[PRCo] Re: Pennsylvania Turnpike

[Schneider Fred]

As I said Bob, probably more to protect tires than gasoline.

My dad had no trouble getting fuel to get from Penn Hills to Irwin  
and that took more than 3.5 gallons a week.

I met a chap in the army whose father worked for Gulf Oil in the lab  
at Harmarville.   He told me that you could park your car outside the  
lab in a certain predetermined place with the money in it and come  
back at night and the tank would be filled.   My uncle said he had  
heard the same thing but he could not confirm because he was on  
military leave from Gulf at that time  ...   He went with Gulf just  
before the war, then went into the Coast Guard, then went back to the  
lab and eventually retired from Gulf not long before Chevron bought  
the place.

A boss that I had in the state grew up in Cambria County and worked  
for one of the more nefarious individuals in county politics.   Dave  
had more than a few stories and sometimes you wondered how true they  
were.   One was about his boss selling horse meat as beef during the  
war ... Dave said that he knew it was true because it was his job to  
take the money to the bank.   One of Dave's other great tales was  
about a gas station somewhere northeast of Johnstown where the  
customers frequently forgot their ration books.   The owner would  
say, "Well you leave an extra dollar here as security until you bring  
the book in."   The next week you would also forget the book and  
leave money as security.   And the same the following week.   Each  
time the security deposit paid the owner for contraband ration  
coupons.   Or perhaps you were simply paying him extra to split with  
his source of gasoline that wasn't rationed.

The man who sold the horse meat?   He later became the county  
commissioner.   Democratic I believe.   If you chided his brother  
about this man being in the Sicilian protective agency, you would be  
told that there is no such thing as a Mafia.   His brother knew very  
well to keep his damn mouth buttoned up.   Funny thing about him.    
His name turns up nothing in Google but it used to make the  
Harrisburg newspapers all the time.

Not quite sure that political power still exists in Cambria County  
because it has only one percent of the state's people.   Johnstown's  
population has dropped from 65,000 to 23,000 since steel collapsed.    
The county has dropped from 213 thousand in 1940 to about 145,000  
today.   The unemployment rate also went way down.  Why?   Because  
old people are retired.   Today 30% of the population is over 65.

On Feb 19, 2009, at 2:52 PM, ROBERT R ROCKWELL wrote:

> Fred wrote:
>  "Shortly
> thereafter gasoline rationing was imposed, allegedly to conserve fuel
> but probably more importantly to restrict the use of rubber which we
> didn't have.   "
> My Dad was a contractor and had a "B" sticker, but, the Charleroi  
> office always gave him "C" books. The millworkers all got "C"  
> stickers.
>
>
> Robert Rockwell
> w3syt1 at msn.com<mailto:w3syt1 at msn.com>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Schneider Fred<mailto:fwschneider at comcast.net>
>