At the southwest corner of Lincoln Avenue and 12th Street stands a building where Loveland drivers once stopped to get their gas tanks filled, their windows washed, their tires checked — a service station not unlike those on many street corners in the city 50 years ago.
Longtime Loveland resident Bill Meirath remembers it well.
“This is where I got my first car running,” he reminisced Thursday outside the former station, which still has an old gas pump standing outside it. The car was a 1951 Nash. “I bought it for 15 bucks from a friend,” he said.
But the memories do not stop with that car.
When he was a boy, Meirath’s stepfather moved the family to Loveland to open a gas station at U.S. 34 and Redwood, and Meirath followed him into the gas business with four stations in town, including that one at 12th and Lincoln, which was a Skelly station.
Much has changed in the gas business since the 1960s and 1970s, when Meirath was in the business.
At the Skelly station, the reroute of traffic when the city changed Lincoln and Cleveland avenues to one-way streets hurt. “It pretty much killed the business,” Meirath recalled.
The Cloverleaf dog track that used to be near U.S. 34 and Interstate 25 helped business during race season. When the track was operating, stations would stay open later to serve those people, he said. They’d go to Widow McCoy’s after the races and nearby stations got their business.
Then, as now, gas prices got a lot of attention, but Meirath said station owners had little latitude in setting the prices. “The guy you got the gas from would tell you what the prices should be,” he said. At his family’s Sinclair station, which was at U.S. 34 and Van Buren Avenue, the corporate truck would deliver gas in the middle of the night and just send him the bill.
Occasionally there were “gas wars” when one station would drop prices a few cents, Meirath recounted.
It wasn’t like today, he noted, when stations just punch in the numbers and their computerized signs change. Station attendants in his day had to go out and climb a ladder to manually change the numbers on the signs, which were held on with wing nuts — not always an easy job if it was snowing.
Meirath left the gas business to become a mechanic after he became a father because the money was better.
His interest in Loveland history goes deeper than just the knowledge of old gas stations.
He knew longtime Loveland historian Zethyl Gates, and often would drive her places, ask her questions and listen to her reminisce. “She was a good friend,” he said.
Inspired by her stories, he led the effort to preserve the Mariano Medina family cemetery, which was placed on the state Historic Register. Today, Meirath volunteers with the Loveland Historical Society, leading the volunteers who maintain the small historic site.
Here are his answers to five questions about Loveland gas stations of 50 years ago.
You’ve owned and operated gas stations? When was that, and where were yours located?
We had family-owned service stations from 1965 to 1978. They were Silver Lake Frontier at U.S. 34 and Redwood, the Skelly Station at 12th and Lincoln, the Charlies Sinclair at U.S. 34 and Van Buren and the Dude Corral Texaco.
Younger people might not realize that in an earlier era gas stations had attendants to pump gas for the people who drove up, and also cleaned windshields and checked oil/tire pressure. Did you ever do that?
Yes, I was a service station attendant from the age of 13. You can find my name in the 1966 Loveland Directory as “part-time attendant Silver Lake Husky.”
I used a sponge and white cloth to wash windows, always asked to check under the hood and check the tires. Old guys always wanted the whole service, just wanted to see the kid work. But nowadays you say you work at a gas station they think you sell gummy worms and pop.
At a full service station back then many were learning auto repair.
How many gas stations did Loveland have back in the day, and was there a lot of competition?
Looking through old Loveland directories, there were 40-plus stations in 1969, 1971. Some of the buildings are still standing, but most are gone.
There was friendly competition, one of the reasons for local gas wars.
At a full service station, hopefully gas would pay the rent, but the auto repair was your living, your reputation was all important.
What were gas prices like when you had your stations?
Gas was 30 to 35 cents a gallon, unless there was a local gas war, I believe the lowest I ever sold gas for was 22 cents a gallon in the ’60s and early ’70s. The most I sold gas for was 59 cents in 1978.
The gas shortage of 1973-74 was because of the Arab (OPEC) embargo. They did not like the U.S. supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War. It seems to never end. I liked the gas shortage because of the long lines. We would quit selling after 1,000 gallons, and I did not have to wash the windows.
What do you wish people knew about the gas industry and how gas prices are set?
What amazes me most is after all the manipulation to get gas $4, $5 dollars or more, the profit is nearly the same as when the price was 30 cents, which is 5 to 12 cents a gallon for an independent station. It can get to a little more profit if you are a larger retailer, 15 to 20 cents. Sad.
