REMEMBER WHEN: The cheapest you've even seen gas prices in your lifetime

[LynneSin]

I remember my parents freaking out because gas went up to 50cents/gallon and this was sometime mid-70s

[bicentennial_baby]

1. late 90's, NH

85 cents a gallon...

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. The lowest I remember paying was 63¢/gallon, in 1998...

And I think the Atlanta area had the lowest gasoline prices in the country at the time...

[tyedyeto]

3. During the gas wars many years ago

I bought a gallon for 19 cents. Used to ride around all night long for a dollar.

[BlueJazz]

20. I was gonna say the same thing! Man..that was Nice... n/t

[HamstersFromHell]

4. Worked in a gas station when I was in high school...

and we were in a constant gas war with the station one block away.

Normal pricing was in the 21-22 cent range, we often ran it (as did the competitor) at 19.9 cents per gallon. This was 1972.

[blueknight]

5. i remember a gas war

in cincinnati when i was a kid. this was in the early to mid 60's and gas was 17 cents a gallon:crazy:

[LaurenG]

6. When I first got my license

Gas was 50 cents a gallon. We would get 2 dollars and some change and buy 3 gallons of gas and a pack of cigarettes. Smokes were also 50 cents a pack.

[punpirate]

7. Mid-fifties...

... during a local gas war in Texas... 9.9 cents for ethyl (high-test). Regular was a cent cheaper.

Amazin', ain't it? :wow:

[China_cat]

8. Boy, you all are young.

I remember when it went to $.25/gal and stations had price wars bringing it down in most places to $.19 or less. When you could actually pull into a station, get a dollar's worth of gas pumped for you, your oil checked and your windsheild cleaned.

[dr.strangelove]

9. I remember gas in the $.60 - .70 range about 8 years ago.

[Misunderestimator]

21. 8 years ago? Where?

I remember that price about 30 years ago.

[dr.strangelove]

36. I think the cheapest I paid was in Minnesota in 1998

Minnesota had a very low gas tax back then. Texas would have been cheap too. Iowa was not bad either. I recall it was fall of 1998 when it hit the lowest. I think this was before a refinery fire in California. The fall to winter of 1998 had very low fuel prices in many part of the country. We used to keep track of the prices at work, but I have long since lost that data.

[datasuspect]

30. shit it was .99 at least 6 years ago.

[Catchawave]

10. 35 cents/gal in the mid-60's

I believe minimum wage was 1.15/hr? Probably took just as big a chunk out of that paycheck too :)

[BiggJawn]

11. TWELVE Cents a gallon.....

Dad would send me to the "General Store" (a decaying, dark, ramshackle building with 2 gas pumps, pop, ice cream, and a pot-belly stove) to get gas for the lawnmower.

He gave me a quarter, and that was good for the gas, an ice cream bar, and a Coke.

Remember "Gas WARS", where stations would get down to 5 cents a gallon?

[papau]

12. yes - the gas wars in Cairo Illinois often got Regular to 9 cents a gal

rather than the usual 19 cents.

Sadly I only drove there on long trips - but even around Chicago 12 cent/gal gas war prices were not uncommon.

Now the 5 cent coke machines lasted into the late 50's in out of the way places (small bottles - but heck -it was only 5 cents!

[Left_Winger]

13. OK, but it will give my age away...

35 cents a gallon when I first started driving. In 1974 when it "jumped" to 50 cents everyone freaked. Luckily, I had a VW Beetle and at 20-25 MPG I was able to make it. Also, I recall gas rationing: In my state one could only purchase gas on days according to their license plate numbers. If it ended with an odd number, then it could be purchased on odd numbered days, likewise for even numbered tags. We were also limited to five gallons per trip to the gas station.

[mcscajun]

14. $.25 in 1967

I'm sure it was lower than that while I was alive (since 1951) but since my folks never owned a car, I didn't really pay attention.

When I was riding in cars in H.S., then I noticed.

What I also really noticed was the first "gas crisis" in 1973 with "odd-even license plate day" rationing, purchase limits even when it was your "day", long lines at gas stations, and fist fights. Big Fun.

We're going to get back there.

[bertha katzenengel]

15. $0.79, don't remember the year

But I do remember that when they topped one dollar per gallon, the gas stations had to set their pumps to $.50 and double the final total. They couldn't accomodate the three-digit price.

[ClintonTyree]

25. Pretty soon they'll have to do that again............

when gas gets over $10.00 a gallon. And it WILL, you can bet on that and it will be sooner, not later.

[bertha katzenengel]

29. I have no doubt. Maybe then Hummers will become as shameful a

part of our past as the Japanese internment camps or Manifest Destiny.

edit: No, I don't think the use of such a vehicle is analogous to horrible loss of life or trampling upon civil rights. But the indiscriminate use of such vehicles IS shameful.

[RPM]

16. mid - 90's - $.98

the incredible thing is, it happened when we had a president who didnt have any ties to the oil industry...
:tinfoilhat:
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............

[Modem Butterfly]

17. 10 years ago, 0.65 per gallon in GA

A friend and I took a roadtrip to Key West. He was living in the Bay Area at the time and got so excited he insisted on buying the first tank. He kept the receipt so he could show folks back home.

[kevsand]

18. 25 cents/gal during a gas war in the sixties. nt

[GalleryGod]

19. In the 60's- "A dollar's worth, please" got you 3 gallons EZ

Summer of '68B-) in Jersey-gas was 31.9 per gallon.:bounce:

[ClintonTyree]

22. $.29 a gallon........

in the late 60's. My Grandfather owned the gas station in town so we'd (the family) get an extra $.05 a gallon off that price, so $.24 cents a gallon is the least I ever paid. This was in New York as well, we had the highest gas taxes even then. I imagine in the Gulf States you could have bought for $.20 a gallon.

I remember my sister and I going down the road and picking up ($.05 deposit) pop bottles until we had enough for a few gallons of gas, then we'd go out cruising for a while.

Wow, I'm really dating myself. Those were pretty good times though, we had a blast. ;)

[Midlodemocrat]

34. I remember that price as well.

And, I remember my dad freaking when it went to $.30.

[tigereye]

23. I remember a price war when I was a kid

think it was between two stations, one with 13 and one with 14 cents per gallon! Hard to believe. I also remember it being 9-10 cents per gallon when I was really small.

[ewagner]

26. Yep

I remember the price wars too but the lowest I could remember was $.17

[tigereye]

27. I also remember when milk was 1.06 per gallon

I seem to remember that price from when I was sent to the grocery store as a kid. Not sure when that was.

[LWolf]

24. $.35

Late 60s or early 70s. By the mid-70s, I remember the horror of 49.9 cents per gallon. My high school boyfriend used to drive to the gas station each day for a gallon of gas and a pack of Marlboroughs: total $1

[catmandu57]

28. Clean the windshield, check the oil, air the tires, bucks worth of regular

.23 a gallon at full service, many many years ago.

[newportdadde]

31. Somewhere in the 80 cent range in the late 80s early 90s.

I distinctly remember Gulf War 1 and my father and I went on a bit of a road trip to see gas was *gasp* 1.10 in OK.

Personally I use to buy gas right around 87 - 90 cents back in the summer of 1998 during an internship in college. Use to have to fill up on Fridays to go date my now wife. I remember right before the 4th if shot up a nickel to like 95 cents and I about had a heart attack.

[madinmaryland]

32. $0.199 / gallon in Lima Ohio in 1971.

They had what were called "gas wars" to see who could sell it the cheapest. Oh, for those days again!!

[sinkingfeeling]

33. Bought gas for $.23 per gallon in high school.

[lpbk2713]

35. Around 25 cents/gal in the late 1950's when I began driving.

And it very rarely fluctuated. If it did maybe two cents and then back down after a few days due to competition in the market.

[SmileyBoy]

37. A little more than a dollar - Late 80's-early 90's

I'm only 23, remember...

[Bullwinkle925]

38. .35/gal. I had a '69 Opel Kadet and used to spend around $12.00

a month on gas. waahhhhh - the memories. I've never owned a van or suv and am now wanting a Prius.

[leftofthedial]

39. 23.9

I think

There may have been some sort of gas war or promotion during which it was a s low as 12.9, but this was s-o-o-o-o long ago now that the memory is dim . . .

I clearly recall though that we had to drive uphill both ways in the blowing snow with no breakfast to get to the gas station and back.

[Sequoia]

40. 19 cents in NC way back in

1966 or so.

[stopbush]

41. 8 cents a gallon in Michigan back in the late 50s.

When I was in HS it was about 35 cents a gallon.

[trackfan]

42. I definitely remember .28 a gallon

Once, on vacation, I made fun of a station that had a name like "Lo-Price", but was charging the incredibly high amount of .43 per gallon.

[Mixxster]

43. In college, I remember the sign saying 37.9 a gallon. n/t

[bikebloke]

44. Twenty-some cents in the early 60's

I remember seeing the signs as a kid.

Watching Starsky & Hutch on DVD, you can see gas prices at 54 cents. That was in 1975.

[Beware the Beast Man]

45. In my years as a licensed driver,

the best time was around 1998/1999, when I first got my car. Oil was at an all-time low, and I remember paying only 81 cents a gallon at one point.

[Old_Fart]

46. $.36 cents

It was back in the late 60's when they use to pop the hood on your car and check your oil, tire pressure and clean your windows.

[ernstbass]

47. 29 cents - gas war in the 60's

[WCGreen]

48. .32 when I worked in a gas station right beofre the crisis

and gas jumped to around .50...

This was in the mid sevenities

Cig's sold for .45

Pop .12

[Lydia Leftcoast]

49. You young whippersnappers!

I remember when, in the late fifties, my grandfather refused to buy gas from a certain station because they charged 26 cents a gallon. He kept driving until he found 23 cents.

[Throckmorton]

50. 26 cents,

1970, Forest Ave, Portland Maine. I was 8 and had just learned about money in school.

[hayu_lol]

51. 19 cents/gal in Hollywood, CA in 1950...

When I started driving in '48, it was only 15 cents. By '50, on $5, one could take his girl to the show, have popcorn/drinks there, go to Bob's Big Boy in the valley for burgers and shakes, put gas in the car and still have change left over.

Course, the dollar was backed by gold in those days and really had some value. Not like the shinplasters of today.

[SmileyBoy]

52. There's an abandoned ghost town in North Dakota...

And there's an old abandoned gas station there, looks like it shut down in the fifties. And the old-ass gas pump there has the price "$0.199" stuck on the pump.

I drove there last year after reading about it in a book. It's just an hour or so from my place. It was eerie.

[Roland99]

53. Somewhere in the sub-$0.50 range. I remember when it first hit $0.75

I was like, :wow:

[henslee]

54. I remember 60. I also remember rationing when my cousin made my

granpa lie down in the back of the car and pretend he was sick... so she could cut the huge line. Oh and it was alternating days, odd and even license plate rationing.