octane!" "Veedol 10-30 all purpose oil!" and "Ms-3 by Dupont," and still go out of business? Well, sometimes you can have superior everything and still lose the farm. Just ask Ted Turner.


"It had a fantastic cast, jarring battle scenes and 8,000 extras. What it didn't have was a point."

—The devastating review of "Gods And Generals" which cost Ted Turner $90 million to make and distribute and it made back $12 million

1 comment:

  1. Tidewater had the best marketing at the time, too, great neon signage and logo, snappy uniforms, promotable ties to aviation; wish I had a Flying A T-shirt as homage.

    Kudos for keeping Uno's paws cool with walks in the early light!

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