Well ?
21 cents at a Mobil station I worked at in high school (1966). Gas War with the Shell station across the street. The owner said he was guaranteed 4 cents a gallon anytime the price dipped below 25 cents. It was generally around 28-30 cents. Until Carter it was always under $1.
77 cents at a BP Station around 1978. Cheaper than the Exxon station I worked at.
.20/gal premium in 1967, Kansas city, Kansas price war with stations across the river in KC, MO. Refineries were on Kansas side with lower taxes and property values at the time. 8)
Growing up in SoCal, I remember $0.26-29 at a lot of stations in the mid-late '60s, which slowly increased to the low-mid 30s until the first oil embargo (1973.) Then it jumped by 10-15 cents.
Lots of stations were in the high $0.40s by 1975. Then, a steady climb to...
In 1979 (second embargo) it jumped to around 75-80 cents.
Brett: Where was the station you worked at?
Sick price, dont want to think about it!
Quote from: Side-Oilers on October 28, 2022, 12:07:28 AMBrett: Where was the station you worked at?
Beautiful Baldwin Park. A friend worked at a Shell in Covina but we bought our gas across the street - Chevron White pump.
Mid 20 cent range.
Do recall well my dad warning me, as a kid, that one of these days it's going to take $20 to fill you car's gas tank. Did and zoomed past that as we've all experienced
Traveling through Texas in the early '60s while we were moving to a new station when the Army had a new assignment for my dad. Prices were $0.16 to $0.19. I remember my dad saying that they were having a gas war. I asked him what that was (I think I was about 6 at the time)? He said that the gas stations were trying to see who could have the lowest price.
I was with my dad driving from St. Paul Minnesota to Dallas TX around 1970. We were in Oklahoma City and there were two gas stations across the street from each other. One had a sign that advertised 18.9 cents per gallon, the other 19.9 cents per gallon for Regular.
We pulled in the station with the cheaper price for Regular, the Premium needed for Dad's wagon was 23.9 cents per gallon. He drove across the street and the other station had Premium at 22.9 cents per gallon. We filled up there.
Funny what our dads used to do to save literally one cent.
But, on a fill-up of a 20 gallon tank, a penny a gallon would save you enough to buy one McDonald's basic hamburger (19 cents, in the early-mid 1960s.) Dad was no dummy.
well, we used to steal it from the neighbors state patrol car (sorry daren) but what we bought was 18.9 in 1970. paid for it with coke bottles we stole from the local holiday inn..
Quote from: papa scoops on October 29, 2022, 05:58:26 PM
well, we used to steal it from the neighbors state patrol car (sorry daren) but what we bought was 18.9 in 1970. paid for it with coke bottles we stole from the local holiday inn..
Many here have done it, including me. Welcome to the no charge club.I respect your honesty.
I remember my dad driving a tanker truck to the next town and filled it up for 15 cents per gallon to take it back to a Fina station. Ron
I think the cheapest I recall was .17cents a gallon along with S&H Green stamps, remember those? Along with a fill up, they checked your tires, fluids and cleaned your windshield. 8)
Oh yeah...we had Blue Chip Stamps on the west coast (at least in SoCal.)
Several times a year, we'd take a big paper bag full of stamps to my grandmother who'd paste them in the books and redeem them for dishes, small appliances, etc. I still have a nice set of eight iced tea glasses she got with stamps. Not low-quality at all.
I remember, about 1965-ish when Blue Chip came out with "Ten Stamps", meaning one large stamp with the value of ten individual "One Stamps." I think you got a Ten Stamp for every ten dollars spent, and so on.
Simple fun. Simpler times.
The station I worked at had Green Stamps. If someone didn't ask they didn't get the stamps. We kept them for ourselves. I spent mine on a golf bag and cart.
Van - you didn't react to my "beautiful" Baldwin Park comment. Did you forget that there were more excons per 100,000 in BP than any other CA city? A friend was a cop there and in contrast to most other cop shops you didn't want day shift. Too many burglary and theft reports to take - you felt more like a clerk. Night shift was spent breaking up bar fights and taking stabbing/shooting reports. Graveyard was just that always a gang banger or two dropped off to die on the hospital doorstep.
39.9 cents a gallon in Toronto before we went metric in the late 70s.
When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I remember gas @ around 79 cents. The cheapest gas in recent years I bought was 95 cents in Texas just before Covid. When I moved from Texas to Nevada, in March 2020, gas in Texas was $1.29. A week later when I arrived in Vegas it was exactly one dollar more @ $2.29. When Bozo took office it went up to $2.89 and rising...
I remember 18.9 cents per gallon back in the early to mid sixties. I also remember lots of "gas war" signs. My dad would pull into the station with his '49 Chevy Deluxe and and say to the attendant "fill 'er up with regular, everything else is OK". The latter was thrown in so as to keep the attendant from opening the hood and checking the oil, etc. He did all of his own car work and didn't want anyone to screw around with anything. Window washing wasn't necessary either!
Craig R.
Quote from: 98SVT - was 06GT on October 29, 2022, 11:15:58 PM
The station I worked at had Green Stamps. If someone didn't ask they didn't get the stamps. We kept them for ourselves. I spent mine on a golf bag and cart.
Van - you didn't react to my "beautiful" Baldwin Park comment. Did you forget that there were more excons per 100,000 in BP than any other CA city? A friend was a cop there and in contrast to most other cop shops you didn't want day shift. Too many burglary and theft reports to take - you felt more like a clerk. Night shift was spent breaking up bar fights and taking stabbing/shooting reports. Graveyard was just that always a gang banger or two dropped off to die on the hospital doorstep.
Brett:
Sorry, but my knowledge of Baldwin Park is minimal. I lived in Culver City, and didn't get out your way.
Didn't know that stat about the criminals. I'd bet somewhere in the lovely Inland Empire owns that title today.
One summer back in 1970 or 71 in Chattanooga where I was working there were 2 areas that took week about having gas wars and I filled up once for 10 cents per gallon. :) The next day the prices were back to mid 20's. >:(
TOB
19.9 1965-67? Michigan
19 cents a gallon in Perry, FL, which always had some sort of gas war going on. This would have been early '60's. When I was in school in Florida in early 70's, price for Amoco Premium shot up to 50 cents or so per gallon and I could no longer afford to make the 40 or 50 mile trip from Tampa to Sarasota on the weekends.