In a message dated 2/24/00 2:52:46 PM Pacific Standard Time,
stuart@COBALTGROUP.COM writes:

<< Anybody on the list old enough to have suffered through the gas shortage
 of the early '70's?  >>

I was driving a Bug during those times. My solution was install a
"long-ranger" brand aluminum auxiliary tank which gave me a total capacity of
34.6 gallons. You should have seen the stares I got when I took so long
filling-up. Gas was 54 cents for regular in the beginning of the year then.
By that summer, it was up to $1.73. Let's not forget the odd & even days.
People w/ plates ending in odd numbers were only allowed to fill-up on the
opposite days that people with plates ending in even numbers were allowed.
That was when you can find stations with gas. Forecasters at that time
proclaimed that we would be paying as much as $3.00/gallon my 1980.

Some enterprising people in Southern California were actually driving to
Mexico to fill-up and bring extra gas to be sold in the LA gas black market.

Shades of Mad Max, eh?

I'm happy to pay $1.59 for no name gas and $1.79 for popular brands today.
Which, by the way is 20 cents more than last week.

BenT
San Francisco.