BOB'S GASOLINE ALLEY (ONE MAN'S TREASURE)

Here is what is written about Bob's Gasoline Alley in a very nice article from Route 66 Pulse magazine, www.route66pulse.com,
“A time-warp forest of signs for brands like Gulf, Champlin and Conoco gasoline are part of the unique private collection of Bob Mullen. He is a Cuba businessman with a penchant for accumulating and displaying old outdoor advertising, the type once seen along 66. His unusual hobby covers the outside walls and insides of two barns, plus a large room addition to his home. Trailers on Mullen’s property contain hundreds of items he has no place to display.

But it was a different type of collection that was responsible for Mullen’s purchase of the farm where his proliferation of signs is on display. Eleven years ago he stopped to buy pumpkins and noticed the owner had miniature horses for sale. “The next thing I knew I went home with four I could not live without,” he recalls. Revealing a propensity to quickly acquire what he likes, Mullen adds, “In a few months I owned 15 horses, plus chickens and turkeys.”At the time Mullen was living inside the Cuba city limits. When he realized he was “running a farm in town,” he began to worry about the odor from his animals, so he purchased land outside town where he now lives. With more acreage, he started buying and displaying old advertising signs.

It is also apparent from his front yard that his interest has expanded to antique gasoline pumps. “When I saw my first gas pump, it ‘bit’ me,” he says. Now 60 pumps, once dispensing brands of gasoline such as Hudson, Skelly, Texaco Diesel Chief, Gilmore and Signal, line the barnyard fence. The oldest is a Mobilgas Special pump from 1904.

Although it is Mullen’s tall signs that attract attention, visitors to Mullen’s home find they are a just a part of his world of collections. Pulling into his driveway, a small barnyard of animal pens is evidence that he is still acquiring unusual animals. Now included are emus (he bought 17 because they were “cheap and ugly”), exotic deer, long horn cattle and miniature donkeys.

The real surprise, however, is what is inside each of his two barns. Displayed along with more signs and pumps are collections of hundreds of neon clocks, thousands of antique advertising thermometer signs and over a hundred antique ice chests. Mullen also has more than 5,000 miniature Die Cast metal cars and trucks. Each is a replica of a model from the 1940s and ‘50s when Route 66 was most heavily traveled. As Mullen’s collections grew, he decided the entire accumulation was large enough to be given a name of its own. About six years ago, after seeing a sign that read “Gasoline Alley,” he began to refer to his acquisitions as “Bob’s Gasoline Alley.”

Remarkably, Mullen has assembled his collections in only eleven years. Every item is neatly displayed and dusted as if each piece had just been purchased and cleaned. Anything electric has been rewired and lights up or runs if it is a clock. “I won’t display anything unless it works,” he says. Even the tall pole signs visible from I-44 are all lit at night. “It looks like a small city,” he says.

Mullen knows he is indebted to his wife Darlene, who puts up with his collections. “She dusts everything and ensures each piece is straight,” he says, adding that many refer to her as “a saint.” As recognition for her help, he had a sign painter add “Darlene’s Diner” onto the first large sign someone sees when they come to his home.

Of course, any collection of Route 66 memorabilia would not be completed without a replica of the Blues Brothers performing their famous act!