The Good Old Days

In honor of the $175.00  it took to fill the gas tank in my Suburban this week (yes, I did want to vomit)

I thought I would share a story about the good old days.

Back when it didn't take a bank loan to fill up your car.

Back when it didn't take a $20 bill to fill the gas can for the mower.

Back when (gasp) gas cost less than a dollar a gallon.

Yes, you read that right folks. Less than $1 a gallon.

Sigh...

My first vehicle was a 1971 3/4 ton Chevrolet pickup (longbed).

It was a beast.

It had V8  350 engine.

And being that it had a V8 it also got 12 mpg.

But it got 12 mpg no matter what. City. Highway. Towing (& that baby could tow a house). Fully loaded. Empty.

Didn't matter.

12 mpg.

When I was a young adult (for purposes of this story "young adult" will be defined as between 18-22 yrs of age) my friend, Anne, & I used to cruise the main drag in my pickup.

Windows rolled down ( & I do mean 'rolled' down).

Long blonde hair whipping in the wind.

AM radio blasting (HA!).

And our homemade Peace flag flying proudly from the antenna. (My dad hated that flag. Really HATED it).

Yes, I admit it. We were hippies. We rocked. :)

And being that we were generally broke; we put gas in the tank $2 at a time.

Being that gas was maybe 75-80 cents we could do that.

Anybody can scrounge 2 bucks.

Go thru your pockets. Riffle the couch cushions. Heck, break out the penny jar.

Yes those were the days.

When a handfull of change could keep you driving all night.

Try that now ~ I dare you!

You can't even run a chiansaw for less than $10 these days (shaking head sadly).

There is a Hal Ketchum song, 'Small Town Saturday Night'.

One of the verses goes: 'Everybodys broke, but Bobby's got a buck. Put a dollars worth of gas in the pick up truck'

Would today's generation even understand that song?

Cheap gas? That's gone the way of the dinosaur or the pay phone or the drive-in.

Sigh.

Just a thought:

It took nearly 100 years ~ a century~ for gas to break a dollar.

It took maybe 10 years to go from $1 to $2.

It took less than 5 to go from $2 to $3.

And less than 1 year to go from $3 to $4.

Can I just say : "Way to go Barry"?

And yes, that is sarcasm ;)

Blessings.