Any veterans here of the Gas Shortages of the 70's?

What was it like?

And how were the prices then?

We drove from Atlanta to Charlotte for a wedding and stopped at several stations before we found fuel. Then we waited in line for 20 minutes.

long waits.....

And, of course, the lesson was forgotten....
And
Didn't Bush do mess with the tax breaks for solar that Carter put in??

but mostly in big cities. One tried to conserve-not like today. What I recall is how gas prices shot up from about 35 cents a gallon to over a dollar. Inflation came soon after, and it was hard for those who didn't have savings. Wages lagged behind prices, and it wasn't fun.

anywhere from 6p.m. to 10.pm.!

Hi,

The gas lines were long in the Chicago area and in Malmo, Sweden the gas was incredibly expensive.....if I remember correctly it was about $5 for 4 liters.

Cheers,
Kim

3.78 liters to a gallon... $5 in 1970s terms?! :scared:

This is scary stuff...

Hi,

It was very scary....I remember we didn't drive up to visit Stockholm that summer. I would ride my bike to the ocean, spend the day and then take the bus home ( in Sweden you could take your bike on the bus.

I remember people complaining about the price but public transportation was so good most people either rode their bikes or took the bus or streetcar.

Cheers,
Kim

that would break out as people got heated while waiting in line. Especially if they'd let their engines run and then ran out of gas while still in line. It would get bad when some poor unfortunate attendant had to come out and put a sign up after the last car they knew they'd have any gas for. If you were coming up after that sign, regardless how long you'd waited, you were out of luck.

I remember driving by stations with large "NO GAS" signs out front.

I remember looking back behind me and just marveling how long the line was.

I remember some radio stations sending their morning jock out with coffee and donuts and promo coffee cups and stuff. Sometimes stations ran promotions offering free gas or would pay for your gas if you won.

I remember how quickly people started trading in their gas-guzzlers for Japanese imports.

I was in college. Did a 9 - midnight show at the college radio station. Before the Arab Oil Embargo of 73, a bunch of us would meet at the station at about 6. Someone would take orders for Tommy Burgers (works of true culinary art - big, sloppy, gooey, double chili cheeseburger gut-bombs - your arteries would be screaming but your taste buds would be having an orgasm). Then, the designated driver and a pal would take about 24 orders or more, and climb in his VW bug and hit the freeway, and drive about an hour up to downtown L.A. to this ratty little vintage burger stand in a funky neighborhood, called Tommy's. They'd arrive back at school by 9pm when I went on the air. Everybody'd have these big Tommy burger spreads all over the lobby of the station, and (I'm ashamed to admit) in the control room. It turned into a big staff party every Wednesday night. I remember wiping my hands over and over before I could touch any of the records to get the next one cued up. Took requests, smoked it, drank diet sodas and ate Tommy burgers while rockin' all evening. Just some of the BEST times! Once the Arab Oil Embargo hit, all of that stopped. Well, not the radio show or the gathering of friends and radio freaks, but the weekly pilgrimages up to Tommy's were history. Sigh.

Before that (and I've talked about this with my kids), my first car was a used MG, and I could fill up my tank with a five-dollar bill and get change back. I can remember gas being 29 cents a gallon somewhere back then. Now it's 2.29, plus or minus.

I dread gas lines again. Especially with road rage and everyone's temper that much more frayed these days, in general. Plus at least in my area, there's so much more traffic now - it's grown exponentially. That will NOT be fun. Especially around here. LOTS of SUVs. Hummers too. Lots of vanity cars (makes me wonder how poorly endowed so many men must be on this side of town)! Some drivers look as though they're not old enough to have been driving in the early 70s. But for others who are, man - NO EXCUSE! But sheesh, you'd think they'd remember.

Lines, hoarding, and the rise of the japanese car. Stations would routinely run out of gas. In some cases, people waited in line for hours.

One dollar was the threshold for panic, and it shot up there quickly.

I had a 1970 Cadillac. It never had more than a quarter of a tank, and I ran out of gas frequently.

Oh, and let's not forget gas siphoning. I must confess to a few stealth missions myself. That's why we all have locking gas caps now.

you could only get gas on Mon, Wed, Fri, and every other Sun. Odd numbers were Tue, Thur, Sat, and every other Sunday. Or something like that. I don't remember what the prices were.

anyone? I think I remember my mom and dad practically going into seizures over 50cent /gallon gas.

anyone remember? I sure do. I wasn't part of gas lines....

but I was in my first gas line about a week and a half ago. Pretty dam weird. Civilization would break down if there were true global shortages based on my short observations of people's frustration, etc.

What really got me was all the people waiting on line with engines running in big vehicles like Sequoias. I'm like DUHHHH

But I had a VW bug at that time (73) and a good job so it didn't hurt as bad as it might have.

and had a Corvair. I could go forever on one gallon. We would scrape our pennies together to get one or two gallons. Oh I miss those days. We had so much fun!

in 1976 and every gas station we would go to having no gas signs on the pump. Sometimes you could only get premium after staying in line for 2 hours.

1976 -- $1.25 a gallon, l-o-n-g lines, many stations out of gas, gas theft epidemic, japanese cars became hugely popular almost overnight

and I remember .35 a gallon at the gas station down the street.

Gas stations used to give stuff away. Somebody gave away these orange plastic hoofprints that had adhesive that you could stick to the side of the car. The idea was that a horse or something gave your car a kick of power. I don't remember what the brand was. That was back when power was king. Then somebody else gave away these red rubber balls you stuck to the top of your antennae. Then there was "Put a tiger in your tank." It all went away in the '70's when gas wasn't fun anymore. Come to think of it, since the '70's, nothing is fun anymore.

This was back when stations would have "gas wars" - competing to see which dealer could drop the prices lowest and fastest.

I remember the price going up to .75 - .80 and being struck by that, but there were never any real problems getting gas - but then, I grew up in a pretty small town.

a long trip before the Interstates were built. My dad looked forward to filling up the tank in Rhode Island or Massachusetts for something like 16¢ per gallon.

Later on, I remember all those goodies that gas stations handed out – the Gulf hoofprints (Platformate, I think), the Esso tiger tail that hung out of the tank, free bottles of Coke, glasses, etc. Also, back in those days, gas station attendants wore uniforms with caps and their names stitched on their jackets. They'd fill your tank, then ask if you'd like the oil checked. They actually did mechanical work in every station, too. You could go into the office and take your pick from a wall full of free road maps.

35.9 cents a gallon at the Phillips 66 up the street.

you could be down to a cup full and you just couldn't get any. Today it's easy to throw two bucks a gallon at the attendant and drive off with a few minutes stop. Back then you not only paid, you waited in line for an hour and then were likely to get a "sold out". Talk about angry people---but today, those lines would cause a major crisis because people would never wait. Right here and right now would be the end of Bush---they would drag him out of the WH and hang him. But that's what's so cleaver here----you are not inconvenienced---you are just robbed.

Most stations where I lived (Lawrence MA),were fill-up only, and it really took a while. Sooo... we would pack beer on ice, roll a few doobies and crank up Led Zepplin, Aerosmith and Pink Floyd on the 8-track. This was during the 1973 "shortage" <<cough>> and prices went from 39 cents a gallon to 80 cents a gallon. People were freaked out but we all survived.

...when my mom, brother and I would get gas. We packed lunches and snacks and games and such.

I think what day you got gas was based on the last number of your liscense plate.

I remember it not taking near as long as we had prepared for it to take.

at the nth station I checked, one that actually had gas. I came home on leave to find gas had tripled while I wasn't looking. Still, it was the scarcity rather than price that was the big deal.

I remember buying gas for 18 cents/gal (at the refinery).

The first one was in 1974. I think the average price back then was about 40 to 50 cents a gallon. Lots of long lines at stations. Some states had odd/even days, where you could only get gas if you had the correct number as the last digit on your license plate. I was driving bobtail trucks on rock and roll and country music tours, and it was no fun trying to get from one city to the next. Sometimes the only way to get gas was to drop the name of whoever's gear I was carrying and hope the attendant was a fan.
The one in 1979 was similar, and I don't think the price had gone up that much by then.

about 1970 gas was 29.9 cents a gallon, sometimes less.

... no gas anywhere, Dad freaking out, nice folks bringing water and orange juice to waiting tourists, hotels booked up, driving hours, bumper-to-bumper traffic, from Orlando to Tampa to grab the last hotel room available in Florida...

Lines out the ASS. This was only in Florida, mind you... I was a kid bent on experiencing the newly-opened DisneyWorld, and I really don't remember the "Energy Crisis" affecting any member of my family in Ohio/Pennsylvania/West Virginia at the time...

gas caps because kids (and some grown-ups) would siphon you dry. And a lot of people had gas hogs back then, Buicks, Cadillacs, Mercurys, because you could fill up your tank for about $12.00 - $15.00 for 20 gallons.

I was thinking the other day if we might have to end up putting a cap lock on our cars. I sure hope not.

I had a boyfriend who had a Challenger. Weirdest thing how he used to have to pass his keys out the window to the attendant every time he got gas.

One at a time. We had bribed the owner of the station to let us jump the line. I kept jerry cans in the back of the trucks to keep my VW and my fathers car from running out, but we didn't use much.

We had 12 Step-Vans (UPS sized trucks) delivering bread to schools, hospitals and such.

The lines in the Bronx and lower Westchester county were very long and quite unruly.

At the park and 0.24 if you drove down the hill.

It cost $2.00 to fill my VW and would last me a week.

My stepfather was an engineer, and a law and order man. Nixon said drive 55, he didn't go one mph over. And we lived in Florida. Try driving the Beeline from Cocoa Beach to Orlando at 55. Longest trip of your life!

But the lines did suck. Odd/even days based on plate #...making sure you always had gas. You'd pull it to buy gas just because you saw a station without a line (IF you did). The price went up, but I don't recall it seeming as dramatic an increase as now.

and then the son of a bitch would run out when you were next. Some people used to rent a room because the Days Inn would guarantee you a fill up if you stayed. My brother-in-law is a doctor and the hospital used to have a maintenance guy go fill up the doctor's cars. Schmucks like us - long lines and high prices. I remember the shock of going from .21 to .81 a gallon. It was quicker than this 2 cents a day we are enduring now.

I REMEMBER!!! YES INDEED!!! IT SUCKED!!!

I wasn't driving then -- so I wouldn't have paid attention.

and then I went into the Army in 1976, and was immediately shipped off to Germany.

IT SUCKED; I COULDN'T FIND ANY GAS!!!

:D

Streak knows the best places to siphon gas !!!

and took the subway everywhere, so I missed the brunt of the gas crunch. I didn't miss the inflation that soon followed, nor the double digit unemployment, nor the double digit interest rates six years later. I do remember the lines stretching from the robber baron gas station at the foot of the hill all the way down Cambridge street for blocks and blocks.

The oil shocks in the 70s produced a great deal of economic devastation, both for working people and for retirees on fixed incomes. Reagan only compounded the devastation for working people.

I'm terrified we're heading for another round of the same.

Adjusting for inflation the costs were worse than today. The difference then was we had a President who at least cared, but he was dealing with the Iranian hostage crisis...

After the gas shortage back then people did start to buy more fuel efficient cars which lead to companies like Toyota and Honda emerging in the 80's while Ford and GM took forever to catch up. With the 90's came prosperity for many, and we repeated the same damn thing, inefficient fuel vehicles. This is one thing I do blame Clinton on, and that is not enforcing stronger gas standards. With Bush it's reached the height of irresponsiblity. And now, we've the potential for a real mess especially with burgeoning demand in China, the devaluation of the dollar, less resources, and consolidation of companies with less comeptition and more controlled refineries.

This reason alone is enough to get Bush out. Can you imagine the favors he'll be doing for his oil buddies and the Saudis over the next four years?

the end.

You'd wait for hours. Fistfights started when drivers tried to cut in line.

I am terrified of it all happening again.

The odd/even days and the lines were a real pain. If you needed to drive for a living you could get an exemption from the odd/even days but not from the lines. Not looking forward to those days returning.

In the 70's, America had reached Peak Oil. Half of the known CONUS reserves had been pumped from the ground by then. OPEC was quickly formed and with the knowledge that the US had reached the half way point, OPEC bent us over the barrel, so to speak.

One Thanksgiving day, we spent hours looking for an open station before we could meet the family across town. Other times were educationally challenging, to say the least.

People I believe would be madder now....IF they all weren't being druged out on Ambien or something......Back then..mostly pot cooled heads. Now they are selling serious drugs for serious problems and pushing the ads on TV.

The economic and social impact of the initial shortage was hugh.

Prices tripled from the mid-30 cent/gallon to $1ish/gallon in a short time coupled with a lack of fuel. A similar situation today would have gas at ~$4.50/gallon, which is probably right about where it should be.

Odd-even rationing was in effect with long lines. You'd get up real early, even sleep in the car to be close to the front. Nothing worse than waiting in line only to have the supply run out.

Stations displayed green flags for unlimited sales, yellow for limited, red for no gas.

Not a lot of fun but people got very interested in conservation and fuel efficiency very quickly.

It was pretty much understood that the shortage was contrived to raise prices with tankers waiting offshore for the increases to take hold. Then the shortages went away.

Adjusted for inflation, gasoline is cheap today (still). We squandered 20-30 years during which we could've seriously adjusted our transportation habits and systems but instead pigged out on SUVs and sprawl.

in long lines during the heat, stations running out of gas and getting so frustrated at the cost of living increases. It was not a pleasant time.

Lots of people in my area started using public transportation.

And it wasn't just the gas prices and waiting lines. A lot of other things went up. Heating fuels went way up, and the rent for my rent-controlled apartment went up about 40% immediately. Peopled scrambled to form carpools and to find roommates. You wouldn't even think about going out to the movies or whatever on the weekends because you didn't want to waste gas, and you would map out all your errands for the week for maximum efficiency.

However, I learned several valuable lessons from the 1970s gas crises. The most important one is that the people on the bottom get screwed over the most, and the people on the top don't give a shit. Hey, what can I say, I was young.

As I recall, some people made some extra spending money by offering to pick up your car, drive it to a station and wait to fill it with gas. Then they would drive it back to you (you were either a home or work), and collect their fee.

Not sure how successful this was...

on edit: I remember reading a story about a kid who loaded his wagon up with coffee and doughnuts and went down the gas lines selling them to the waiting drivers. He did a pretty good business, too!

i don't recall waiting in line, but i do remember commenting to my parents about the price of gas that i was putting in the gas logs (remember those?) along w/mileage, price per gallon, # of gallons purchased & the price. it was my "job" in the car to keep track of that stuff. i remember gas being under 30 cents, then worrying when it got to 75 cents (i was 9 or 10 at the time). my dad used to pull up to a station, the guys would pop out, one would "fill'er up with premium" while another checked the tires & another cleaned the windshield. well, all that stopped when it became cheaper to pump the gas yourself.

anyone else remember meatless wednesdays? we did that. also around that time, my dad started arguing with my mom about how much she spent at the grocery store on food, so one day she had enough & said "you don't believe me about the prices? YOU GO SHOPPING!" well, after one trip, dad saw the light & nary a word was said about what was being spent on groceries.

people worried about conservation & we started having to ride our bikes more or walk to where we were going. nixon even made us go on daylight savings time all year long to "save" energy, so my brothers & i walked to school in the dark that year.

dg

To try to keep costs down, service stations began becoming simply gas stations. They started by just pumping gas, no oil check or window wash. Then, no nothing, not even attendants. This was a revolution at the time! Having to pump your own gas to save a few cents!

a 36,000 mi round the USA road trip, it was 19cents. 17 cents in certain areas. Gas wars? it went down to 12 cents per gal. It was CHEAP.....

but, we had to get gas on certain days depending on the odds and evens on our license plates. So if you were coasting on fumes, you had to wait till your day to get gas. My place of business was next to a gas station and there were lines around the corner everyday. There was such a frenzy to get gas. I felt it was a crisis concocted by the oil companies. They sure know how to manipulate us.

and didn't have a car so I wasn't too affected by gas shortages. What I do remember is that the whole country went on Daylight Savings Time in January or February so for a while I was walking to school in the dark.

For the 1979 shortage, I remember gas stations started pricing gas by the half gallon because the pumps weren't ready to deal with gas costing a dollar or more a gallon.

One thing I do remember about both shortages is that all the politicians talked about how we needed a national energy policy to achieve energy independence. When's the last time anyone's talked about that?

getting up an hour earlier to get in the gas line before going to work. I am not, nor never have been a morning person.

And topping off was against the law.

What has amazed me, is that anyone that went through that, would drive a gas guzzler today.

I just remember being in line early in the morning. Quite a pain in the rear. I do think it jacked prices up and they held higher than before after the shortage lines were over.

from "topping off" their tanks (because this was causing some of the long lines): you couldn't buy less than 10 gallons at a time. There was an exception for small cars, but the gas station owners always pretended they didn't know about it.

I repeatedly got screwed by this because my small car's tank would only hold about 9 gallons empty, and of course you couldn't wait until the tank was completely empty to fill up. So I'd go to the station, hand them a deposit so they would turn on the pump, I'd fill my tank (say 8.5 gallons), and like clockwork they'd charge me for 10 gallons and give me a lecture on how "topping off" was against the law. I'd point out what the law actually said, but none of them ever backed down, and it was damn clear that nobody was going to sympathize with a :mad: hippy. It made my limited travels less enjoyable.

the lines, the "odd/even plate" fill-up days....really having to watch how much gas you were using because if it wasn't your day to fill up, you were SOL...

pumps had to be worked on or changed because they didn't go over 99cents. I Remember the prices going up but lines were not bad in Tallahassee. I Remember all the talk about energy alternatives and small cars got talked about and even purchased but of course as soon the crisis ended the vehicles got even bigger than they were before. It really felt like the US was learning and was truly going to drive small cars like the rest of the world and conserve fuel but how wrong that was.

I remember being stunned at paying $.68 a gallon.
And even more stunned at people getting shot for trying
to cut in in the gas line ...

I don't remember the prices at the pump. I remember around '74 or '75, everyone was horrified when gas jumped to about 50 cents a gallon. My then-boyfriend (I was in high school), would drive his Ford Pinto to the station, and get a pack of cigarets and a gallon of gas with a $1 bill. But that wasn't during the crisis.

What I remember most about the shortage is the lines. I mean long, long lines. You might wait in line 2 or 3 hours just to find out that the car in front of you pumped the last drop and the station was out of gas. Never sure whether you'd be able to get gas, and people driving big gas guzzlers knew they didn't have far to go before they had to do the wait all over again. I didn't have a car, but I went along for the ride sometimes. It made the wait easier if there was someone to talk to and someone to hold your place in line if you had to find a bathroom.

there was no gas. The lines were hideous and some stations never had any. Work would let us take time out from our work day to go sit in gas lines. Can't remember how high the price was, just that it was hard to get. There were incidents too. People would bring booze(and other stuff) to pass time while waiting. There were many fights in line while waiting. I was lucky because I made friends with a guy who owned a station. He kept his in ground only to be let out for his friends :).

I worked a full time job at a Mobil station on the Mass Pike. During the height of the shortage we were only allowed to sell $3.00 worth per costumer until we sold 3,000 gallons. I then had to walk out to the entrance to the complex and take down a green flag and replace it with a red flag. If I remember correctly the price was 78 or 80 cents per gallon. There was an exception on gas sales, if you were a doctor or nurse and could prove it, you could buy all you wanted.

also remember Berkeley, Ca in 1962. There was a cut-rate station that sold gas for about $.23 a gallon! I had a VW Beetle and could fill 'er up for a couple dollars. The early 60's in California were the absolute best!

around Berkeley with my boyfriend who has a motercycle. There was always gas left in the hoses, and he would drain it into the gas tank. You could get quite a bit of gas that way--at least for a motercycle. But, I guess bikers know all that.

that was the price of chicken on sale. My forgetters getting better.

I managed to fill up on what was probably the last "gas war" in our little town. I paid 19.9/gallon.

then went up to over a dollar. I remember the gas lines and people going to the gas stations at 3 in the morning to be the first in line. I also remember people getting out of cars beating each other silly.
I had a bicyle and a motorcyle at the time so it didnt really bother me. That was the demise of the big american clunker and the japanese came in and kicked gm's ass nicely. Similar to today - suv's are not so pretty anymore to their owners

Getting up early so I wouldn't be late for work and I'm not a morning person.

And back then most gas stations were also auto repair, not the mini-marts they are today. And the station owners would cater to the customers who had their cars repaired at their shops. So if you were like me and had service done at a dealer you were SOL - in the line you go.

I also remember it was cold. I remember getting hot chocolate to keep warm cause you had to keep turning off the engine as you moved in line so you wouldn't burn up the gas waiting.

I've been wondering if it could happen again to us in the near future. * will be screwed if it happens this summer.



1974: Long Island Faces Severe Gas Shortage

Like the rest of the nation, Long Island faced a horrendous gasoline shortage in 1974. Tempers grew short as lines at gas stations grew long, with some stretching a mile. On some days, as many as 80% of Long Island’s gas stations closed as early as 2:00 p.m. Doctors were unable to drive to hospitals, and sales at stores in Long Island’s malls decreased by as much as 40%. While Suffolk County responded with a voluntary rationing plan and Nassau County enacted mandatory regulations, both counties conformed to a voluntary, alternate "odd-even" day allocation program New York State Governor Malcolm Wilson recommended. An East Northport Gulf station on Larkfield Road is shown here in a 1974 photo.


http://www.newsday.com/other/special/ny-iholi0428story.htmlstory

First, the nation went on year-around daylight savings time. I was teaching at the time and, when school began at 8 a.m. in the winter time, it was still quite dark outside. I thought it was dangerous for kids who had to walk to school.

I had to buy a locked gas cap -- good tip, folks -- for my car because people were stealing the gasoline right out of people's tanks.

The federal government set the speed limit at 55 mph for the nation, and people followed it. That was part of the good old days because nowadays people go 55 mph in parking lots. It's nuts out there.

We had odd-even days for fill-ups because of the gas lines. I don't know if that happened nationwide, but it happened in California. If your license number ended in an odd number, e.g., you could only buy gas on odd days, 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc. of the month.

None of it was scary to me, though.

If there is a shortage now -- after the election, of course -- it will only last long enough for Georgy-Porgy and Tricky Dickie to open the Alaskan Wilderness to pumping. After that, we'll have plenty of gas at much higher prices.

The saddest part of the 70s gas shortages was the fact that we didn't use it to free this nation of its dependence on foreign oil and gas guzzling autos. I figure that we'll have to lose at least 30 or 40 thousand Americans in the oil wars before we grow that brain.

I was working summers at a gas station in Springfield, VA, at the 495-95 exchange which was normally always swamped. We quickly went to gas rationing by "odd" license plates getting gas on M-W-F, and "even" license plates getting gas on Tu-Th-Sat. Sunday was basically first come, first served. The lines were very long and tempers were very short, especially if you ran out of gas and had to shut down.

I don't have any good memories about that time frame.

My father owned a sunoco /kendell oil distributorship.I remember afternoons gas tankers coming in and dad turning them away.He had no place to put anymore gas.He was way overstocked.I cant recall the prices but I do remember that you were allowed gas according to your license plate number.

n/t

in alternative fuels. Instead we end up 30 years later with SUVs and more big engines wasting billions of barrels of oil, despoiling the environment, eventually becoming the root causes of terrorism and war. Capitalism won, people lost. So it goes.

Apologies for the digression.

I was young at the time. My mother, grandmother, uncle, aunt, and cousin were taking a trip from Oklahoma to North Dakota to visit another uncle stationed at Grand Forks AFB.

The uncle with whom I was traveling was one of those "drive without stopping until your head explodes" type of people. The only thing we'd stop for was gasoline or restroom breaks so extreme my grandmother began threatening to remove his manhood. After driving the car to fumes during one stretch, we finally stopped in a small town in Iowa.

The first station we visited had no gas, so we went to another. Again, no gas. My cousin and I were screaming for food and recreation. At the second stop we saw a Holiday Inn across the street that advertised an indoor swimming pool, and we wanted to stay there. It was only early evening, however, and my uncle figured we had another six to seven hours of driving time left. But we had no gas, and this second station had none to sell us.

He dropped the family off at the Holiday Inn so we could visit the restaurant and try to sneak the kids out to the swimming pool for a few minutes. He went off to fill up. About an hour later, and having been run out of the swimming area before we even got our feet wet, a waitress at the restaurant approached us and told us we had a phone call. It was my uncle. He'd run out of gas on a local street while going from station to station looking for a fill-up.

We ended up spending the night and a full day in the hotel, which was great for my cousin and me and, I think, everyone else but my uncle. He got a ride from someone to the hotel after having the car towed to a gas station that said it'd have a gasoline delivery the next morning. That delivery ended up arriving sometime that afternoon. I don't remember the price, just that my uncle complained about that particular gasoline purchase for the rest of his life.

That's my basic memory of the gas shortages of the 70's.

credit card division. Not only were there high gas prices, long lines, a wage and price freeze and shortages, there was also a tightening of credit. Exxon changed the terms on their credit card from being a revolving type to being due in full each month. Exxon wasn't the only oil company to do that since it was decided that gasoline was no longer a luxury but more of a utility or necessity. The thought was that since it was a necessity similar to groceries people should expect to budget for gas just as they did for groceries.

Many people didn't understand the terms of the change to their credit cards and would continue to pay a minimum payment instead of pay in full. This would result in a suspension of charge privileges until we could talk to them and explain what was happening.

One day I was on the phone with one of the company owned stores because the attendant had run the card through the PAS system and been told to call in. I was explaining to the attendant I needed to speak with the customer when the customer went nuts, walked up to the attendant and shot him in the leg. People's tempers were short, it was hot, lines were long, prices were high, credit was tight.

I don't know how many times I was accused by customers of having an oil well in my backyard simply because I worked for Exxon and lived in Texas.

"I was walking down the street, carrying me a big gas can..."

I can't remember the lyrics but it was a catchy tune as these things go. I was in 7th grade. I just remember people were pissed off, Nixon was prez.... ah the good old days!