Squares had been finished nearly a week when I spotted this in California, but how could I ignore it! Union 76, or 76 as it is now known, first appeared in California in 1932.

The name refers to the Declaration of Independence (1776), and was also the octane rating in 1932!

By the 1960s it had spread to the midwest and south east, and it was then the orange ball began to appear too. A couple of decades ago the orange balls began to replaced by boring rectangular signs with the circular image on them. Fortunately though there was a campaign to save the balls, and it was successful. Consequently nearly 100 years after the 76 brand was created and more than 60 years since the orange balls appeared, many gas stations still have them!

And it has provided me with the both the energy and inspiration to create a Squares gallery. So I do hope you are all sitting comfortably and have a cup of something by your side as we have more than fifty squares to visit.

Let’s start with some returners as well as a new squarer.

Wasn’t that a wonderful start to our second #SevenforSeptember gallery. I do hope you were able to visit at least a couple of the squarers in the first room. In our next room we have many blogging friends, including two fabulous English British bloggers who will be arriving at my house tomorrow and also Cee who I know everyone has in their thoughts. Chris has shared how much Cee has appreciated all the messages you have sent via my Sunday post. So I thought we’d start in the next room with Cee and my two visitors.

Wasn’t that a lovely room. Our next room is also great, and it is a large one full of Squarers who have been having fun counting to seven.

Thank you all for joining me last month, your posts and kind words really helped keep me going as I toured the USA on my own. I look forward to sharing some of my US tales with you soon, but first our penultimate room in the #SevenforSeptember‘s gallery.

I still can’t quite believe how many of you are still squaring with me; I do hope to see many of you again for the next squares. All being well it will be in January, but I will confirm in late November. For now though please take a few moments to visit one or seven squarers in the final room.