Price of gas in 1973 oil crisis vs. now, how does it compare?

1973 I graduated from college and two weeks later got married ... Gas was $.78 a gallon and Daddy said he was going to go back to horse and buggy I remember I worked for Daddy $ 2.00 an hour I made alot ...

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Gayla

The cheapest I can remember gas was 26 cents a gallon.I clearly remember watching Nixon on TV when he said gas would never reach $1 a gallon, and bread would never reach $1 a loaf. Wasn't long after that when both hit $1.

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I remember well the gas crunch as I at the time I was running apart time towing service. Gas was .78 a gallon and when it got bad you could only get 2 bucks at a time. I had to go from Charlotte, NC to the coast to get a car which was 200 miles away and had to go at night because of my daytime job. Well I filled up several cans and away I went and made it there without a problem but did not find any gas stations open on the way there so I was worried I would not make it back on what gas I had. Well I found a station open and explained my problem to the guy and he said sorry I can only sell you 2 bucks worth at a time. I said can you not help me out and his answer was I can't sell BUT 2 BUCKS at a time. I said ok and pumped my 2 bucks and paid him. This was 2AM and no one around. I turned the pump back on and pump 2 bucks and paid him. I did this until the tank was full and headed home. I made it ok and am grateful to that guy till this day. I look for them to start limiting the amounts before long. Sam

I was just a kid then but I remember pre-1973 gas was about .25 a gallon. Then it started rising and rising and rising and topped of about .60 cents a gallon and then leveled off at .50 cents a gallon. Then about the time I graduated from high school (1978) it started going up again. It got up to $1.00 per gallon and then finally leveled off at around .85 to .90 cents per gallon. It seem to stay at this price all through the 80's.

In 1978 minumum wage had gone up from $1.90 to $2.10 per hour. I got out of tech school in 81 and got a job making $4.50 per hour. I thought I was doing good since I was making twice as much as people on minumum wage.

Don't remember the exact price but do remember the shortage. One thing that was a big part of the shortage, is when the price started up, everybody run out and filled up everything they had that used gas and some even filled up 55 gal drums. If there wasn't a shortage it was then. All the stations ran out and could only get a small amount. Lines of cars were waiting at the stations when tankers bought the gas to the stores. Before that tanker made his next stop, the station he just left was pumped dry.Lot of country stations would get a small amount, but they sold it only to their best customers Late at night. It was rough for a while and don't want to see that again, but I do believe we will see those times again.

My gut feeling tells me that things will get bad again also, but I think that the waste that goes on now is one of the problems. JMO. Carolyn