I was a mechanic at a Richfield station in '60. An old man used to come in for gas, always had a joke to tell. One I remembered with this post was: "Didja hear about the sow that went into the Richfield station? ...Wanted to take a Bor-on?" The owner had to leave for awhile one afternoon, asked me to 'watch the front'... Awhile later, two screamers came in for gas, driving a '59 Caddy convert...they looked like Las Vegas showgirls, but too much makeup, looked like they hadn't slept in days. The driver asked, "How about a tank of Ethyl, no money...one of us goes in the back room with ya?" I started to react, but better sense got the best of me. "I dunno, full tank...that's 20 gallons...Maybe BOTH of ya..." "Why, you insolent blanket-blank..." Woman had a mouth on her! Dang broad nearly ran over my foot with rage as she laid rubber all the way out the driveway... Fun job. 3.1 gallons for $1 (regular) 2.7 gal. for $1 Boron.
In '61-'62 when I worked at the Big Donut (Randy's now) in Inglewood the cheapest on Manchester was .19.9 at a Hancock..... Normal was .21 or .22.....
1973 gas was 32.9 cents a gallon at the U-save in town. I could put $3 in my Dad's 1970 F250 4X4 and cruise around most of the night. Later that same $3 in that same pickup wouldn't get me the 11 miles home from town. Now it's back to the price I could at least get home.
In 1967 My Uncle bought a new Buick LeSabre. It took premium gas. My Dad went somewhere with him and I remember Dad was amazed that it took $7 to fill it up.
I pumped gas for .23 9 in 1963 at an independent gas station in Cooperstown Pa. It was during a price war with a neighboring gas station. I think that I was making a dollar per hour.
in 61-62 it was .25 also a pack of cigs was .25 we had it as low as .07 during gas wars......... .25 and we would give out S&H Green stamps, coffee mugs, 12oz glasses, shit almost anything to get em in the doors for lube and oil changes. Plus we had 8seconds to get out to the car once it had tripped the bell, or you were looking for a new job. Plus full service to the customer all for a buck an hr. But he was a cool owner and let me work on my car after hrs. After I closed down at 11 sometimes I didn't get out of there till 2am.........memories
Um, almost all of our oil comes from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and domestic sources. "All that" ain't all that much anymore.
The cheapest I have ever was at A1 auto parts on 38th and Pacific in Tacoma Wa in 1963 when they closed down their pumps in front of the parts store, 19 cents a gallon, the line was very long, LOL.
Good Gulf from this Southwest brand pump was 34.9 / gal in West Virginia when I was in high school. Cheapest gas price I remember was around 25.9 / gal during a "gas war" while I was in college in 1972 (good thing since I was a driving a big-block, 4-speed Vette). Unfortunately, the low prices didn't last very long. When the oil embargo of 1973 hit, I was screwed!
We're close to those prices now. Gas in our area today is $1.39. In 1966 dollars that's equivalent to .19 per gallon. The 1963 equivalent is .18. Thank you politicians for trashing the value of the dollar.
That and silver. When dimes and quarters were silver, a pocketful of change could get ya snockered! Now it's just slugs. I messed around using both as a proxy trying to get a handle on wages and prices over time, the last 100 years and beyond. It sort of works, and sort of doesn't. For one thing technological advances and automation tend to drive prices down. Economists like to talk about "hedonic" adjustments - cars have better brakes, steering, handling, are safer etc for example. In terms of gold, if a Model T was $400, that be over $25,000 at today's prices. One thing, government inflation figures seem understated. That's not really a surprise. It does seem like 1960s prices can be multiplied by 10 say, and roughly pencil out. A $20 gold piece costs over $1100 as you mention though, and the ratio of gold to silver was 1/16 for a long time, at least till they discovered a whole mountain of silver out in Nevada. Maintaining a peg between the two never seemed to work. Both silver and gold historical prices tend to work as proxies for food and houses, and cars. But not machine tools, clothes, and shoes. Clothes must have really cost a lot "back in the day" compared to now? Anyway just observations from someone who wonders what have they done to our money.
That's because the Gold Reserve act of 1934 by Roosevelt locked the value in at $35 an ounce through, I believe 1974. Unless you utilized Gold in your trade (Jeweler, Dentist, etc.), you were limited to hold something on the order of $100 worth or face Federal prosecution. Like diamonds, the Gold market has been manipulated big time in recent years. A few decades ago, Silver was the subject with the Hunt Brothers made a run to corner the Silver market.
Cheapest I remember seeing was traveling with my parents in 1961, a gas war in Oklahoma at 16-17 cents per gallon, I grew up in a general store in New England pumping gas from early 60's to 70's in the mid 20 cent to the low 30 cent per gallon for Sky Chief Texaco, the most surprising thing looking back is how many people bought gas in gallon quantities, example they'd come to the checkout and just say they wanted 5 gallons and I would ring up the $1.50 and go pump it, seldom did a customer pump their own. By late in '73, gas was at close to 50 cents and I had to get rid of my '67 firebird conv. Because I couldn't afford to drive it!
I don't remember any clockfaced pumps in the 60s. I do remember making $0.50 an hr pumping gas so that's 2 gal.per hr as a teen. Not cheap gas.
When the embargo hit in '73 I was driving a 68 GTO with a 3360 HP 400/ 4 speed..had a Holley spread bore carb and I swapped the car for a 57 Bel Air hardtop with a 283/4 speed to save gas...and it did.
I was 11 years old in 63,my uncle let me drive a53 ford for a while,till he sold it...I collected pop bottles for gas ...19.9 a gallon
In Hillsboro, Oregon in 1961 during a Gas War, regular was 19.9, Miller's Enco station sold it for 15.9, the owner made 1 cent per gallon, cars were lined up for a block, most of the time.
That's what's fun about the HAMB sharing our stories and remembering the past. In 1970 I was in high school,and had a 68 Vette . I worked evenings and weekends to pay for it. I would put a dollars worth of gas at a time in it to cruise with the guys on Saturday night. and do a little drag racing on Sunday. fun times! I also had a Hot Rod bicycle in the 60s too. I still have it. My school would ban me from driving the Vette sometimes for showing off and spinning the wheels, so I would take my bike to school. Anything but the BUS! ha ha .
In 1968,at age 21,I bought a New Plymouth RoadRunner.Super Shell 104 octane was 0.25 cents in southeast Texas.Who cared your muscle car got 8-10-12 m.p.g.You traveled to Houston(about 90 miles) had great times and came home all for $5.00. Those days are long gone! Cigarettes were 0.25 cents also.
Yes, it is difficult to compare your hourly wage then and now. To some one making minimum wage today in Ca. ($10) it works out to about the same. 3.92 gallons now, 3.63 then
17.9 cents a gallon during a gas war here in eastern Iowa. Also I was going to college then in Madison WI., gas was 19.9 cents a gallon.I filled my 65 Mustang up for a total of $1.95. We thought that was expensive. But I was making $1.40 an hour then. When you think about it with todays wages it really is about the same amount of money verses an hours pay. That was 1969
I was running Sunoco 260 at 49.9 cents per gallon, could run 5 bucks worth on a Saturday night, just going up and down Hampton Beach, NH. in a 396 57 Chevy. My Mom could not understand it when she would run all week on 5 bucks and still have some left over.
The oil in the Dakotas ? Come up with a more environmentally friendly way to get it other than fracking and then you can talk about it. And as has already been pointed out you get your oil from a lot of sources other than the middle east. With the current low oil prices everyone in the industry is hurting.
I saw .17 per in 1962 or so. Probably during a gas war. In a related note how many Hambers drained gas pump hoses after closing? I believe I stole way more gas (as a teenager) than I ever bought. Just the way things were...
In '72 Wally World came into the little town I finished high school in and started an everything price war, gas got down to 11.9 cents. This missus gathered up anything that would hold gas and we rolled into the lowest priced station in town and proceeded to fill all of our containers up. We rolled out of that station looking all hunkered down on the springs like a sine runner and grinning from ear to ear.
I remember when I would ride with my grandfather in the 60's to the local 'filling station' as he called it, in Grants Pass, Oregon, and then put in "Six-Bits'' worth of Ethyl....seems like he was always digging around in his (non-smoking) ashtray for his 'six-bits' in quarters. I'm not sure if most of modern society even knows what 'six-bits' in Ethyl is anymore...LOL....and then he'd mention kindly if they didn't wash his windows & check his tires!....man, the memories are clear, when I was jumping around in the back seat listening to the familiar 'ding-ding' sound of the roll-over 'arrival' hose in front of the pump, and wait to see who would come runnin' out to service the car....sure is different now!!!--- Ray
The Jalopy Journal
