Gabe1
Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
I think I was in drivers ed maybe or just before when the crisis hit and the lines for rationed gas. My Dad was building downtown so took a train so their cars had enough gas to not have an impact. But it was all pretty much a master plan to put independent service station out of business. It worked and we as consumers were left with mega stations, no car servicing services and put your own dang gas in your car.Don't forget that when you factored in what salaries were then, you still couldn't afford to go on a vacation anywhere. I remember that period of time, as financially my worst time ever. That was just before or at the start of the Gas Crisis. Previous to that it was 29.9 for regular gas. They even had price wars back then and if your competition went down a penny, so did you. Now it just works in reverse. No one ever goes down in price, in a competitive way, but, magically they all go up at the same time.
When I was in college I worked in a gas station pumping gas and doing minor repairs. We had three gas categories, Regular, Supreme and something called "Plaid". The later was the "cheap gas" (2 to 5 cents per gal. cheaper). What people didn't know was even though there were three types we only had two tanks in the ground. Plaid was pumped directly from the Regular tank. I can't begin to tell you how many times I silently listened to people tell me that their car ran awful with Plaid, and it wasn't worth the savings. Fill it with regular please! OK, gotcha!
When I finally bought my new Mustang I went as long as I could to a full service. Washed windows. Checked oil and pumped gas. Took money from my window and I drove away.
I am jealous of states that do not allow patrons to pump their own gas.