By Dan Miller
April 24, 2007
Nothing says "you ain't all that young anymore" quite like telling kids how cheap gasoline used to be.
But it was.
I remember in the early 1970s refusing to fill up at a gas station on Murfreesboro Road because the price had jumped all the way up to 37 cents a gallon, which I thought was outrageous, and certainly temporary.
But I'll go back even further than that.
When I used to borrow my parents' car, I could put a dollar or two of gas in the tank.... drive around all night.... and the gas gauge would be right about where they left it. They'd have no clue how far I'd driven (unless my dad checked the mileage).
Heck, when there was a really good "gas war" going on in Augusta, some stations were selling it for under 20ยข a gallon.
The best I recall was, sometime around 1960, a little independent station cut the price for a couple of days to 14-point-9 cents a gallon!
Of course, now that I have my little scooter -- and warm weather is here again -- I can fill it up with just one gallon, and travel 95 or more miles on that.
I predict that soon.... with the prices we're paying for gas.... the streets of Nashville and other American cities will look like the streets of Tokyo, Rome and Bermuda.... filled with scooters.
Now, if only they can devise a way to provide heaters on the scooters so they can be comfortably ridden year round.
Oh, and maybe they could add a back seat.
And a radio....
And maybe air conditioning....
And plenty of cup holders....
_________________________________________
Comments