Do you remember when gas was less than a dollar a gallon?

I would watch the mechanical meter as my dad pumped the gas. After school, my dad would get me a snack from inside the grocery store. Those were good days.

• This. Never. Happened.

• Not only that the oil companies would give you free gifts to get your business! Sets of dishes! Toasters!

  eldestgay

• 90 billion of green energy brings us 4 dollars gas

• I remember when it was 60 cents/gallon.

• I'm so old I remember gas wars between competing gas stations. I remember gas stations giving away steak knives to attract loyal customers.

• I remember a gas war when I was a kid when it briefly hit 19 cents at one station in town. And they still washed the windshield & checked the oil!

• I remember when they had to paste a "1" in front of the gallon price because the price signs only had 2 digits.

• Yes. When I first moved to San Antonio back in '97, gas was around $0.79/gallon Whoppers at BK were also 99 cents.

• Until Jimmy Crter. Anyone else remember odd/even days for gassing up your cars during the shortage in the late 70s?

• In the U.S., odd-even rationing was implemented... The rule did not apply on 31st day of those months containing 31 days, or on February 29 in leap years— the latter never came into play, since the restrictions had been abolished by 1976.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

• I remember when I was kid back in the early 60's when gas was 10 cents a gallon. I remember my family and I went to another area of our state and gas was 25 cents and we said WOW. Look how high gas prices are here.

• Texas, 1962: 11 cents a gallon. They pumped it for you while washing your windshield & checking your oil, water, & the air pressure in your tires. If you bought a certain number of gallons, you received a free Anchor Hocking Iced Tea glass (green or gold). Inside was a big red chest freezer full of glass bottles: Coke, Dr Pepper, RC Cola, & Nehi Orange (all with sugar, not HFCS) -- needed a churchkey to open them. Don't remember what those cost.

• OP, are you 12? Gas was less than a dollar a gallon barely ten years ago.

• 1981, Providence, RI gasoline was about 79 cents a gallon. Of that 79 cents a full 48 were tax. So 31 cents a gallon in 1981.

  LuciferTheLightBringer

• I'm a child of the late 80s/late 90s, and I remember gas being about $0.80 a gallon. My mom would sometimes "let" me pump the gas and you could fill up her Honda Civic for about $5. When I started driving in the late 90s, gas was about $1.05 a gallon. I could fill up my car (a Honda Civic!) for about $10. Now, I rarely pay less than $50 to fill up :(

• I'm 32 and the cheapest I ever bought gas was for $.79/gallon in TN on my way to FL one year. After 9/11 when gas prices spiked up to $1.99/gallon near my house I actually took a picture of the sign thinking it was so outrageous. Now it's funny--I look at that picture and instead of thinking it's outrageously expensive, I think of how cheap that was. Sad.

• When I was a kid I distinctly remember when gas was 57 cents in Louisville KY as my mom and grandma discussed how it was either higher or lower in the town where we lived. Mid-70s. As an adult in the late 90s I remember 77 cent gas in Atlanta which was shockingly low to me, lowest I had ever seen since starting driving in 1982.

• R9 has dementia. Richard Nixon rationed gas, not Carter.

• The odd thing is, I couldn't even tell you how much gas is these days. I'm so used to paying so much that it means absolutely nothing.

• R9 here. In my state (and life time) it was Carter.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_energy_crisis

• I remember bitching endlessly when it cost $18 to fill up my tank. This was about 12 years ago.

• I remember gas rationed under Nixon. Also, people were encouraged not to have lighted Christmas decorations on the house and in the yard. It was a dark Christmas in most places.

• December, 1964,I drove through Sugar Land, Texas. Gas was $.19 a gallon, but my uncle said it was usually higher. In 1973 near Seattle gas was $33.9 a gallon.

• On a road trip to Disneyland, my mom pulled our huge Ford station wagon into a gas station and gasped "50 cents a gallon?! Who do they think they are? Crooks!" and drove on in search of a reasonable gas station.

• Yes, I reached adulthood before 9/11.

• $33.90 a gallon?

• Five of us would pile into a VW bug and pool our quarters for gas. We were good to go all night on 2 bucks worth. I was small and my sister weighed 82 pounds, so she would squeeze partly next to me and partly on a friend's lap.

• Sacramento, .19 a gallon WITH Blue Chip or S&H Green Stamps.

• I used to be able to fill up and charge it to my parents at the local gas station. I would charge $5 of gas and it would last me all week. This was in the early 80s.

• My brother worked at a gas station that gave away free atlases in the 70s, I still have mine. I do recall that pulling into a station in the early 60s my father would ask for a dollar's worth and if it didn't fill the tank it went a long way towards it. Gas stations also gave you free maps if you wanted them, some of which, if they are in mint condition, are worth some money today, especially the ones that are pre-interstate. Green stamps or other trading stamps were also given away with a gas purchase. It's sometimes fun to remember those times but I wouldn't go back to them; the good old days, at least for me, are right now despite all the gloom and doom.

  anon

• [quote]Gas was less than a dollar a gallon barely ten years ago. No it wasn't. This thread is full of senile old fucks.

• My VW beetle held about 10 gallons, and I remember when I could fill the tank, buy a pack of cigarettes (35 cents) and a candy bar and still get change for a $5 bill. Minimum wage was $1.85, but it was still cheaper to live than it is today.

• I remember the free drinking glasses and dishes. I also remember when the attendant would check your oil level and clean the front and back windshields.

  1960s

• r20 - The first oil crisis was in '73.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

• Late 90s in the SF Bay Area, when I first started to drive and always filled up at the Shell station. One gallon of regular was ~$1.20.

• Gas was under a dollar (or right around a dollar) as late as 2001 or 2002. I remember being at a gas station and noting how low it was, as it had been "way" up at around $1.30 or $1.40 earlier that year. LOL.

• Gas was absolutely rationed in the seventies during Carter. I grew up in CA, and the rationing was a nightmare. The first I can remember looking at gas prices was when I was traveling through Missouri around the age of seven. Gas was $.25 a gallon.

• R9 and R20 (same person) belongs with the freepers who insist that Carter created the 55-mph speed limit (in reality it was Nixon) and that there has never been an oil/gas crisis ever under a Republican administration. They also conveniently overlook the fact that it was a Democrat president, Clinton, who finally lifted the 55-mph speed limit. I have a Republican acquaintance who insists that Carter initiated the 55-mph thing. When I presented her with the FACT that it was Nixon (we're both in our early fifties and one of us can remember history accurately), she hesitated and then finally sputtered "Yeah, but Carter was the one that [italic] enforced [/italic] it." Bull fucking shit. I remember we took a trip to California in the summer of 1975 and my father, a staunch Republican, bitched all the way out there about the 55-mph speed limit which was being stringently enforced during a Republican administration (Ford). He also bitched about the then-outrageous 55 cents per gallon gasoline price spike that summer. You can't argue with Republicans who have rewritten history even in their own lifetimes. Facts mean nothing; history has been rewritten to fit their agenda. Now on my Facebook page they're touting the good old days when gas was $1.99 under Bush2. I remember the spring of 2008 when gas was well over $4.00 per gallon and threatening to reach $5.00 per gallon. Under GWBush. In answer to OP's question, yes I definitely remember. I think it was around 45-50 cents a gallon when I started driving. Also, cigarettes were 35 cents a pack when I started smoking.

• R9 here. I've never in my life commented on who put the 55 mph in place nor do I give a damn. I'm hardly a freeper but Carter sucked and I recall odd even and sitting in lines for miles to get gas when I was a kid ( which did not include the Nixon years).

• [quote]Many politicians proposed gas rationing... as was used during the 1973 Oil Crisis. Several states actually implemented odd-even gas rationing, including Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Texas. Coupons for gasoline rationing were printed but were never actually used during the 1979 crisis.[12] From the link the freeper at R20 posted. Some states imposed rationing, but Carter had nothing to do with it.

  Can%20Read

• No carter's was his poor middle east policy that caused the crisis leading to the need for odd evens, gas lines, and gas topping $1. Then the glut in the 80s drove prices back down.

• [quote]I'm hardly a freeper R9/20/39/41, you sure are invested in pushing the false "Carter caused gas lines" theme for someone who is "hardly a freeper." Freeper.

• Freeper thread. Implication O ruining life for car drivers. Me, unpleasantly, would force you petrol perverts onto bikes or public transpo. Gas is four times the US price in sensible nations around the world. You greedy gas guzzlers have little conscience and less care. Don't do a damn thing but turn the key and wipe your minds. I try not to be pain in the ass to the elements. Verbally obnoxious, but not noxious actually, like you poisoners (and supporters of the entrenched inestimable wealth in the hands of scary people with even less conscience than you. And their wives, like Mrs. Mitt, a cold horror she.) I'm poor and proud of it. Call Homeland (jeez, what Mad Ave con word) and report me as Un'Merican.

  Looking%20down%20on%20you%2C%20%27cause%20I%20am%20better.%20Eat%20it%2C%20or%20

• R42 I'm only defending not having dementia as it happened in the late 70s. Thats all im invested in. I could give a shit about the other political crap you identify with freepers.

• That and carter did suck.

  R44

• At 18, I worked in a gas station that also sold beer. I know, brilliant mix, right? Anyway, discovered that my peers would happily pay $20 for a six pack, allowing me to pocket $17.31 on every one sold. I made a ton of money that summer. Gas was 39 cents a gallon, and my boss practically pissed himself when we got the call to raise it to 41 cents, and watched car after car go into the station across the street. The son of the owner of the company would come by the station on Friday night and have me ring up a sale for $50 on his company gas card, and give him the cash. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you stay out of juvie.

• [quote]You greedy gas guzzlers have little conscience and less care. Yes, just call me Adolph because I have a car. Oh, BTW, you smell bad.

• not really.

• I remember when we didn't use gas. We hand cranked the car and when it wound down, we simply cranked it back up again. AND WE LIKED IT

• How sweet, Americans getting misty-eyed over the cheap fossil fuels that made them the most polluting country in the world (though now narrowly overtaken by China).

• I remember people squawking that Clinton would not be reelected if gas got anywhere near $2 a gallon. When Bush II got into office, gas prices went right up to $2 and change and nobody blinked an eye. It went as high as $4.11 and the republicans were totally silent about it.

• [quote]Gas was under a dollar (or right around a dollar) as late as 2001 or 2002. No, it wasn't.

  http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2012/03/14/charting-the-dramatic-gas-price-rise-of-the-last-decade/

• In Boston, I remember when gas was 29 to 33 cents a gallon in the mid- to late-1960s.

• The Xmas after 9/11 it cost $12 to fill my car up. Fast foward to now and it's just under $40.

• When I was a small child gas was 29 cents a gallon, plus your windows washed, oil checked, green stamps and a hearty thank you and goodbye. And horrors of horror if the gas ever went to 32 cents which it sometimes did. Now when you get gas, you pump it yourself, have to pay in advance, get a sneer, a mumble which might be translated at go fuck yourself and have to pay $30 to $60 for the privilege. Oh! How the times they are a changed.

• I remember Johnny Carson mentioning with astonishment gas hitting $1.00 a gallon for the first time in his monologue. It must have been around 1980.

• I remember gas at $1.25 in the Bay Area in 2002, so I am sure it was less than $1.00 per gallon in many other parts of the country.

• I remember around $0.35 a gallon. Maybe in the 1960's?

• [quote]I try not to be pain in the ass to the elements. You should try not being a pain in the ass in real life.

• lol r46! I worked at a gas station when I was in high school for the sole purpose of getting access to beer, cigarettes and rolling papers for my underaged ass. I never got caught, either.

• When I first got my license in the 90's gas was around 95 cents a gallon. I could fill my tank for 10 dollars. I remember a couple years after 9/11 when it was approaching 2 dollars a gallon, how everyone was shocked at the price. Only 5 years later I found myself paying over 5 dollars a gallon (California) and cringing. But wow, 2 dollars a gallon would be nice now! I don't think we will ever see those prices again.

• I sure remember rationing and being only able to buy on certain days.

• I remember when a fill-up for our '60 Rambler station wagon was about $7.50? Yep, sure do ....

• I'm avn old dinasaur and I remember when gas was free, you just hab to be behind the the right animal.

• In 1970 in Atlanta, gas was 25.9 for regular, 29.9 for leaded premium. Krystals were 13 cents or 2 for a quarter. Cigarettes were 28 cents a pack.

  Proud%20Eldergay

• Well it's a good thing most of us like being fucked up the ass.

• R47, very very witty. Adolph killed many of my family. Dumb consensus of passive twits like you made it possible. Do something in your life or just loll in the general illness. Don't worry--you haven't the character to recognize or admit any consequences. Keep carping! And yes, I do smell bad. Why is that, do you suppose, with curdled clouds and long lines of metal monsters stalled along the Mall feedways (no doubt you in the queue)? R57, fab riposte. I will not stop being a pain to you, if I can help it. If we met, I would love to work your life over and leave you drooling on the floor. As you are asleep while awake, your shirtfront probably soaked right now. Luckily we will never meet. Save me conversational boredom and effort on a pointed head, and you a horrible encounter with an unpleasant, disrespectful and 'so demanding' type. Back to your tiny amniotic ego spheres, both of you.

  Hate%20oblivious%20vain%20Family%20Members.%20%20Met%20some%20fine%20ones%2C%20t

• R67 is a hit at all the parties.

• $6 in CA now. Thanks Obama!

• Yep. I remember when a gallon of gas was priced $0.33, and a soda $0.10 a bottle.

• Freeper at R69, I supposed this is too much reading for you:

  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/business/gas-prices-are-out-of-any-presidents-control.html%3F_r%3D0

• I'm 40, I remember gas at .99 when I started driving at 16. Does anybody else notice the distraction the flat screen televisions on the gas pumps are meant to create as we put our credit card in the pump and fill up at almost $5 a gallon? As we stare stupidly at the TV sets, we pump their over priced gas into our car. Unreal.

• [quote]I'm so old I remember gas wars between competing gas stations. I remember gas stations giving away steak knives to attract loyal customers. you don't have to be THAT old to remember gas wars. I remember when competing stations lowered their prices to 29.9 cents per gallon.

  still%2051%20but%20only%20for%20a%20few%20days

• Couldn't we theoretically get our money back by buying oil and gas company stocks?

• I got a Jeep for my 16th birthday in late '94. It was a cool car for a young guy but it was terribly unsafe and it got horrible gas milage because I insisted on having these ridiculous, off-road tires. Regardless, along with the car I got a gas charge card (I felt SO mature) with stern instructions not to charge more than $10 a week. I smoked, drove around with friends nonstop, and still had some credit to sell to friends for cash at the end of the month. If I remember correctly, both a gallon of regular and a pack of Camel Lights were about 75 cents at that time. I live in Raleigh, NC and I think I paid $3.89 for regular a couple of days ago. Sadly, I no longer drive the Jeep.

  Tony%20Woodard

• Lowest I can recall was gas at 29.9 cents a gallon. I remember it because the price (tenths of a cent) made no sense to grammar school me, so I asked my father about it. I also remember when gas first went up over a dollar a gallon. Most of the stations still had mechanical gas pumps, which would only show per-gallon prices up to 99.9 cents. Until they were upgraded, stations posted signs that the price on the pump was HALF of the actual cost, and you'd have to double the amount to find out what you actually owe. Some other stations showed the price-per-gallon as 1/10th of the actual price, so all you'd have to do is add a zero to the end of the cost that comes up.

• When I was a little girl (I was born in 1951), regular gas was 27 cents a gallon. When I got married (in 1970) gasoline was 35 cents a gallon.

  JustMe

• I just paid $4.59 for regular. I bought enough to get me to another town where I paid $3.89 a gallon.

• No, I wasn't born in 1940

• When I was driving, from '95-'99, gas went as low as 86 cents a gallon and stayed there for a while. Could not imagine driving or paying for gas today. I'm never leaving NYC.

• If we would have allowed electricity, and other alternative energies flourish instead of spending trillions on middle east warfare...

• I can remember and Bill Clinton second term when it was 79 81 cents a gallon.... but I can remember when was also 14 to 16 cents a gallon too.... in 1971 was only .22 and 9 p.m.

• I can remember back in 1976 When a guy in Florida invented a carburetor they got 85???? T0 110 miles a gallon and Ford Motor Company bought it and you never heard from again

• I remember .35 per gallon, right before the first energy crisis of 1973. I also remember it being only .99 early in 2002.

• I remember when gas was 23 cents per gallon.

• I don't remember it ever being less than $2.50 a gallon.

• R82 I think you've had a stroke.

• 1988, Shell station right outside Roosevelt Field Mall on Old Country Rd. LI NY, 89 cents a gallon for regular.

• When I got my driver's license in 1969 gas was 38 cents a gallon. In certain areas they'd have a "gas war" and I remember paying 29 cents a few times.

• I remember when both gas and cigarettes cost 26 cents. I wasn't old enough to buy either, but I remember it.

• When I was in college in the 70's I had a car but I had to get rid of it when gas hit 50 cents a gallon because I couldn't afford that. Didn't really bother me, since there was never any place to park on campus anyway, and all my friends had cars.

• As late as 1973, the year of the first oil crisis, our local Gasamat (automated, cash accepting pumps) was 29.9 regular. After that, not so much.

• Summer 1971, Kansas City. 22 cents a gallon up to 24 cents.

• I remember gas price went over $1 in 1989. At the time in upstate NY, most gas stations did not have the dollor digit on their signs. So, many gas stations displayed gas prices as 00.9 or 01.9, etc. for a while.