One Friday evening in 1947, my father returned home from New York City and told me to hook the trailer to the Jeep and put four 55 Gallon drums on the trailer. We were going to Bayonne, New Jersey in the morning. There was a gas war in progress outside the ESSO Bayway refinery and gas was selling for seven (7) cents a Gallon.
The lowest price I remember is when Dad took the family on a road trip about 1970ish (with our 1965 Plymouth Savoy). He stopped for gas in Louiseville QC and paid 36 cents a (Imperial) gallon. These days we'd call that 7.9 cents per liter. Today we're lucky if it's under a buck a liter (AKA 4.55 bucks an imperial gallon, or about $3.80 a Yankee gallon). Taxes...
I wonder if this price is mostly tax, the government's method to ensure that passenger rail remains popular.
Just spent the past hour or so looking at all the photos and reading the captions and history. Thanks to all who posted. Very cool thread.
Summer of 1966 there was a huge gas war ongoing in my area. I was the one who answered the phone, some days several times, to run out and change the price signs and pump settings. We got all the way down to 4.9 cents a gallon, Regular. For several years, I could get ten gallons for two dollars. That was great for a weekend of a teenager driving around a lot.
When the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 went into place, spurring long waits and stations running out of gas, the Citgo station in our town gave its regular customers special "bee" stickers to place on vehicle grilles. It allowed regular customers quick access to a reserved pump and fast service. It lasted only a short while and ended when some grew angry at special treatment they couldn't get. I kept our bee sticker as a memento of the era, but it's since disappeared.
I was a high school kid working at a Union 76 station that year. We cut back to just selling gas to our commercial customers.
So being born in the mid 70's, and growing up in the 80's I remember when the gas pumps looked like they were little fat guys with square heads and spaghetti arms. At least that's how my 7 or 8 year old brain viewed them. I was (and still am) into sci-fi and robots and stuff like that. I also remember the attendant coming out to help my mom and mom never leaving the car. Dad on the other hand always pumped his own gas and even taught me how to do it back when I was 10 or 11. Oh and you didn't have to pre-pay back then either.
Remember the gas wars back in the 1960's when competition between stations was at it's highest. One day my mom bought gas for 17 cents a gallon. Joe