Who remembers the 73 oil embargo?

[captain queeg]

I had just got my license. Very poor timing. I don’t really remember gas prices sky rocketing. More that it was hard to get gas. They had some system so you could only get gas every other day. Back then no one I knew ever filled their tank. Getting a dollars worth was standard procedure but that got you around 3 gallons. Enough for a night of cruising the small town I lived in.

There were some tricks. There was a small store out in the middle of the woods, don’t know if they had some farm exemption or just bent the rules but you could usually get gas there. Also I lived near the turnpike. I suppose since it was built for long distance travel they sold gas there 24/7. It was controlled access of course but as the crow flies we lived close to one of their gas stations. We’d drive out to the backroad for employee parking and take a gas can and walk over to the station pumps.

I just saw an earlier post mentioning the embargo and brought back memories.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. I remember

We must be the same age because I got my driver's license then.

Gas lines around the block.

[Fullduplexxx]

2. I remember running around looking for stations that had gas then waiting in very long lines to getit

[dameatball]

3. Most of us probably remember it. People sometimes got a bit crazy in the gas lines, or else they

would drive across the city to someplace because gas was a couple cents cheaper.

[AJT]

4. I had also just gotten my license. I remember long lines and my dad

complaining about 50 cent per gallon gas.....double what it had been.

[Skittles]

5. me

got gas for my dad, waiting for hours

[Dennis Donovan]

6. The lines - sweating in the un-airconditioned car for hrs - parental swearing

I was 8 and those things are still fresh to me.

[2naSalit]

7. I owned a trucking company...

'nuf said.

[Chemisse]

17. I recall driving by a truck stop near New Haven and seeing huge lines of trucks

Protesting the high prices during the oil embargo.

It was dramatic.

[2naSalit]

19. ...and dangerous...nt

[DURHAM D]

8. I don't recall that there was a limit on how often you

could buy gas.

I do remember in the 60s paying as little as 13 cents a gallon when there was a gas war. However, most of the time it was 17-19 cents a gallon.

[madinmaryland]

25. I remember the gas wars of the early 70's with prices of 11-12 cents a gallon.

Of course cars only got 10 mpg and salaries were much lower than today.

[boston bean]

9. I was wee one but still remember the gas lines.

[Ohiogal]

10. I had just gotten my license, too!

I remember gas stations running out and long lines at others, too.

[House of Roberts]

11. Our tag #s were sequential.

Odd numbers could get gas on odd numbered days, and even numbers on even numbered days. I was charged with filling the family chariots. You were limited to ten gallons too. I had a station on a hill, were you could select neutral and roll down the hill without starting the engine, until you were next to pull up to the pump. I'd get gas for the '65 LeSabre, then the next day get gas for the '69 Catalina, then return with my '69 Falcon. I spent that whole summer buying gas about once a week.

[Delphinus]

21. Ooh,

my first car was a '67 Catalina! Bought that in 1974 (if I recall correctly) - a steal at $300. Good car.

[MicaelS]

12. I remember it well.

What I remember most was how things changed.

Living in San Antonio, we had frequent "gas wars" back in the late 60s, earlier 70s. Prices got as low as $.19 a gallon. That was with FULL service. Plus, with an 8 gallon minimum purchase you would get a piece of dinnerware, silverware or a glass or cup.

Then the Arab Embargo went into effect, and the world turned upside down.

[customerserviceguy]

13. I do

Like you, I had just gotten my license recently. One of my ploys was to lug a 2 gallon gasoline can to the pump, fill it up between cars, and lug it back around the corner where my 90cc motorcycle was parked. I had gas for the next two weeks.

The '78 gas shortage was no picnic, either. At that point, I was working at a job that I couldn't get to other than by my car. At that time, it was a 1976 Gremlin with a twenty gallon gas tank. The car got pretty good mileage (I got a lower interest rate from Seattle Trust and Savings Bank for choosing it) so when I got it filled, it would last for quite awhile.

I'm glad those days are behind us. I drive a Sonata Hybrid now, and being retired, I can make a tank of gas last a month or more.

[FakeNoose]

14. What I remember are the odd and even days

If your license plate was an odd number, you could only buy gas on odd days. If it was an even number you could only buy on even days. That was to make people stay home and hopefully keep the lines shorter. Gas pumps were slower in those days and everyone wanted to "top off" so that they had a full tank all the time. Otherwise you could possibly run out of gas on the wrong day when you couldn't buy it.

However maybe the odd/even days only happened in New York where I was living at the time? I'm not sure. The price of gas wasn't too bad, less than $1 a gallon as I recall. The shortage only lasted for about 6 months until Henry Kissinger made a deal with the OPEC nations, and Saudi Arabia got a payoff somehow.

[Cartoonist]

15. I remember a line from the Carson show

It might have been Carol Wayne who said it during an interview.

"Do you notice how cocky people get when they have a full tank of gas?"

[Chemisse]

16. I do!

I was 18 or 19. I remember the odd/even days and long lines and being really nervous about not being able to get gas at all, although that never happened.

The 1979 oil embargo sticks in my mind more though. My husband and I and our small children were visiting his family near New Haven, and we could see the oil tankers out in the Sound, purportedly waiting for the oil prices to go up before coming in to the port to unload.

We were almost stuck in CT with no way to get gas to get home to NH. Luckily, a friend of my husband's brother had a gas pump at his business and we were able to buy enough gas from him to get home!

Strange days indeed.

[sop]

18. I can remember helping my father push his car into the gas station, a few feet at a time,

Last edited Wed Jun 5, 2019, 04:52 PM - Edit history (1)

after it ran out of gas in the block-long line. In Miami sales were limited to 10 gallons, so if you had a gas guzzler, and drove any distance, you were waiting in lines pretty often. As my father drove around the city, he'd always keep an eye out for any open stations with gas and short lines. If I recall, there were a few fights in those gas lines when someone tried cutting in.

[Wellstone ruled]

20. That was one interesting Summer and Fall.

We had to go to Kansas City in order to move my Brother In Law back to Minny. The old Suburban had a 45 gallon tank and we have two extra Five gallon Gerry Cans in the U Haul Trailer just in case. Well,we ended up buying some crap Gas from a Mafia Run outfit in a back alley in KC. Two Dollars a gallon,and we ended up buying fuel about Hundred plus miles North KC because the crap the Mob sold us got about five miles per gallon. Ran like it was cut with water and drain oil.

Interesting thirty some hour round trip. Many a car and truck sitting alongside the road back in those days. Upside,car pooling was the in thing.

[Quemado]

22. I do. I was 17. I had been driving for about a year when it happened.

Gas before the embargo averaged $0.25 per gallon; after the embargo, it went to up to $0.50 per gallon. People were freaking out.

[DeminPennswoods]

23. I do

First two years of college. IIRC there was trucker's strike to protest high gas/diesel prices that compounded things. Then there was Nixon's WIN (whip inflation now) program of price controls and the year there was no time change from/to DST. A very weird time.

[rsdsharp]

24. I no longer remember why, or what, but my older brother and I were taking something

to my sister, who was then living in a small town in western Iowa. (We lived in eastern Iowa). We were driving at night and low on gas when we came to another small town 20-30 miles from our destination. The (I repeat THE) gas station in town was closed, and we didn't have enough in the tank to make our destination.

At that point a police car drove by and turned the corner. My brother told me to flag down the cop. I popped out of the car and ran down the street yelling "Officer!" at the top of my lungs. He came our of his car pointing a very large gun at me. After explaining the situation (and changing my underwear) he unlocked a pump, and we were on our way.

Oh, yeah. I remember the embargo!

[rampartc]

26. zero republicans remember this

but they all know that "jimmy carter caused the long gas lines"

[Tikki]

27. I do ...

We had a big ole Lincoln. We never made that mistake again.

Fool me once and all...gas prices..


The Tikkis

[ProudMNDemocrat]

28. I was living and going to college in New Jersey........

I recall being in line to get a limit of 5 gallons depending the last digit of the license plate and day of the week if even or odd. Gas was $.40 cents a gallon then.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

29. Like yesterday!

[NanceGreggs]

30. I remember it well.

I was pregnant with my first child, and there were some issues with the pregnancy - had to get blood tests every week, plus other monitoring. My doctor gave me a letter explaining the situation, so I was allowed to gas-up on odd AND even days to ensure I could get to the hospital if and when necessary.

[BigDemVoter]

31. I remember well.

[Shrike47]

32. Sure I remember. I was a young housewife and it was my job to get gas for his car and mine.

California was on the odd/even system, at least where I lived, so it took a little planning on getting gas. On the other hand, I didn’t have to pump it myself back then. Not that I do, I live in Oregon now where it must be pumped by an attendant, but we do travel from time to time.

[Bettie]

33. I was seven and I remember the adults

being very angry about gas prices and waiting in long lines for it.

[madamesilverspurs]

34. Of course I remember.

Also in the '70s, a plethora of former gas stations converted to VW maintenance shops -- like on every corner.


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