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Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Will we ever see $2 gas again?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Spend too much on gas this past Memorial Day Weekend?
Sure you did.
Right along with about 38 million other Americans.
Last year this time, post-Memorial Day barbecuing, I found a gas station with the cheapest rates in Lawrenceville. The tip off? Minivans, SUVs, foreign compacts and good ol’ all-American gas-guzzlers circled this station in triplicate like a flock of vultures honing in on road kill. The true sign of a real bargain.
A few weeks later, a barbecue grill appeared every weekend right there in the Citgo parking lot. A smoking black barrel on the outside, cold drinks and a hot nacho cheese-making machine on the inside, and cheap gas prices that no one else had. What more is needed to survive?
Last week this time, pre-Memorial Day barbecuing, I passed this same spot that now charges 30 cents more than all the surrounding stations. The rates are too high so the customers have disappeared. And so has the barbecue grill in the parking lot.
So much for free enterprise.
I do a lot of complaining about gas prices like I don’t remember the 1970s when my father could only fill up on even-numbered days, that is, if there was any gas available.
Or like I don’t remember hurricane seasons in Miami in the 1980s when gas prices went up with every warning, causing long lines reminiscent of when Nixon was president. Except there’d be fist fights over pumps and yelling in two languages and people with automatic weapons in their glove compartments just in case someone tried to cut them off.
Still, in both cases, the gas prices always came back down.
Maybe cheap gas is just another revolving part of history. Maybe decades from now my youngest son will pay $2 a gallon. Or maybe his car will run on Mazola corn oil. Maybe he’ll tell his son about the hot cheese nachos he always ate while waiting in a long gas line in Lawrenceville as smoke from a nearby barbecue grill steamed up the car windows.
Deal or no deal: Do you think we will ever see $2 gas again in Lawrenceville?
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