Gasoline Wars Were Fun Before The Politicians Got Involved

Has it ever struck you how quickly we Americans tend to forget current history, but how we hang onto old history? One year ago George W. Bush was our president, but there was still a great deal of bitterness among Democrats and a good number of people in the media. They were openly accusing the Republicans of stealing the election, and of anything else that would give the new administration a black eye. And among the things that Congressional Democrats were accusing the new president of was the price of gasoline. During the Clinton presidency the price of gasoline had bounced around a bit, but usually had been in the dollar-thirty to a dollar-and-a-half range. That was sort of normal, and acceptable. But after Bush became president one year ago, the price of gasoline had gone up, and James Carville and others were accusing Bush of a payoff to his Texas oil buddies. That was one year ago.

The other day I bought gasoline in Gainesville for less than a dollar a gallon. Now, I don't think it is fair to give George W. Bush credit for cheap gasoline now, any chore than it was to criticize him for high priced gasoline a year ago. But it did bring to mind the era when gasoline was a good deal cheaper than it is now let's say in the 30 to 50 cents per gallon range...and there was great competition between filling stations (that's what we called them then). Not only did the people who ran the stations dash out to fill your car, they washed the windshields and checked your tires, and popped the hood to see what was going on underneath. There were special gifts, and who can forget the great promotional campaign that insisted to put our gasoline in your car was like putting a tiger in your tank. If you filled your tank they would give you a little tiger tail to attach to your gas cap, and people were driving all over town with tiger tails sticking out of their cars. Joe Elliott had a filling station right here on Green Street, across from the present day location of the Chamber of Commerce, I was traveling a good deal then, and it was years before Jean and had to buy any drinking glasses. And even today wish had a tiger tail.

Okay, here's a history question: Why is it we Americans tend to remember the things that happened 40 years ago, and totally forget what went on one year ago?

This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/3/197944