A Dollar's Worth of Gas
by Alan King
Sometimes I don't believe what I hear on the news.
It's not that what they say isn't true. It's just that what they are
reporting is so absurd. For example: I just heard that Saddam Hussein
is threatening to cut off our oil supply. Hello?! Aren't
we supposed to have an embargo on Iraq so that they CAN'T sell oil to anyone?
Don't we have ships stationed in the Persian Gulf checking this? How
did we place ourselves in the position where Saddam can hurt us? Do
we depend on his smuggled oil to such an extent that he can shut it off and
it will make a difference? It amazes me, but I believe it. We've
never been able to say no when it comes to oil.
The cost of a gallon of gas jumps by 17 or 18 cents
every week and then slides back down nearly as much by Wednesday.
It can cost almost $30 to fill up a big van or SUV, but do we buy smaller
cars or drive less? Of course not. When I began to drive in
the mid-60's, I could fill up the tank on my Mustang for under $4.
If I was broke, I would just put in a dollar's worth. Or rather,
the guy who walked out to my car and asked me, "Fill 'er up?" would pump
a dollar's worth of gas for me, wipe off the windshield, and ask me if I
wanted him to check the oil. And I could drive for maybe two or three
days on that dollar's worth of gas.
Gas was about 32¢ a gallon for the entire period
from 1953 until the Arab oil embargo in 1973. There's a chart that shows
gas prices since 1918 on the web at:
http://www.api.org/consumer/gaspricecharts.htm
. In fact gas prices only climbed from 29¢ to 36¢ a gallon
in that entire 20 year period. There were always gas wars, too.
Sometimes gas would fall to 25¢ a gallon for a while. In fact,
I can remember driving all over town to save a penny on a gallon.
Now gas goes from $1.19 to $1.38 overnight, not just
one place, but all over town. I think all the stations must hire a
special price checker who drives around all day to see if they need to go
up or go down that day. And another guy who works part time changing
the signs out front. I don't believe in conspiracies, but this sure
looks like cooperation at the very least.
The Arab Oil Embargo was the biggest shock in my lifetime
to America's driving public. Then as now, our friendship with
the Israelis cost us bigtime. The Yom Kippur War started with an attack
on Israel by Syria and Egypt in October of 1973. The Israelis, as
usual, fought back furiously and a US sponsored cease fire ended the war
in about a month. By then, Israel had driven the Egyptians back across
the Suez Canal and had advanced well into Syria. After this military
humiliation, OPEC got together and said, "Hey, those guys are buying all
of our oil at 4 bucks a barrel. What if we cut off a few million barrels
a day?" Within weeks there were lines around the block at our gas stations
and gas almost doubled in price.
We got the message (by way of our wallets) to get rid
of our gas guzzler, V8 cars and buy economical, compact, and usually foreign
cars. If you owned a Cadillac, you almost had to give it away.
The richest people were the only ones who could afford a small car; the big
ones were bought for a couple of hundred bucks each by mothers on welfare
and college kids who could barely afford to drive them. It was a weird
time.
Now we're back in gas guzzlers and staring in shock
at the sign outside the gas station. We shrug our shoulders, slide
the card into the pump and "fill 'er up" ourselves. Thankfully most
of the cars on the road are much more fuel efficient than they were in those
days. But someone else still has his hand on the oil spigot.
We never learn.
© 2002 Alan D. King
Comments are welcome at: king1075@sbcglobal.net
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