Are you this old?

riptides · Dec 30, 2021

2LaneCruzer said:
When I was in high school, regular gasoline was 25cents per gallon. I could buy a dollar's worth of gas, pick up my date, drive to Enid, go to the drive in (50 cents each; popcorn 15 cents each), have a hamburger and a Coke afterwards (35 cents and 15 cents) and have change left over from a '$5.00 bill.

I remember buying lifesavers candy rolls for 5 cents.

They worked pretty good too. I am still kicking!

Molalla1 · Dec 30, 2021

2LaneCruzer said:
When I was in high school, regular gasoline was 25cents per gallon. I could buy a dollar's worth of gas, pick up my date, drive to Enid, go to the drive in (50 cents each; popcorn 15 cents each), have a hamburger and a Coke afterwards (35 cents and 15 cents) and have change left over from a '$5.00 bill.

During the gas wars I think it got down to 17-19 cents a gallon.

Larry Caldwell · Dec 30, 2021

k0ua said:
It wasn't a good idea then, nor is it now. The reason for taping the penny on the tone arm was because your needle was worn out and would not track deep enough in the groove. You should have replaced the needle, but instead you taped a penny (or nickel) on the tone arm to try to force it to track. Of course it just wore the "heck" out of the record with the extra weight on the arm. Wouldn't you think if the tone arm needed extra weight to work correctly that the manufacture would have made the tone arm heavier to begin with?

it is just one of the dumb things that people do as a work around to a problem they either don't understand or don't have the money to cope with.

I was pretty adamant that the general public kept their greasy fingers off my record collection. For years I used a Grado cartridge that shipped with an oscilloscope trace showing its frequency response. I still have it, though I switched to a Pickering tracking at 1.25 grams to minimize record wear. After Philips invented the cassette tape I started taping new albums and putting them in storage in once-played condition.

Larry Caldwell · Dec 30, 2021

Molalla1 said:
During the gas wars I think it got down to 17-19 cents a gallon.

I saw 11 cents a gallon in Dayton in about '56. They wouldn't deliver for that price, so dad put 55 gallon barrels in the back of the pickup and we hand pumped a few hundred gallons of tractor gas into the farm tank.

Molalla1 · Dec 30, 2021

Larry Caldwell said:
I saw 11 cents a gallon in Dayton in about '56. They wouldn't deliver for that price, so dad put 55 gallon barrels in the back of the pickup and we hand pumped a few hundred gallons of tractor gas into the farm tank.

Yep, that was a little before I had a driver's license.

k0ua · Dec 30, 2021

I saw 15 cents per gallon in the 60's during one of the gas wars. The price was commonly 17 to 20 cents. When the prices started to climb near 25 cents per gallon for regular gas, Dad started to grumble and complain.

When I was out on my own in the late 70's and dating girls, I remember regular gas was less than 50 cents for a while but just continued to climb. By the time I was married it was time to trade off the 74 Thunderbird with the 460 4bbl carb and the wifes Pontiac Grand Am with the 400 4 bbl. (she was going to kill herself in that thing driving home from work at excessive speeds anyway) so we got a Ford Grenada. Talk about stepping on a plum when you floored the gas pedal. Man that was a very uninspiring car. But it got better fuel mileage. After a few years neither one of us could stand it. We got a Z28 Camaro with a 5 speed and a V8.

turnkey4099 · Dec 30, 2021

milkman636 said:
I’m younger than most on this thread, but my earliest gas station memories are of my dad pulling in to the local service station and telling one of the owner’s sons to give him $3 worth of gas. That was the usual amount he’d buy. They pumped the gas, checked the oil and tires, and washed the windshield for that $3. It was a big deal for me to be the one to say “$3 please”.

Pre WWII and some my have been in use after it, the gas station pumps were hand pumped into a glass tank on top of the pump cabinet. Ask for $1.oo and the attendant pumped the gas up to that mark on the tank. Gravity dispensed it.