Remember When---

Written by Keith Tuesday, 29 June 2010 16:08

I spent a good part of the day out in the garage again, mining for treasures. I found a couple which prompted this article.

Years ago, all motor oil came in tin cans, like the one shown here. When AMSOIL switched to plastic bottles, I saved a few cans—recognizing that they would become valued antiques some day.

I should have saved an earlier can. Originally, the company name was AMZOIL, after its founder, Al Amatuzio. But early in the company's life, Pennzoil was concerned that there would be confusion in the marketplace so the name, but not the pronunciation, was changed to AMSOIL. This was probably after a round in the court system.

Amway made a similar claim. We won that one.

Now if I had a can with the "Z" in it, I'd really have something!

Our new place probably doesn't have room for a more-or-less useless oil can of essentially no value so this relic of the past will probably be sold as scrap steel.

Here's something young folks probably don't even recognize: a distributor cap. Newer cars don't have such a thing.

Used ones make wonderful pencil holders. There's probably not a "real" garage or service station around which doesn't have one, full of pencils.

I still have one, and it will make the move with me. It's an eight-cylinder version, so is much more impressive than the little four-banger cap shown here.

What additional nuggets of treasure lurk in my garage?