My Recent Fill-up

I filled up the gas tank this morning and the total was over $81. I drive a 4-Cylinder Chevy Camaro. Chevy recommends premium fuel – I use the mid-grade.

Still, that’s a record for me. So, I started to reflect…

When I turned 16 in 1973 I applied for a job at a gas station/car wash. It was owned by my best friend’s dad. I hired in at $1.25 an hour. which bumped up to $1.40 after the first 40 hours. Life was good.

I worked afternoons after school and weekends. I learned how to check oil levels, pump gas. run a cash register, give out correct change and deal with people. I also learned about economics.

During my first couple weeks, business was slow to moderate. Then the owner decided to drop the price of regular (too early for unleaded) gas to $0.359 a gallon. Suddenly, cars were lined up to Central Avenue. Customers didn’t mind waiting 30 minutes for a fill-up. The Holy Grail was a fill-up over $10, when the pump numbers turned over, It took a large Cadillac with an empty tank to turn the pump over. I was on my feet the whole shift.

That lasted for 6 or 7 months until a geopolitical storm blew in. The papers called it the Arab Oil Embargo, when OPEC cut oil production and banned exports to countries which supported Israel.

We could no longer fill tanks, limiting patrons to 8 gallons. The per-gallon price increased substantially. My hours were cut. Things were getting personal.

With higher gasoline prices throughout the 1970s, behaviors changed, vehicles shrunk and laws were passed to reduce our reliance on foreign oil (i.e. 55 mph speed limit).

That trend continued until, slowly, gas prices went down (never back to $0.35), speed limits increased and small cars largely disappeared, having been replaced by trucks and SUVs.

Now, the geopolitical winds are blowing again. I no longer pump gas for others. I wonder if we have learned fully from the past or are we doomed to repeat it. If we are reliving 1973, just know that it will be a real struggle surviving on a buck and a quarter an hour.