Mary Gert asks: What happened to the "good ole days" when you could pull into a service station, someone came out, pumped your gas, checked your oil, washed your windows, and put air in your tire.  Heck, they even said thanks for coming and gave you a plate or some other piece of dishware.

Ask Red says:  Sometime when you weren’t looking they slipped in the word “self” before service. It was meant to cater to the “driver on the go” who had little time for niceties and didn’t want a tea saucer tossed in his lap. Later, the gas station was replaced by the oxymoronic titled “convenience” stores of today where you pump the gas, wipe your own windows and walk through nature’s elements to pay. While I do remember my mother pulling out dish plates from boxes of detergent, I don’t recall them being giving away petro stops. With a little research I discovered that the Harvest Wheat and Blue Willow patterns were quite popular during the gas jockey days.