As a small child, I loved the “Wizard of Oz” movie. As an adult, I was shocked to learn that Toto (the dog…) was paid more than any of the “little people” who spent hours in “Make-Up” and then played a part…
My favorite memory from those days had to do with a Corvair that drove in. The driver said, “Check the gas, and fill the oil”, to which I replied–with a smile–“Don’t you mean fill the gas and check the oil?”. The Corvair driver said–“No, this is a Corvair. Check the gas and fill the oil!”.
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We had the same saying for our Vega’s. A quart every 500 miles (or less).
I written about this before but it bears repeating, not all “added oil” was necessarily needed… My first car was a '54 Dodge Meadowbrook with the Red Ram V8, I bought it off my neighbor and he told me that it was hard to start on cold winter days (upstate New York). He had it serviced at a local garage and years later, I learned that the garage owner was a “crook”
As has been pointed out previously, in years gone by, when you pulled into a full-service gas station, the attendant usually asked to check your oil. These attendants at my neighborhood garage would make a big show of pulling the dip stick out, wiping it down, putting it back in and checking it quickly, and then maybe wipe it down and check it again.
The first dip was to see if you really needed oil, if not, then they would sell you a quart and put it in, but if you did not need oil then the second dip was necessary. What they did on the second dip, they wrapped their index finger around the top to dipstick stop and that prevented the dipstick from going all the way down and the dip stick would show you a quart low… and they would sell you a “quart of oil…”
I write that in “Quotes” because what you bought was not a quart of oil, but air… Back then, oil came in quart cans and you used a filler spout that was rammed into the can to dispense the oil.
At this garage, every can of oil was rammed through the bottom and then the can was put onto a rack and every drop was drained out of it… These bone dry cans were then selectively placed on the oil display outside by the gas pumps. Since the hole was in to bottom, it was not obvious that it was empty.
If you were one of the folks who did not need a quart of oil, and asked for them to put a quart in, they picked up the “select can” and wrap their oil rag around it and ram the spout into the top and then they “carefully” poured the oil into your engine and then toss the "empty can ito the trash can. And then ceremoniously re-check your oil and miraculously, your dipstick would now show full.
I am sure my father and grandfather bought their fair share of “air” over the years… I discovered their dirty little secret when I was about 12, but too naive to realize what I discover….
I rode down to the station on my bicycle to buy gas for my mini bike and as I had in the past just reached into the trash can and put gas into a used oil can. But I had trouble finding a can that did not have two holes in it, top and bottom. I really did not think about it until years later…
Back to my '54 Dodge, as I wrote, the original owner told me it was hard to start in the winter time and he often had to call the garage to come and jump it…
When I bought the Dodge, I did a complete tune up and oil change. Afterwards, the Dodge never had problems starting in the wintertime. What I found out was that the garage owner did not always put straight 10w-30 oil in but a mixed blend of 10W-30 and staraight 30W, which made for a thicker blend of oil and made the car turn over slower and often not start in cold weather and he used the Jump starting as a way to drum up extra business…
The mechanic was also a crook, back then it was not uncommon for spark plugs to foul out and cause the engine to misfire… Many times, the mechanic would get the owner to pay for a timing chain because it “Jumped a few links” And if your plugs were not too badly worn, they blasted them clean, reset them and re-install them, and you paid for a Tune-up, Timing chain, Oil change, and more and all they did was clean your spark plugs…
Ah, for the “Good Old Days…”
LoudThunder:
I remember hearing many stories of gas stations back then pulling the “short dipstick” trick on customers, in order to sell them a quart of oil they didn’t need.
I don’t know how common it was. Fortunately it didn’t happen in the places I worked at back in the day.
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It was done with/when pumping gas sometimes also… I remember Mom (87yo) telling a guy that her cars gas tank wasn’t as big as the amount of gas he said he put in it…
Mom was much better at Math then he was, she knew 15 gallons of gas would not fit in a 10 gallon tank… 
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We had a couple gas stations caught here in NH that was pumping 12 gallons, but charging 12.5 gallons. If you suspect there’s a problem at the pump, then you can call the state and have them check it.
I had a part time teenage job pumping gas at a major brand gas stations in Colorado. I never saw that happen either. I expect something like that maybe happened once in a while, rumors started, then a sort of mass hysteria among car owners ensued. Sort of like the psychologist’s test where they hand you an ice cream cone, which tastes great, until you discover the “ice cream” is really cold mashed potatoes . lol …
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Read the fine print on the can for a statement that it blends with other lubricants. Also check your owners manual for the lubricants chart. You may find that other lubricants are suitable for your vehicle depending on your ambient temperature range.