Tokheim

Tokheim, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Today one of the world's largest manufacturers of fuel dispensers, Tokheim has it's beginnings in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the late 1800's. While working in a hardware store, Norwegian John J. Tokheim began to think of a safer way to store and dispense fuel. This led to the patenting of the Tokheim Oil Dome Pump, and in 1901 the formation of the Tokheim Manufacturing Company. Tokheim was sold, and moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the company was based for many years.

This chromed logo is on the front of a vintage Mobil pump, an pre-war visible model.

Kirkland I.G.A.

Kirkland I.G.A., a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

The Independent Grocers Alliance was founded in 1926 when a group of independent merchants in New York and Connecticut organized into a unified marketing system. By the 1930's there were over 8,000 IGA stores, all of them independently owned. The franchise model remains today, with IGA overseeing several resources that are shared between member stores, most visibly the IGA store brand products and the logistics of shipping them.

IGA stores have frequently been found in smaller towns and cities throughout the country, and this former store in Kirkland, Illinois is one of them. I have no idea how old the sign is-I believe it's been a while since the company was known as I.G.A., and I imagine this sign is from the sixties.

Staring at the Sun

Flare, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Adams Shoes

Adams Shoes-Chicago, IL, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Vintage Chicago signage. Adams Shoes is long out of business, but it's storefront remained mostly unchanged for years. Check out the font on the yellow sign-it pretty much carbon dates it to the early sixties, maybe earlier. This sign also includes a smaller neon "Adams" sign on the front corner of the building. All of it was in pretty good shape, and probably looked awesome lit up at night.

I shot this several years ago-I don't know if any of the signs are still extant.

Dino Supreme

Dino Supreme, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Sinclair gasoline has been sold since the early 1900's, and is one of the oldest brands still in use. It's also well known for it's green dinosaur logo, which dates to the 1930's. Sinclair sponsored a dinosaur exhibit at the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair, to demonstrate the correlation between gasoline and the age of dinosaurs. The exhibit included a big, animatronic Brontosaurus, and led to a popular line of Bronto promotional toys given away at the stations. The rest, as they say, is history, and Dino became the company's mascot. This station, in Wisconsin Dells, even features a big Dino the Dinosaur straddling the station's entrance.

Chevy

Chevy, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

We've visited this old Chevrolet truck before-it's tuned into one of my favorite subjects. It's a mid-30's half ton (or maybe one-ton), with shelling machinery on the flatbed. It looks like it was just parked there, in the back of the property, left to gently go to ground.

I've shot it many times, but this is the first time I've tried using my Argus 75. I think it's got a pleasantly old-fashioned look.

Chevrolet

Chevrolet, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

My first post of the new year, from one of my last photos of the old. This Chevy truck sits disused and abandoned, surrounded by old trucks and tractors in various states of disrepair. Many of them, like this one-tonnner complete with shelling apparatus on the flatbed, look like they were parked when the owner retired. Others look like they suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure and were towed to a far corner and left for dead. All of them are classics, the newest being a mid sixties pickup.