Veedol

PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL: Anyone of a certain age sees this logo with a bit of reverence, while those of another age walk blankly by. Does my generation, born just after WWII, lie at the divide? 

What I remember best, was Flying A gas stations whose logo was an upside-down version of this Veedol logo, and whatever the "A" stood for (Initially it stood for "Associated Oil Company), Veedol and Flying A had become the same company. In the front of the Flying A gas stations and beside the pumps one saw racks of Veedol motor oil. The company was Tidewater, founded, according to some accounts, in New York City in 1887. If my grandfather had bought a Model T, Mr. Ford would have recommended Veedol motor oil to him, and he might have visited a Flying A service station.

I don't know when Flying A gasoline stations disappeared, but I couldn't have been more than 9 or 10 years old, city bred where gas stations are scarce, without the farm boy's familiarity with working motors and car parts. However, the logo's glow of reverence was sufficient that I remember it almost 60 years later, one more relic in the attic of our cultural inheritance.