AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2008 > May > 05
Monday, May 5, 2008
Gas prices have consumers stumped at the pump
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The price of gas has put many people in that “someone should” mode, as in “someone should do something about the price of gas.” The person saying that usually has no idea who that person is, and certainly not what they should so. But they should do, well, something.
It’s as though we’re helpless - like the villagers in those movies waiting for Zorro show up and beat the stew out of the entire Mexican army. Not that there are any quick solutions out there.
Indeed, I saw my first sign on Roswell Road last week, advertising petrol at $4 per gallon. We’re still able to get our gas for around $3.50 thanks to the grocery chain that gives a discount if you shop enough in their store, and the big-box discount warehouse out toward Perimeter Mall. Hard to believe that $3.50 used to fill a car with money to spare.
And I wish I could recall what gas cost 40 years ago when I worked one misbegotten summer at a gas station at the corner of Roswell and Johnson Ferry, which has been a burger joint for decades.
I was 13 and I’m guessing gas was probably less than a quarter a gallon. The self-service concept had not come to the wonderful world of gas stations, so when customer pulled up my job was to bounce out there, ask much they wanted and deliver the gas.
Plus, check the tires. Not to mention their oil and water levels. And clean the windshield. If you needed a map I’d fetch it. They were free back in those days.
I worked Saturdays from 6 to 6 and after taxes I think I was knocking down $13 per Saturday not counting the occasional tip. Before I started working $13 a week sounded like great money. After a couple of Saturdays pumping gas in the heat and humidity it lost much of its appeal.
I’m still pumping gas, checking fluid levels, tire pressure and cleaning my windshield - but for one car only. No tips, but the work goes by fast. And $13 doesn’t buy much gas - even at what passes for a good price.
While I’m waiting for that mythical person to come and “do something” about the price of gas I’m trying to cut down on how much I drive, and motoring in the right lane of the highway at a speed a touch slower than the other drivers.
I’m trying not to go through fast-food drive-thru lanes, burning gas while I wait for my food. And when I can, I walk. I doubt Al Gore is going to put me in his next movie, but you do what you can.
Maybe if we all did what we could we could muddle through this gas thing with less anxiety while we wait on “someone” to “do something.”
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