Advertising Memorabilia John Kushner

My grandfather started to collect old petroleum memorabilia about twelve years ago. Three years ago, my grandfather passed away from a massive heart attack and left me with his collection and everything to do with it. He got me into the hobby of collecting old memorabilia, especially petroleum. I used to go with him almost every weekend to flea markets, yard sales, antique stores, and old gas stations. He used to tell me, "you have an eagle eye," due to the fact that I could find anything that sat anywhere. He and I made a great team. My grandfather used to work for the CIA, so he could track down managers and owners like a bloodhound. One day when we were down in New Richmond, we even stopped at a library to look through old phone books to find where the stations used to be located. When we found stuff, my uncles or my dad may have wanted it to keep in their collection, or we may have sold it. Now that my grandpa is gone, I can no longer show my finds to him, but I can still show them to my uncles and my dad.      Today, I still collect old petroleum advertising memorabilia and everything that goes with it. Almost every weekend, I try to go out and look in antique stores and flea markets. My mom takes me out to look around, but it is neither an all-day adventure nor is there the intensity of being on the hunt. When I am able to drive, I will make it an all-day trip once again, and I will go further and further to help add to what my grandfather started. When I was in Georgetown for football camp, my dad stopped down for a day. During my break, we went into town to some antique stores.      In addition, during the month of July, my family goes annually to Shawnee State Park. This year, my dad and I went on an all-day voyage to Kentucky and West Virginia for petro. We thought that there would be a lot of items to find there because of all the old towns and the people that come out of the hills to sell stuff at flea markets. The first place where we stopped in Kentucky was the "Hillbilly Flea Market." I found an old Huffman Oil bottle. There was still old oil at the bottom of it. "Huffman Oil Co." was embossed on the bottle, along with patent numbers. There was also a lead spout on the top that they used to pour out the oil. Oil bottles are hard to find in today's petroleum market because they are glass and can break easily. All in all, that day we found about twenty items, from signs to cans, but that was the best deal of the day.      Of all the signs that I have, there is one that is a particular favorite of mine. When my grandfather was alive, he found an old gas station over in Reading. Once he died, it was forgotten about. One day, my uncle was going through my grandpa's stuff for no particular reason and found owner's name and telephone number. He gave the guy a call, and we went over about a week later. All of his stuff was about ready to go up for auction, but luckily we got there before the auctioneer did. When we got there, I went to the back of the old oil- infested garage and to my surprise there was an old porcelain sign. It was a Hood Tire sign about five feet long and two feet wide. There was a policeman on it, wearing a blood red uniform and holding a Hood Tire flag. His face was white, along with his hands. There was quite a lot of detail put into his face. He had a plain expression with his ears, nose, and mouth outlined in black. On the right side of the sign, there was a red arrow pointing both ways, outlined in midnight blue, and followed by bone white. Under the arrow it said "Tires" in bold, milk-white letters. On the inside, it said "HOOD" in capital letters. The border of the sign was outlined in bright white and the background was midnight blue. It weighed about twenty pounds and had a few nickel-sized dings in it. I rubbed my hand across it, and beneath all of the dirt and grease I could feel the bumps of where it was painted. They felt like little crevices in the tile on a floor. I like this sign because it is one of the prettier and more colorful signs I have and it is valued at twenty-five hundred dollars.      By now, the reader is probably wondering what I do with my junk that I collect. Here is the answer. The stuff that I don't want to keep, I sell at antique stores or at petroleum collector's conventions. My father, my uncle Steve, and I went to a show in Dublin, Ohio this past June. We decided to register for a booth so we could sell out "old junk" as we call it. This is the first show we had gone to since my grandpa died. It sure felt good to get back at it. Along with selling these items, it was hard to resist not picking up a few other ones here and there.      My dad is also a collector of old farm and feed signs, probably because he worked on a farm, and we now live on one in Pleasant Plain. We have three cows and two barns; one for livestock and the other for equipment. The equipment barn is where all of the signs hang from walls and rafters. We have everything from Wayne Feeds to Aetna Oil signs hanging.      When I grow older and the collection is even bigger, I hope to have people to share it with, such as my kids and my brother. I guess when I move out, I will either have to buy a big house or build a barn to show and display my collection. I hope that when my dad is a grandfather, he gets my kids as involved in petroleum collecting as I was with my grandfather.

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