The Hudson Dollar Pump

Tuesday Sept. 2 was the 40th anniversary of the first Automatic Teller Machine. We have come a long long way since then. After reading about this milestone on the History Channel website, I did a little reminiscing about those days, and the changes that have happened since.

As a kid growing up in Nevada, we were quite familiar with vending machines. Probably the ones we used most often were machines that dispensed soda pop, candy bars, and cigarettes. Here are few things about those machines.

First, they did not take dollar bills. They would make change even if you used something as big as the now almost nonexistent 50 cent piece, but coins were all they would allow. There simply was no slot for bills.

Secondly, the cigarette machines usually only held a handful of brands. They cost in the mid to late 1960s, about 25 cents a pack. You put in your quarter and pulled the knob under the brand you wanted. Now days the very idea of a cigarette machine that kids could get into, well is just isn't allowed.

The pop machines were huge edifices. Some had levers, others had doors that let you see the end of the bottle you wanted, and my particular favorite was the one that was about the same size as a deep freeze. It's lid opened and after you put in you money, you could slide out a bottle of your favorite soft drink.

None of these machines had computer chips. They operated on gears and slots that allowed you to use real coins. All that changed for the first time for me in the mid to late 1960s when the Hudson Oil Gas Station put in their first self- service pump.

Hudson Oil was located where the Cash N Dash Convenience Store is now located on east Austin close to 3M. It had regular pumps, and they would still fill your tank, wash your windshield, check your oil, and air your tires, all in one stop.

On the east side of the station, they put in the first self service pumps. At first, we were all a little suspicious, but in time we found that the savings of both money and time were pretty good.

You could still put in coins if you wanted, but most of the business was by dollar bills. Remember, gasoline was about the same price per gallon as cigarettes were per pack. So if you put in a dollar bill in one of these new pumps, you could get about four gallons of gasoline.

The rest is history. Now days, there is hardly a station anywhere that is not self-service. In fact, most of them take only credit or debit cards. If you want to pay by cash or check you have to go inside the store.

It's not just purchasing that has seen so many changes. Most of us now do a lot of business either online or by automatic pay. I have almost all of my bills set-up this way now. It has changed so much, that now when I am required to write a check, I find it very difficult. When you only sign you name maybe once a month at best, you sort of feel like I did back in Alta Gordon's first grade class. She was never satisfied with my penmanship. I was always in a hurry and wanted to get done. Neatness was not high on my list. My current rare attempts at script writing these days is pitiful to say the least.

My computer is my writing tool of choice these days. If I were a few years younger, I am sure I would learn to text like all the kids do nowadays. I might try anyway, but my eyesight is so poor, I can barely see the numbers on my cell phone as it is. Besides, at my age, I would probably get something like "tennis thumb" if I texted as much as these kids do today.

Yes it has been just forty years since the advent of the first ATM. Sometimes we just don't take time to stand back and look at all the changes that have taken place in our world.

In that same year of 1969. you could only find things like "communicators," "scanners," and "tricorders" on a show like "Star Trek." If we had tried to explain an MRI, a sonogram, a cell phone, or a computer scanner to someone back then, they would have had a room ready for us at the State Hospital No. 3.

It makes me wonder where the next changes will be. There is so much identity theft these days, that we may have to have a machine check our eye or something to prove who we are.

Yes the world is changing, and it is sometimes a little frightening. I remember when the new pumps at Hudson Oil were new and unique. These days they would be antiques.

While on vacation this past July, I was surprised to see that they still require pump attendants in Oregon. Even if you have a card for the pump, they require a real person to come and do the work for you. They still clean the windshield as well.

I have only one gripe about the pumps at the stations these days. Why can't they make them all the same. Just about the time I get one of them figured out, the next station has one that is so different, I have to read the directions to use it.

Maybe the day is not too far away when the pumps will be manned by robots. Crazy you say? Wal-Mart has those checkout stands that have no checkers now. Just imagine pulling into a station and the pump starts talking to you. Where will we be in another 40 years?