When we were teenagers pumping gas when it was going for $.36.9, did we ever dream we’d be excited to see gas drop to $3.03 like it did at the gas station in Jackson on Wednesday?
I was pretty happy when I filled up in Pilot Knob for $3.11 on Tuesday. I had been driving for quite awhile after the Low Fuel Light had come on. I calculated in my head that we could make it all the way back to Cape, plus or minus 20 miles on the gas that was in the tank.
I felt pretty comfortable with the “plus” part, but didn’t want to walk from somewhere west of Millersville in the dark if the “minus” part turned out to be right, so I filled the tank to be on the safe side. I guess the $1.28 extra I spent was worth the peace of mind.
Gas station stories over the years
- When service stations delivered service
- Star Service Station’s grand opening in 1965
- Thoni’s had gas as low as 19.9
- Putting on the tire chains
- Gas was 32 cents and smokes were 29 cents at the Bonded station in 1968
- Arguing over gas prices in Cadiz, Ky
- Scott City service station catches fire
- The Sinclair station on Broadway
- Gas prices and atomic bombs
- Lynn Latimore and a 1955 Ford Fairlane
Remember when gasoline was sold by the liter? It looked cheap in 1979.
http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/flynch/entry/52992
The cheapest gas I ever bought was when a new station opened on Kingshighway in Cape (I can’t remember the cross street) across from another station in the summer of 1972. I was working at Stanley Bin and Conveyor Company about 1/2 mile south the Mississippi River Bridge and just about on the shore of the river. The gas was selling for 12.9 cents per gallon at each station for one day. It was normally around 35 cents per gallon. For those of us who remember, the next year we had the Arab oil embargo and gas rose to the astronomical cost of 60 cents per gallon. Also, I’m sure no one cares but I’ll mention it anyway, I bought my last pack of cigarettes, Kools, on new year’s eve of 1973-1974 at the Star station on Broadway for 32 cents a pack and I haven’t had a cigarette since. One other thing. Star gas station employees would take the used oil cans and turn them upside down and let what was left of the oil drain into metal cans. They would then sell that mixed oil for 20 or 25 cents a quart. My 66 Ford Fairlane loved that oil, a mixed drink, if you will.
I used to drive from Cape to college in Colorado for $15. I can’t drive from my office to home on that now. Lemmings.