Gas price war!

[OZZIE4DUKE]

The price went up a bit this morning. The Murphy was $2.28. But it's down to $2.21 now and the Hess is $2.19, so the race downward resumes! Cheapest premium I saw was $2.47 at the Hess.

[devildeac]

The price went up a bit this morning. The Murphy was $2.28. But it's down to $2.21 now and the Hess is $2.19, so the race downward resumes! Cheapest premium I saw was $2.47 at the Hess.

Murphy was indeed $2.21 at about 8 PM tonight after enjoying a medium pepperoni, mushroom and fresh tomato pizza and too many Diet Cokes at Angelo's with the gas man himself, Ozzie . Spent the ~$3.50 I saved on dinner . Great to see you this evening and chat for a while. Extra hug tonight to Mrs. Ozzie. Sorry she couldn't join us.

[YmoBeThere]

I don't remember the gas lines of the 70's, but how busy are these stations when they are at the lowest price?

[Miles]

After six years in San Diego or Los Angeles, including one year of commuting between the two cities, I quit looking at gas prices.

[Very Duke Blue]

I don't remember the gas lines of the 70's, but how busy are these stations when they are at the lowest price?

I also can't remember the price of gas in the 70's. I do remember the price when I was in high school. My friends and I would all chip in to buy enough gas to slip (our parents didn't know) to Buckrow Beach, Hampton, Va. It was about 80 miles from Richmond. The price of gas then, 1957-1959, was 25 cents a gallon. Imagine that!!!

[lawgrad91]

I don't remember the gas lines of the 70's, but how busy are these stations when they are at the lowest price?

I also can't remember the price of gas in the 70's. I do remember the price when I was in high school. My friends and I would all chip in to buy enough gas to slip (our parents didn't know) to Buckrow Beach, Hampton, Va. It was about 80 miles from Richmond. The price of gas then, 1957-1959, was 25 cents a gallon. Imagine that!!!

I remember my dad complaining about the cheapest gas in Portsmouth, VA, being 33 cents per gallon. That was 1972, I believe. I was 6. Time flies when you're having fun!

[devildeac]

Gas was about $.30/gal when I was a teenager (late 60s and early 70s) and went up to a bout $.55/gal during our gas "shortages" in 1973 and 1979. My Dad told me stories of gas at $.08-$.12 when he started driving in 1936 or so. We could all move to Venezuela or Iran where I think gas is still that cheap .

[CathyCA]

I remember the odd and even days back in the early 1970s. My folks had two cars--one had a license plate that ended in an odd number and the other had a license plate that ended in an even number. The Esso station at the top of the 15-501 ramp on to Hillsborough Road in Durham would allow sales of a limited amount of gas each day, but only to odd-numbered cars or even numbered cars. The gas station posted a sign indicating whether a particular day was an odd or an even-numbered day.

As soon as we got on the school bus, my mom would take the appropriately numbered car to the Esso station to purchase the allotment of gas for the day. She would arrive at the gas station before our bus passed it because she could drive the car under the railroad trestle at Morreene and Neal Roads. Our bus had to detour around the trestle and go all the way down Morreene Road to 15-501.

As our bus passed the Esso station, my brother and I would wave at my mom who was sitting in a long line of cars on Hillsborough Road, patiently waiting her turn to buy gas.

At the time, I remember thinking that our world was going to run out of gas very soon, and that we had better do something to decrease our dependence on oil. That was over 35 years ago.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Two "old" gas stories:

1. In the fall of 1970 I was 16 when we moved to Ft. Lauderdale (from NY) I got my license the first Monday we were there. (In NY, the driving age was 17, but 16 in Florida). There is a Shell station at the corner of Oakland Park Blvd. and US 441 that I always used. The price of regular ranged from $.279 to $.359, depending on the gas war swings with the Hess station on the other corner (it was always 2 cents cheaper than the Shell, but I had my dad's Shell credit card) and premium, which I used, was 4 cents higher, so it ranged from 31.9 to 39.9 cents/gallon. I distinctly remember filling up one day when the price was 39.9. Now, this was full service, and the guy (a kid maybe 18 years old) doing the pumping said "Man, I hate charging people $7 for a tank of gas!" I remember his face to this day.

2. During the gas shortage in the spring of 1973, my freshman year, I "found" a Circle K station about 2 miles north of 15-501 that had gas in the early mornings, and I'd drive up there and wait in line whenever the tank in my GTO got down to 1/2 full (I got about 10-12 mpg around town and had an 18 gallon tank). The station limited purchases to 5 gallons per customer, but since I used premium and most customers used regular, they always let me "fill er up"! And they took my dad's Phillips 66 card! (I had a bunch of them - Shell, Exxon (Esso in those days), Mobil, 66, Gulf and I'm sure a couple more I can't remember. Don't think I had a Texaco card.)

[OZZIE4DUKE]

This morning's prices: Hess $2.25, Murphy $2.29. I put in 4.6 gallons of Hess.

[DukieInKansas]

Two "old" gas stories:

1. In the fall of 1970 I was 16 when we moved to Ft. Lauderdale (from NY) I got my license the first Monday we were there. (In NY, the driving age was 17, but 16 in Florida). There is a Shell station at the corner of Oakland Park Blvd. and US 441 that I always used. The price of regular ranged from $.279 to $.359, depending on the gas war swings with the Hess station on the other corner (it was always 2 cents cheaper than the Shell, but I had my dad's Shell credit card) and premium, which I used, was 4 cents higher, so it ranged from 31.9 to 39.9 cents/gallon. I distinctly remember filling up one day when the price was 39.9. Now, this was full service, and the guy (a kid maybe 18 years old) doing the pumping said "Man, I hate charging people $7 for a tank of gas!" I remember his face to this day.

2. During the gas shortage in the spring of 1973, my freshman year, I "found" a Circle K station about 2 miles north of 15-501 that had gas in the early mornings, and I'd drive up there and wait in line whenever the tank in my GTO got down to 1/2 full (I got about 10-12 mpg around town and had an 18 gallon tank). The station limited purchases to 5 gallons per customer, but since I used premium and most customers used regular, they always let me "fill er up"! And they took my dad's Phillips 66 card! (I had a bunch of them - Shell, Exxon (Esso in those days), Mobil, 66, Gulf and I'm sure a couple more I can't remember. Don't think I had a Texaco card.)

I hope you used the Gulf card a lot. Uncle Gulf was very good to me.

I remember pulling into a gas station in West Virginia over Thanksgiving my freshman year at Duke. We didn't fill up because we didn't want to pay $0.769 per gallon. We drove on down the road looking for cheaper gas but I don't remember what we ended up paying. I was living in TX at the time and gas was cheaper there.

[captmojo]

Didn't Charlie Daniels record a song about that? I think it was called Texas, via West Virginia.
The great thing about the lines was that after you sat there for so long, waiting to pay $.40+, when you got to within 6 or 7 car lengths, that's where they had the sign telling you that you would be limited to 5 gallons. Hell, I burned 4 gallons sitting in the damn line!

[OZZIE4DUKE]

It appears the price war is over $2.39 last night, $2.49 this morning. Glad I topped off at $2.34 on the way home from golf yesterday afternoon.

[Very Duke Blue]

It appears the price war is over $2.39 last night, $2.49 this morning. Glad I topped off at $2.34 on the way home from golf yesterday afternoon.

All good things must come to an end.