
In early 1974, I took this picture of a gas station on Broadway north of Argyle in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Enlargement will show several interesting details. The pumps offered a choice of regular or unleaded. Leaded gas started being phased out in the late 60’s. Catatytic converters, which can only burn unleaded gas, were made mandatory in 1975, the year after I took this picture. On January 1 of 1996, the U.S. Clean Air Act banned the sale of leaded gasoline for use in on-road vehicles for health and environmental reasons. Note also, the gas station attendant sitting in the chair by the door. These were the days before self-serve gasoline! Typically, while you filled up, the attendant would check your oil, wash your windshield and put air in your tires if needed. As gasoline prices skyrocketed after the OPEC oil embargo in 1973, oil companies AND their customers started looking for ways to cut costs. Soon attendants would become as rare as leaded gasoline.