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DEL.ICIO.USWill 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?
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Jacqueline Bullard
Comments
By Joe Camp
May 31, 2006 07:23 AM | Link to this
Nope. Count on $2.50/gallon in 2006. Count on > $3 in 2007.
By b-in-law
May 31, 2006 10:30 AM | Link to this
Ok it’s sad to think you have to strategically plan your trips to the gas station but every penny saved helps, unless your last name ends in Trump, Gates or Buffet. Here in the Philadelphia region we’ve been known to plan our trips to New Jersey, a trip across the bridge, to partake in their abundance of cheap gas. An even more Dilbert like plan involves using web sites. Just Google the terms “Atlanta cheap gas prices” to see several sites devoted to denying the oil tycoons of robbing us blind. Yes I know some of you are saying I don’t have a computer in my car when my go meter is on E. Well think back to when you were hating on the person in the next car for looking at their Blackberry in stand still traffic. They were probably looking for cheap gas.
By Joe Johnson
May 31, 2006 10:38 AM | Link to this
If it were not for the evil US oil companies, the price of gas would have been $6/gallon 10 years ago. Think about that the next time you fill up and be thankful. Left Wing Extremist Socialist Enviromentalist, are the reason gas prices are on the way up. Oh sorry, perspective is not tolerated in the AJC.
By W
May 31, 2006 12:17 PM | Link to this
Ha, ha…
Doubt it!
By Linda Hall
May 31, 2006 06:53 PM | Link to this
Yes, I think we will see $2 gas in Lawrenceville again - maybe when bell bottom pants are back in!
By jim d
June 1, 2006 10:54 AM | Link to this
Not in this lifetime
By Richard "Dick" Cheney
June 7, 2006 10:56 AM | Link to this
Will we ever see $2-a-gallon gas again?
Not if I can help it. Besides, what do you think that my little secret energy meeting that I held a few years back with some of the industry’s top executives was about? Heck, with greedy oil men like myself and Dubya out there lurking around every corner and tree-huggin’ liberal quacks like Al Gore and the boys (or girls) always fearmongering about global warming (what a crock!) looking for any little excuse to impose a stiff two, three-dollar or more a gallon gas tax on my customers, eh the American people, we’ll be lucky to keep the price of gas from breaching $10-a-gallon. If it’s left up to the tree-huggers, we’ll all be walking.
Thanks for filling up (no pun intended) my coffers boys and girls. Keep pumping,
Sincerely, VP “Dick” C.
By DH
June 7, 2006 11:08 AM | Link to this
Remember the pre-Republican era when things were going good? IT jobs were in demand, gas was less than $1.85, and everybody always had a little money in their pockets. Now, we’re just reliving the days of the 3 stooges: a Republican president, a Republican governor, and a Republican Senate majority leader. It cain’t git no better than this!
Oh right, the answer to the question is: more than likely no. As long as the Arabs have boatloads of oil profits to fund their new resort city (a.k.a. Dubai), gas prices will either remain constant within a ten cent range or slowly increase.