@Pony I remember when pumps only went to 99¢, and the price rose so suddenly that stations had to set the pump to half the price per gallon and make you pay double the total amount.
Yikes. Hopefully, there will be some people on this board that remembers the calls that the world was running out of oil and we had to conserve. Those were the late 70’s. Sky high interest rates, run away inflation and gas line. Thank you President Carter. That was hard to take with all of the oil tankers off the Atlantic coast not being allowed to port to offload their cargo.
@bsci87 I think Carter’s policies are also responsible for the housing bubble and our outrageous student loans. Truly a terrible president. I’m under the impression his work with the UN is his real accomplishment, though. I guess I just wish he went to the UN without sucking it up as president first…
I sat in lines in both 1973 (yellow Porsche 914, my first car) and 1979 (black Trans-Am) but 79 was worse. In 1973 it wasn’t as bad…there were lines, but gas was still really cheap and you didn’t see that many “NO GAS” signs. You used to buy gas according to the last letter/number on your plate. I don’t remember the details.
79 was nasty. I saw fist fights almost every day, some with bats and tire irons. I saw two shootings. I saw a car set on fire (I was living in Queens at the time.) There were times when every station has a no gas sign out front, and cars with empty fuel tanks were pushed to the side of the road till their owners could find gas somewhere.
Remember, inflation was very high as well, and interest rates were approaching 14%. No one was buying houses or investing, it was a really bad time back then.
@PlacidPenguin Yeah I’m not far, Fairfield County, CT and we got smacked by Sandy as well. I did see some gas lines, but the main difference was there was no limit on what you could buy, and they weren’t price gouging like the 70’s.
I remember in 1973 some guy on Sutphin Blvd in Queens was charging TWO DOLLARS for a gallon, when 50 - 60 cents was the norm. I might be a year or two off, but by 1976, it never was cheaper than a dollar a gallon again.
@droopus I looked this up because I agreed with you, and I wondered what year it was exactly when average gas prices rose to and remained above a buck - this is what I found out from several reputable online sources:
Although there were several periods throughout the 1990’s when the national average of the cost of one gallon of gasoline was $1.00 or less (the longest of which was between December 1998 and March 1999), for most of the 90’s, gas prices averaged over $1.00. The last decade in American history in which gas prices consistently averaged (nationally) less than $1.00 was the 1970’s. It was between 1980 and 1981 when gasoline prices (national averages) rose to and remained above $1.00 per gallon. However, through as late as 1986-1987 it was commonplace in some areas of the country to find gas for sale much less than $1.00, such as in Oklahoma and Wyoming.
The last week that the national average price of gasoline was under $1.00 for one gallon in the United States was during the week of March 15, 1999. At that time, the average price of gas per gallon was a whopping 97 cents.
@Pavlov thanks for looking this up. Late 80s I was in college and remember specifically planning to do errands I needed in one section of town where that one gas station was that still ran <$1/gal most of the time for when I was low on fuel. That way my $10/week gas budget got as much as possible. The rest usually averaged around $1.03.
I remember the even/odd days based on license plate number. I remember gas stations used red/yellow/green flags to indicate how much gasoline they had on hand.
We got a week off of school in January to save energy. Who wants a week off of school in January? And we had “energy savings time” which is like daylight savings time but all winter. So we got to watch the sun rise in second period. Because that made total sense.
Sat in the lines. They eventually switched it (in Ct) to if your car tag ended in an odd number, you could only get gas on odd numbered days. If it ended in an even number, then likewise. I also worked at a gas station then too. But, you could get $1.00 worth of gas and cruise with friends all night and find all the parties!
I was born when Reagan was elected, so I missed all this “fun” but I remember in 1995 when I filled up for the first time, I paid 78.9 cents/gallon. Then right after September 11th, 2001 a friend of mine said gas would sink below $1 again because the economy would tank - I bet him it would go to $2 first. The loser had to buy the other a tank of gas. Sure enough, January 19th, 2002 gas hit 98.9 cents/gallon and I had to fill up his Civic.
I remember when my Mother would only stop at a gas station if the price was less than 29 cents (60’s) . In central IL there were lines but it seems that all the “bad” stuff was on TV in LA, NY or other big cities. I think small town USA just dealt with it, mostly.
@f00l That actually happened about 15 years ago on the arterial near my home. A new Diamond Shamrock went up on the corner across from the gas station that had always been there. It had been the only gas station on the main path to the highway for decades. The new one consistently undercut them by .5-.10 per gallon till they folded. Then they bought that more accessible spot and moved across the street, closing their original station. I’ve noticed this phenomenon several times in the years since with Diamond Shamrock. Their business model seems to be finding an isolated station in a good location and undercutting them till they die then moving into their spot.
@moondrake
Two stations on the same corner went at it for a while. I think they were both locally owned. Mom said something about how gas had once gotten to 11 cents a gallon or similar. Finally they reached some form of informal detente and after that their prices were low-normal and mostly mirrored each other.
I remember when people went through the roof because gas went over 50¢/gallon. I was only a couple years away from driving.
Like @zippyus said, pump prices could only go to 99.9¢. I have a recollection of some stations selling gas by the liter. We know how much 'mercins love the metric system so you can imagine how well that went over.
I was in high school in 1973 and worked part-time at a gas station. The gas shortage was horrible when dealing with angry customers who liked to vent their frustrations at me (someone who had no control of the prices or availability). But the silver lining was that I could get all the gas I needed without waiting in line. I got some people (like my girlfriend’s dad) in after hours to get gas when none was available elsewhere. So that was a fun bit of power for a 16-year-old to wield.
@RiotDemon Perhaps you need crankier parents… my father brings it up every single time he sees someone sitting in their car in a parking lot with the engine running…
My sister, and I flew from LA to Denver to meet up with my Dad in the early 70’s. We stayed for a week in Colorado Springs, and when we were getting ready to head east to Alabama, to visit the grandparents, the gas crunch hit. We ended up stuck in Colorado for longer than planned, and our trip took much longer than expected. Those lines for gas were awful, but not as bad as the ones in LA that we saw on the news. What a trip that was on what was left of Rt. 66, no A/C in the car, and the bench seat was like sitting on a buckboard. It was an early 70’s, base model, white 4-door Chevy Nova. I was around 15, and 6’+, 125lbs, so NO “padding”. My butt would ache like mad, then go blessedly numb.
My dad had an
/image 1962 Austin-Healey Sprite
when I was a kid. I distinctly remember several occasions where he would buy $1.00 worth of gas at the local Chicago (suburb) station - that was about 3gal back then, & would fill almost half the tiny tank - and we would drive all the way to Milwaukee to meet family.
Of course, adjusted for inflation that dollar would be worth $5.25 today.
Missed the worst of it. I was with my Dad when he was stationed at a naval “fuel farm” overseas, so I didn’t experience the ugliness firsthand, despite being old enough to have otherwise been impacted by it.
Back then the rage was we were heading for an ice age instead of global warming. The ice age thing did not work so they switched it up to the warming thing.
One of the first conspiracy theories that I believed. "There was no gas shortage, just the oil companies screwing the public. There were dozens of tanker ships just offshore, but they were waiting for higher prices."
But what I did find out was there was no difference in the gas from company to company because the gas was delivered by the same tanker trucks to all the gas stations because of the rationing.
I used to get stuck waiting in the ridiculously long lines in the car with my parents.
@Pony Yep. Same here.
@Pony I remember when pumps only went to 99¢, and the price rose so suddenly that stations had to set the pump to half the price per gallon and make you pay double the total amount.
Yikes. Hopefully, there will be some people on this board that remembers the calls that the world was running out of oil and we had to conserve. Those were the late 70’s. Sky high interest rates, run away inflation and gas line. Thank you President Carter. That was hard to take with all of the oil tankers off the Atlantic coast not being allowed to port to offload their cargo.
@bsci87 I think Carter’s policies are also responsible for the housing bubble and our outrageous student loans. Truly a terrible president. I’m under the impression his work with the UN is his real accomplishment, though. I guess I just wish he went to the UN without sucking it up as president first…
@gilar1ja His only real accomplishment was destroying the standing of the US in the world. Hence one of the main reasons Reagan won by a landslide.
Never had any trouble getting gas in San Antonio, but all of a sudden you had to plan ahead to buy gas at 250% of the old price.
Kind of a PITA.
All those cows… It caused global warming?
@Barney
Ban cow and ruminant farts?
I thought it was the 80s.
@DrunkCat
Pres Jimmy Carter
I sat in lines in both 1973 (yellow Porsche 914, my first car) and 1979 (black Trans-Am) but 79 was worse. In 1973 it wasn’t as bad…there were lines, but gas was still really cheap and you didn’t see that many “NO GAS” signs. You used to buy gas according to the last letter/number on your plate. I don’t remember the details.
79 was nasty. I saw fist fights almost every day, some with bats and tire irons. I saw two shootings. I saw a car set on fire (I was living in Queens at the time.) There were times when every station has a no gas sign out front, and cars with empty fuel tanks were pushed to the side of the road till their owners could find gas somewhere.
Remember, inflation was very high as well, and interest rates were approaching 14%. No one was buying houses or investing, it was a really bad time back then.
It got better. The 80s were a blast.
@droopus
Yup. We switched plates a lot in my family.
@droopus @Pavlov
Sounds sort of similar to gas lines after Hurricane Sandy. I mean, in my area of NY we didn’t have such an issue, but in and NYC…
@PlacidPenguin Yeah I’m not far, Fairfield County, CT and we got smacked by Sandy as well. I did see some gas lines, but the main difference was there was no limit on what you could buy, and they weren’t price gouging like the 70’s.
I remember in 1973 some guy on Sutphin Blvd in Queens was charging TWO DOLLARS for a gallon, when 50 - 60 cents was the norm. I might be a year or two off, but by 1976, it never was cheaper than a dollar a gallon again.
@droopus I looked this up because I agreed with you, and I wondered what year it was exactly when average gas prices rose to and remained above a buck - this is what I found out from several reputable online sources:
Although there were several periods throughout the 1990’s when the national average of the cost of one gallon of gasoline was $1.00 or less (the longest of which was between December 1998 and March 1999), for most of the 90’s, gas prices averaged over $1.00. The last decade in American history in which gas prices consistently averaged (nationally) less than $1.00 was the 1970’s. It was between 1980 and 1981 when gasoline prices (national averages) rose to and remained above $1.00 per gallon. However, through as late as 1986-1987 it was commonplace in some areas of the country to find gas for sale much less than $1.00, such as in Oklahoma and Wyoming.
The last week that the national average price of gasoline was under $1.00 for one gallon in the United States was during the week of March 15, 1999. At that time, the average price of gas per gallon was a whopping 97 cents.
@Pavlov thanks for looking this up. Late 80s I was in college and remember specifically planning to do errands I needed in one section of town where that one gas station was that still ran <$1/gal most of the time for when I was low on fuel. That way my $10/week gas budget got as much as possible. The rest usually averaged around $1.03.
@PlacidPenguin Ah How is Fairfield County? That’s where I grew up. Left in mid 70s.
@lseeber
You want @droopus, not me.
@droopus In miami it was terrible, both times.
@Pavlov Thanks for the research - I guess I was close.
@PlacidPenguin Mea Culpa
I remember the even/odd days based on license plate number. I remember gas stations used red/yellow/green flags to indicate how much gasoline they had on hand.
@sjk3 I remember people wearing tee-shirts proudly proclaiming, “I’M EVEN!” I think I saw that on the evening news.
To those people who selected “history before my time” and below, I say…
“Hey you damn kids! Get off my lawn!”
@sjk3 Make me, old man!
We got a week off of school in January to save energy. Who wants a week off of school in January? And we had “energy savings time” which is like daylight savings time but all winter. So we got to watch the sun rise in second period. Because that made total sense.
Sat in the lines. They eventually switched it (in Ct) to if your car tag ended in an odd number, you could only get gas on odd numbered days. If it ended in an even number, then likewise. I also worked at a gas station then too. But, you could get $1.00 worth of gas and cruise with friends all night and find all the parties!
Wasn’t old enough to drive yet, but remembered the long lines and the rationing out by even/odd numbered plates.
I was born when Reagan was elected, so I missed all this “fun” but I remember in 1995 when I filled up for the first time, I paid 78.9 cents/gallon. Then right after September 11th, 2001 a friend of mine said gas would sink below $1 again because the economy would tank - I bet him it would go to $2 first. The loser had to buy the other a tank of gas. Sure enough, January 19th, 2002 gas hit 98.9 cents/gallon and I had to fill up his Civic.
@IWUJackson Well, just be glad you didn’t do the opposite bet and lose, or you’d have been out twice as much.
I remember when my Mother would only stop at a gas station if the price was less than 29 cents (60’s) . In central IL there were lines but it seems that all the “bad” stuff was on TV in LA, NY or other big cities. I think small town USA just dealt with it, mostly.
@Boiler3k Ah yes. Remember filling up with PREMIUM gas in Denver in '68 for 19.9 cents a gallon.
@Oldguy
Remember the gas station price wars? They would practically put each other out of business.
@f00l That actually happened about 15 years ago on the arterial near my home. A new Diamond Shamrock went up on the corner across from the gas station that had always been there. It had been the only gas station on the main path to the highway for decades. The new one consistently undercut them by .5-.10 per gallon till they folded. Then they bought that more accessible spot and moved across the street, closing their original station. I’ve noticed this phenomenon several times in the years since with Diamond Shamrock. Their business model seems to be finding an isolated station in a good location and undercutting them till they die then moving into their spot.
@moondrake
Two stations on the same corner went at it for a while. I think they were both locally owned. Mom said something about how gas had once gotten to 11 cents a gallon or similar. Finally they reached some form of informal detente and after that their prices were low-normal and mostly mirrored each other.
This event is the reason our local community college still has Fridays off.
I remember when people went through the roof because gas went over 50¢/gallon. I was only a couple years away from driving.
Like @zippyus said, pump prices could only go to 99.9¢. I have a recollection of some stations selling gas by the liter. We know how much 'mercins love the metric system so you can imagine how well that went over.
@SSteve
There’s a story I know of about a gas station near Canadian border who sold by the liter and would confuse drivers.
I was in high school in 1973 and worked part-time at a gas station. The gas shortage was horrible when dealing with angry customers who liked to vent their frustrations at me (someone who had no control of the prices or availability). But the silver lining was that I could get all the gas I needed without waiting in line. I got some people (like my girlfriend’s dad) in after hours to get gas when none was available elsewhere. So that was a fun bit of power for a 16-year-old to wield.
Never even heard of this. My parents never mentioned this to me.
@RiotDemon My, you are a young’n
@RiotDemon Perhaps you need crankier parents… my father brings it up every single time he sees someone sitting in their car in a parking lot with the engine running…
@brhfl I wonder if it even affected my parents. Earlier in the 70s my mom was in college and lived very close. My dad was in Norway.
I’ll have to ask about the second half of the 70s.
@compunaut if I’m still considered young in my 30s, I’ll take it!
I wasn’t born yet.
My sister, and I flew from LA to Denver to meet up with my Dad in the early 70’s. We stayed for a week in Colorado Springs, and when we were getting ready to head east to Alabama, to visit the grandparents, the gas crunch hit. We ended up stuck in Colorado for longer than planned, and our trip took much longer than expected. Those lines for gas were awful, but not as bad as the ones in LA that we saw on the news. What a trip that was on what was left of Rt. 66, no A/C in the car, and the bench seat was like sitting on a buckboard. It was an early 70’s, base model, white 4-door Chevy Nova. I was around 15, and 6’+, 125lbs, so NO “padding”. My butt would ache like mad, then go blessedly numb.
@Lurker
I loved those old Nova’s.
Not comfortable. Built like a tank.
My dad had an
/image 1962 Austin-Healey Sprite
when I was a kid. I distinctly remember several occasions where he would buy $1.00 worth of gas at the local Chicago (suburb) station - that was about 3gal back then, & would fill almost half the tiny tank - and we would drive all the way to Milwaukee to meet family.
Of course, adjusted for inflation that dollar would be worth $5.25 today.
Missed the worst of it. I was with my Dad when he was stationed at a naval “fuel farm” overseas, so I didn’t experience the ugliness firsthand, despite being old enough to have otherwise been impacted by it.
Back then the rage was we were heading for an ice age instead of global warming. The ice age thing did not work so they switched it up to the warming thing.
One of the first conspiracy theories that I believed. "There was no gas shortage, just the oil companies screwing the public. There were dozens of tanker ships just offshore, but they were waiting for higher prices."
But what I did find out was there was no difference in the gas from company to company because the gas was delivered by the same tanker trucks to all the gas stations because of the rationing.
a.k.a. how old are you?