Rita's Water Ice now stands at the intersection of Baltimore and Greenbelt Road, cooling off College Park residents with its frozen treats, but you wouldn't want to eat the wares sold there in 1973, when the location was home to a Texaco station. 

In 1973, Texaco was facing a serious crisis.  The previous year, Saudi Arabia began to nationalize the assets of Aramco, in which Texaco owned a 50 percent interest. Between 1973 and 1974 Libya nationalized a Texaco subsidiary known as the Texas Overseas Petroleum Company.

Fortunately, Rita's is unlikely to face a similar dilemma.

A special thank you to Jane Hopkins for providing this photo.