"Let's go get a Coke..."

In the town that I grew up in there was no Six Flags, Sea World, Star Bucks or shopping mall to hangout at.  This was unless you counted the strip mall that had JcPenny's, Revco, K-Mart, and A couple of other stores.  So when you were in high school, you spent time driving around, going to the lake or getting a coke.  Now I have to say, that I never actually ordered a coke-a-cola when I went to Sonic (best drive in ever) to get a coke.  We used the term coke to include all soda pops, soft drinks, or non alcoholic carbonated beverages, aside from soda water.  

Additionally before you went on a full fledge date, it was usually preceded by a trip to get a coke, where you would pull up in your red mustang and order a dr. Pepper and an ocean water.  Drink them down, chat, and drive around for half an hour.  Of course in the evening during the summer going to get a coke was thwarted by the snow cone, which we had no alternative name for.  I saw the picture below and though of all the times I went to get a coke.

While it was a smaller town, if you wanted food after midnight we had a place just for you, IHOP it was not.  The all night diner was called "The Loft".  I did not make bit to the loft until I was in college.  My grandmother used to say that nothing food happened after eleven, my parents had a midnight deadline most of the time.  There was the occasion time when I snunk in past midnight.  The trick was getting enought speed in the car so I could kill the engine at Union and Evergteen, make the corner on Aspen, and cost up the hill to the house.  I had it down pretty good, and was able to sneak past Midnigjt the gaurd dog.  Midnight could her my mom's surbaban make the turn on aspen, she would jump up and race down stairs to wait.  Unfortunately, I could not find a picture of the loft, perhaps it is better that way.

Gas Station

When I was a kid there were only two, maybe three types of gasoline, regular and unleaded.  I went by the gas station today, and there were 5 different selections, although two were the same thing.  They had premium, mid-grade, regular unleaded, E-10, and (oddly enough) E-10.  Until I relocated to Oklahoma, I can't remember seeing a pump specifically for the E-10 gasoline.  As far as gasoline goes, E-10 only has 10% Ethanol added into it, and it has the same octane as regular unleaded.  

The octane number on the gas is actually the average of two octane test, the Research Octane (RON) and the Motor Octane (MON).  Both are documented in the ASTM test methods, and both use an engine that is made to knock, by adjusting the air fuel ratio.  So on the pump when you see the sticker R+M/2, that is what it is.  

Back in the days when I was cool and drove a 66 Mustang (high school), there was only one station that still sold leaded gas.  It was the Allsups, at the corner of Wilson and McGee.  Back in those days, I did not have a functioning gas gauge so I stopped in every 200 miles for fuel.