Texaco display opens in Oklahoma museum; Louisville is next
A community services activity by Texaco retiree Jim Conard has resulted in the establishment of "The Texaco Memorabilia Display" at the Dobson Museum and Library in Miami, Okla.
Depicted is one of the Texaco memorabilia display cabinets at the Dobson Museum and Library in Miami, Oklahoma.
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The display is in that locale because it's where his father, Odell, owned and operated a Texaco station in the 1940s through 1960s and where Jim was born and worked as a teen and college student at his dad's service station. It's also where Jim attended college and taught for two years at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. A regular service station customer was Mickey Mantle, the New York Yankee outfielder named to the Baseball Hall of Fame, who lived in nearby Commerce.
Conard says, "I could have sold my extensive Texaco memorabilia, a collection that spans decades, for quite a bit of money on E-Bay. Instead, I donated it to the Dobson Museum. Additionally, the collection was assembled with the aid of several former Texaco wholesalers. And Chevron Global Marketing provided a small grant to help me organize and initiate the project and website."
Memorabilia runs the gamut from toy airplanes, trucks and Havoline model racing cars to company flags, lighters, sales promotion items and Texaco-related materials from the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Almost all items are in three glass cabinets, which can be viewed by logging onto www.route66texaco.com.
Miami's Dobson Museum, open free of charge on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, is located just off historic Route 66.
Conard now lives in Stone Mountain, Ga. That's not far from Atlanta, where he retired from Texaco in 1995 after a 32-year company career in Marketing.
CRA's Louisville Chapter has been informed of another memorabilia project. The Chevron Louisville Business Center is planning to create a Chevron/Texaco Heritage Conference Room. That site will display "vintage/antique" Chevron, Standard Oil and Texaco memorabilia.
Brent Bonte, manager, Chevron Global Lubricants Business Center, is seeking heritage items from retirees who would be willing to "donate" or "loan" them to this project. Bonte can be contacted at 502-420-7105 or by e-mail at bkbo@chevron.com.
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