Paying all of this money for gas does remind me of so many gas station memories.
Yes, gas station memories.
One, my father (of blessed memory) pulling his Plymouth Savoy into the Sinclair gas station on Liberty Heights and asking for $2 worth of regular. This included a windshield clean and a check under the hood, and some green stamps as a reward.
Our children don’t even know what green stamps are or were. Yet, we would fill books of them, and trade these stamps in. My parents allowed me to use the books once to trade in for a baseball glove.
Okay, so back to gas.
Flash forward and I’m sitting in my wife’s Rambler station wagon at 3 a.m. in front of the Pikes Theater. We were waiting for the Crown Station to open on Old Court Road. It was the early 70s, and the station was going to open at 6 a.m. We stayed awake, listening to the car radio and buying coffee and doughnuts from a man who making the most of this gas line.
Suddenly it’s about 6:15, and the car in front of me begins to move. I turn the key to the Rambler, and the engine won’t turn over.
Cars started to pass us, and I freaked out.
I opened the hood, pulled off the air cleaner lid and did something called “butterflying” the carburetor. I had no idea what I was doing, but thank G-d, the Rambler started, and we got back into line, and were able to purchase gasoline.
Because back then, the dreaded moment was when the “last car to get gas” sign was placed on the car in front of you.
Gas, by the way, was 70 cents a gallon. And we were complaining. Plus, my wife’s Rambler’s steering wheel would smoke for a reason nobody could detect.
Last memory.
I’m driving on I-95 South in Florida in St. Augustine. We pull my 1975 Dodge Dart into a gas station for a fill up. The gas station attendant comes over to me and asks me to get out of the car so he can show me something.
He takes me to a rear tire and shows me oil on the tire. He said I have blown shock absorbers which would cost us $32 to fix.
Now, back in 1976, that was a lot of money for a young couple starting out. We debated and debated and decided we’d better, because the seemingly honest man talked of broken axels and the like.
About a year later, I’m watching “60 Minutes” when the reporter says, “has this ever happened to you? You’re driving along I-95 in Florida, stop for gas, and then learn that you need new shock absorbers.”
My wife and I couldn’t believe our ears and eyes.
The hidden “60 minutes” camera caught the gas station attendant at the very same station we had used, using a pen-like device to squirt oil on the tire. He then approached the driver about needing new shocks.
So, here we are in 2008. We’re paying $4 for a gallon of gas. Air costs 75 cents and nobody’s offered to clean my windshield for quite some time.
We drive better cars, everything is computerized and temperature controlled.
But my dad got us around on $2 a gallon and push button transmission.
Oh, and I forgot.
He also got a free glass for each fill-up.
Now not only is our glass half empty, but so most of the time is our tanks and our wallets.
That’s progress.

Just for some perspective: after adjusting for inflation $4/gal today equates to about $.78/gal in 1972. So right now we’re all really paying about the same as in the “good old days”. Keep in mind though that $4 is record high (about a year or so back it was still around $2), so we’ve been enjoying dirt cheap gas for decades. Economics 101: increased demand (China, India), restricted supply(EPA laws, ban on new nuke power), not to mention a big chunk for taxes, are keeping the price up on the supply/demand curve.

When I bought my first car I could fill up an empty tank, buy a snack, pay with a $10 bill and still get back change…  And I’m only 25.  I remember paying less than $.70/gallon traveling through Georgia where there was no state tax on fuel.

Just bought our second tank of gas in Israel.  It cost us 250 shekels, or $80.