http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...pagewanted=all

Back when Pilot only had 30 truck stops, Petro 16, Flying J 14, and 76 the leader with over 100!

Ice Ice Baby, Zubaz pants, and Iroc's 8)

Actually Vanilla Ice is 90. 88 is two years before I was born. :lol:

Actually, 1990 was only his rise to fame. He released an EP in 1989, and began working on his career in 1988

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_ice

Looking at that article, and the view of the drivers and the businesses themselves at the time, and now 20 years since, and seeing how it panned out. At the time the drivers welcomed the large chains because it offered amenities that at the time that just weren't available to drivers. The view was that in the future there would be a place of refuge to go no matter where in the country you where. From the business stand point it was an untapped market, ripe for the financial picking. Today, 1 of those in the article is just about dead, the others are pretty much hated by most, and the points that made them so attractive at the time, are now the points why no one likes them! As for the view of the businesses, that never changed, rake in the dough as best as possible.

You got that right! Pilot and Flying J flourished cause they are oil companies. Even though 76 was an oil company the 76 truckstops were transformed into T/A's. Correct me if I'm wrong on that!

Heh - 1988

Let's see... I graduated high school in '86, got married in '87, got divorced in '88.

And, yes, most of the 76's became T/A's. Once in awhile you'll still spot a 76 truckstop, but you have to really hunt to find them.

OK Larry...consider yourself corrected!!!


Flying J and Pilot are simply marketing companies, as is TA/Petro.

You're not wrong about the old 76'ers converting into TA's.

Pilot was bought out BY an Oil Company two years ago. Marathon.

Fly J is the old "HUSKY" truckstop chain, but today the largest shareholder of Flying J stock, is an Oil company...ConocoPhillips. ConocoPhillips has been the banker for all the "new" offerings from the "J", as well as the expansion that "J" is currently undergoing.

I didn't get to experience many of the "Old" east coast truckstops, back in the 70's and 80's, but the majority of the truckstops throughout the "West" were far and away better, than what is offered now.

Jubitz in Portland is perhaps one of the better known "Stop's" from the 70/80's era....but I think 7Feathers, a "new" truckstop in southern Oregon on I-5 in Canyonville, is chasing after Jubitz'z style quite well. They provide an excellant shower area, and have very good food. If I remember correctly, in the 70's and 80's 7Feathers was a "Stinky Pete's" truckstop. The Indians buying it and rebuiding it wasn't a bad thing.

Little America, in Wyoming, is better today than it was in the 70's & 80's, and it was a "premier" truckstop back then.

OrangeTxGuy'
I remember back in the Early 70's when{1} of the culprits that got me into the Trans field that Owned the Farm CO-OP Out of Salem,Or. caught A Flu bug on his way to Hunt's Point & he was @ the Little America they put him up in A room & watched his EQ & put fuel in his reefer fuel Tank until he could resume his Trip, All on the House. 8) :idea: