Gasoline Allée: 1939

I'm quite certain those capped risers you see protruding from the ground just inside the sidewalk line are for the underground tanks.

I'm curious. Did those antique pumps use underground tanks like modern pumps? Those large trees growing next to the pumps would have large root systems.

Jerome, Arkansas became a busy place during WWII when a Japaneese American internment camp was built which later became a camp for German POWs. At one point during WWII it was the fifth largest city in Arkansas. The population in 2000 was only 46 people. The PBS documentary "Time of Fear" is an account of this camp and one located about 30 miles away at Rohwer, Arkansas.

A 1937 Plymouth is in front of the gas pumps and what looks like a 1937 Chevrolet is down the street. Photos of similar cars are below.

All the houses appear to be raised off the ground for when the area floods.

The tree at right foreground appear (edit: appears) to have a sign for 666 cold medicine nailed to it. The remedy, in liquid and tablet form, is still produced today by its original manufacturer, the Monticello Drug Company of Jacksonville, Florida.

[The sign was also seen here. - tterrace]

Thank you. I now note another 666 sign on the side of the building just to the right of the tree.

Looks like a guy is lighting up beside the pumps. Could be wrong, but also looks like a makeshift fire drum sitting on ground behind him.

Has an evil twin who appears to be lighting up awfully close to the foreground gas pump.

Grove's Tasteless Chill Tonic--a quinine mixture suspended in a supposedly-tasteless syrup.

Probably shouldn't be lighting up that pipe by the gas pumps.

With cars driving over the roots and the occasional petroleum spill, I wonder how long the gas station trees lasted.

Wait, is that George Raft emerging from the general store?