I didn't stop here for anything, but driving by, you couldn't help but notice how cool it was. It started in 1933, after the untimely death of Calvin Coolidge. With the start of the Lone Ranger as a regular radio show, this became a place to fill up the tank. Also with new president FDR starting his Fireside Chats, customers could fill up here and listen on the road. Not so much music yet, as Quincy Jones was just born, but that will come later.
Cars with radios were gaining popularity, but so was air travel as the all-metal Boeing 247 took flight, but it wouldn't be filling up here. Nor would the vehicle that set the land speed record in Daytona Beach at 272 MPH. Try that on the roads of Bedford and you'd probably end up in the Juniata River.
With Johnny Unitas being born just down the road in Pittsburgh, this service station would be a good spot to fill up on his journey to Baltimore a few years later. Football would be his game, even though the first baseball all-star game was played in Chicago. Speaking of Football, the Steelers played their first game and only scored a Safety against the Giants. The Giants would make it to the first NFL Championship game, but lose to... Da' Bears, who created a dance called "The first NFL Championship Shuffle", without a Punky QB though.
The state liquor stores also started the same year in PA and still exist almost 90 years later. I would imagine one of my ancestors filled up here driving from store to store looking for that rare bottle. Nobody was filling up Nissans or Datsuns though, as that company started at the end of 1933 and didn't quite make it to Western PA yet
John Dillinger also started his bank robbing career, and would need more and more gas stations to fill up. Another bank robber, Pretty Boy Floyd caused the Kansas City Massacre, which would eventually be connected to Bedford, PA with the Interstate Highway system. It's a far cry from what's happening in Germany with that country becoming a single-party state under the Nazi Party. God Bless America, right?
TLDR: A lot happened in 1933! read more