Thursday, March 10, 2011

CHEAP GAS PRICES......1959!!!!

I know we all are feeling the effects of high gas prices. And we though they were high back in the day at 19.9 per gallon. OK, not all of you go back that far??. While in high school 19.9 was what we paid for a gallon of gas. For $1.00 you could drive a week or more. Man, those were the good old days, little did we know how good at the time.
I had enrolled in college at Murfreesboro,Tn. and was staying with my Aunt and Uncle and their two boys, Randy and Steven. My sleeping quarters was in the same room with the two boys. Little Steven had a problem, he was afraid of the dark and insisted on sleeping with the light on. Once he was asleep I would get up and turn the light out. If Steven woke up during the night he cried out and I would have to get up and turn the light back on. I soon found out it was better to sleep with the covers over my head as to try to out smart Steven.
My uncle J.B. was the manger of the local Red Ace Gas Station. He received a call from his boss that the station was going to start a Gas War for the week end. He told uncle J.B. to lower the price of gas from 19.9 to .09.9 starting Friday morning and running till Monday morning. Uncle J. B. ask if I would help pump gas during this time and I was glad to help. Back then stations pumped your gas when you came into the station. They also washed your windshield, checked your tires for low air pressure and put in oil if you needed it. We didn't know what self service was back in those days.
You can imagine the crowd of cars coming into the station that weekend to fill up their tanks with that cheap gas. We were the only station in town with those low prices. The cars formed a long line while waiting to reach the pumps and the line ran for blocks. Tanker trucks were standing by to fill the in ground tanks out back as soon as we pumped them down low. To say that weekend was a mad house is an under statement. Man did we sell the gas. That weekend the gallons sold was a new record for the Red Ace Owner.
The old saying," What goes down will go up" was true, because Monday morning Mr. Red Ace called Uncle J.B. and told him to raise the price of gas to 24.9. I know the people weren't happy with the new gas price. Little did we know what a great deal that was at the time.
Today or tomorrow it's time to fill up my wife's car and my truck. $3.69 here at present. Man, I wish it was 1959 again.

4 comments:

  1. Another great story from you Nick, love it!

    I wish we paid your prices Nick, it's
    about $10 per gallon here, and rising...

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  2. Ohhh Nick,,, you are reminding me how old we are...lol

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  3. I remember my sister pulling into a gas station to fill her VW bug, and looked across the road, and the price over there was 35.9 cents a gallon, and where she had pulled into was 39.9, so she needless to say, went across the street.

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  4. "Mr. Red Ace" was my grandfather, James W. Perkins, Sr. He was well known for pulling stunts like that. Enjoyed the story!!!

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