Gosh, found this picture a bit ago... Nice to see not only the price, but the 4 cent tax separated, as well as the price ending in 2/10's instead of 9/10's I may frame it and put it on the dash of my 1963 Biscayne when at car shows !
I remember low $0.30. But I was only making about $1.20/hour too. I got my license in 1964. When you gave someone a dollar for gas it meant something!
My Father had a Shell station in Ohio from 1961 to 1970. I remember ( I was 15 years old ) that regular was 31.9 and Super shell was 36.9 a gallon. Sunoco 260- down the street was 39.9 a gallon. Shell oil X-100 was 75 cents a quart. A 1097 bulb was 35 cents. Complete wash - inside and out was 2 dollars and a wet wash a buck. Cigs in the machine were 30 cents. Every gas customers got a window wash and a check of the oil. Air for tires was FREE ! And we put it in ! Still had recaps a porta-walls. Many gas sales were for a dollar because you got 3 gallons. He had a Service Station not a gas station. Sorry to say - they are all gone. Good Old Days !!!
I can remember cruising around one evening and buying a gallon of gas for the 25 cents we scraped up. I think at the time, I had a job for $1.00/hr. I can also remember my dad putting 2 or 3 dollars at a time in his truck.
May have been a gas war picture, or mislabeled, but went back and checked and it definitely said 1963. Not saying I am right, just clarifying my original post..
Those are 30's gas pumps and 30's cars in the background. Gas wasn't normally that cheap in 1963, usually about twice that or two and a half times . About 30 cents was normal. Despite what the pic says, it's NOT 1963!
The cars seen in the background are '20s/early '30s, and the clock face gas pumps were quickly replaced with the new computing pumps that came out in '34. Picture is late '20s/early '30s. And the gas I pumped in the early '60s was around 25 cents a gallon.
My mom always went to get gas on Tuesday's (early 60's).. Double stamp day, plus when you purchased 8 gallons or more, you got a free glass. So, the deal was, mom would ask for 8 gallons of regular (never eythel), they cleaned the front and rear windows, checked the tire pressure, gave her a free glass, along with double stamps (very important to mom). For all this, she would hand the attendant $2.00, and the attendant would pluck off some change from his handy dandy coin changer on his belt. I was always fascinated with the belt coin changer. The Good Humor man and the street car conductor had the same coin changers.
[QUOTE="Nice to see not only the price, but the 4 cent tax separated, as well as the price ending in 2/10's instead of 9/10's [/QUOTE] And we gripe about high taxes today!
I pumped gas at Jack's Enco at 92nd and Powell in Portland in '69. During a gas price war [which was most of the time] we sold regular for 25 cents. I was buying gas in '64 but don't remember the price. When in the Army in Germany in the late 60s, gas was 17 cents a gallon..........same as a pack of cigarettes.
I graduated in 63 and worked at gas stations. Lowest I saw was 19.9 cents during a gas war. Normally, it was around 21.9 to 23.9 cents. I made 80 cents an hour and went to another station to work because they offered me a buck an hour. I used to put 50 cents worth of gas in my 57 VW and have enough gas to go on a date that night and then go cruising afterwards. Don
Here is what I came up with for the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline: 1960----.31c 1961----.31c 1962----.31c 1963----.30c 1964----.30c 1965----.31c 1966----.32c 1967----.33c 1968----.34c 1969----.35c 1970----.36c That was the average. It was probably 10c higher in some areas and 10c lower in others.
Around that time in SoCal Chevron Custom Supreme and Richfield Boron were selling for about $0.35/gallon.
In 1996 I was buying gas for under a buck a gallon. I was 16 at the time and would by just one gallon or less all the time. Good times. How times have changed. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Long T nailed it right on the head. Those 25, 30 or 35 cent gas prices sound great today but you have to figure out how many gallons you could buy for an hours work then compared to now. In 1963 I was earning 1.25 and hour which was this states minimum wage and gas was about .30 Today this state has a minimum wage of 9.67 and Safeway in town is 1.61 at this moment per Gasbuddy.com which gets you 6 gallons of gas today making gas where I live cheaper today than when I was a sophomore in high school driving my 175.00 51 Merc.
1963 I was 14 yrs. old ..buddy & me were mowing lawns took a 5 gal. can to the Apco station $1.00 filled the can & got 2 cokes ( had to drink them there or pay deposit on the bottles ) gas was 14/9 , gas war was on . Got my license 2 yrs. later gas was(as I remember) 29/9 .
I always hated that 9/10ths tacked on the end of the price. I remember as a kid swearing to myself that if I ever owned a gas station I wouldn't have that on my pumps!
Very true. Everyone reminisces about the good old days of 20 cent gas, etc. but it's all relevant when compared to wages. Most people were making $50-80 week then. Gas is cheaper than it's ever been, at least for me. When I was 16, I made 2 bucks an hour (minimum wage) and gas was 55 cents, so I got about 4 gallons per hour wages. Today gas is $2.55. Ironically, this comes out to about 4 gallons per hour of minimum wage). However, I'm making a hell of a lot more than minimum.
Don't forget that prices varied widely from one area to another and also depending on the brand. In north Alabama in 1970 gas was regularly 24.9 at the Spur station. Amoco was higher 32.9. We didn't have a car in 1963.......but I remember walking 2.3 miles to town (I was 12) and buying a gallon of kerosene for $.10, my how the times have changed.
Welding in Mobile refinery in Torrance Ca. at that time, gas was 35 cents a gallon. Lunch time we always had discussions on current topics, one day we figured that gas should NEVER cost more than 35 cents a gallon. Since 1 barrel of crude will produce 52 by products, gas is a waste until "Cracked" at the refinery, then becomes a usable product for the auto industry. A real shame that we continue to import all that oil from mid east, when we have unlimited supply in the Dakotas.
Springfield, Missouri at a MFA gas station in 1966, gas was 19.9. I remember a 65 Ford Galaxy convertible come in and we put $5 in it ...... 25 gallons. Boss thought we pumped it on the ground. I made 75 cents an hour and worked 5pm to midnight shift. A buck of gas would let you cruise a long time......
In the early sixties, don't remember what year I rode my bicycle (modified 24" stingray high rise handlebars, white banana seat, light metallic blue bomb can paint, cut down chrome fenders, whitewalls) down to the Derby station on the main drag. It was during a gas war and the price was 9.9 for regular and 14.9 for ethyl. It's amazing the details in life you remember when someone throws a topic out there! That's what I like about the H.A.M.B.
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