Recollections of Gasoline "Rationing"

[GROUCHO MARX]

I was wondering how many members of the board here remember the gasoline shortages and the rationing of the early '70s?

In NY eventually we went to an odd and even license plate system and even then in the early going there were gas stations that barely opened for a few hours.

There were closed gas stations which had lines of cars develop outside on the speculation that the station might open. Often, a driver would get on line just on the hope that gasoline might be available.

Often the purchase was limited by a dollar amount, which, if you had a small car, was not so bad. However, there were a lot more V-8s on the road in those days.

If you have never experienced such prolonged shortages of a widely used and desired product, the word 'rationing' probably means very little to you.

 

[Bluestream]

We never had any rationing here, but I do recall seeing the lines on the evening news. I thought we might get rationing in 91 during the Gulf war, so I sourced a 50 Gallon drum and filled it with gas and kept in in the garage as a stash...

 

[Panzerman]

I remmember I was pretty little, but my Dad had a friend that had a gas station and he would call and tell him when he was getting gas and we would go get in line. Even though high gas prices suck, Iam glad we dont have to go though that. I think that was the last time oil peaked. It is almost the same scenario being played out, we were out of oil then too.

 

[Cutehumor]

we had gasoline shortage pretty recently in Nashville. It was called Hurricane Katrina, ToyotaNSaturn posted several photos before on this site. No gas anywhere. When a station did get gas, you were limited to only $20, gas was $4/gallon!! It was crazy.

 

[Steve S]

I remember but I had a high school bud whos family owned a gas station so I would bring my car and boat there in the morning before work and they would fill the car the boat tanks and gas cans and after work I would go to the lake and camp out and waterski the next day. Then fill the boat and car at the marina and had gas all week. I probably won't be as lucky if it happened today.

 

[ddrumman2004]

Wasn't any rationing around where I lived in the 70s either.

Now I do remember back in 1967 or 68 when Good Gulf gasoline dropped to 17.9 cents per gallon during a local gas war.

Two dollars worth of gas went a long way in a friend's 52 Chevy!

 

[Trajan]

I remember those days. 1980 we had one too IIRC. I also remember the local BP station had a very long line as it was the cheapest.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

I was wondering a few years ago, when oil was going through the roof, if the government would re-institute rationing. If you can't control the supply, you can curb demand.

 

[Panzerman]

Originally Posted By: GROUCHO MARX
I was wondering a few years ago, when oil was going through the roof, if the government would re-institute rationing. If you can't control the supply, you can curb demand.
They got a better mouse trap now, just raise the price and people will ration themselves. Much more profitable(for them).

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Originally Posted By: Panzerman
Originally Posted By: GROUCHO MARX
I was wondering a few years ago, when oil was going through the roof, if the government would re-institute rationing. If you can't control the supply, you can curb demand.
They got a better mouse trap now, just raise the price and people will ration themselves. Much more profitable(for them).


That's the supply/demand curve in action. What happens when you put price controls in the equation? What happens if prices can't be raised ? It gums up the works. Demand remains a constant or can increase but supply remains the same. Is there any alternative but to ration? Of course, if you could find a way to increase supply, it's no big deal.

 

[Gary Allan]

I went through it twice. The early 70's and the late 70's (or early 80's). Odd even was the final shake out. My FIL (before I knew him) had to get up and be in line @ 5:30 since he car pooled to the Walt Whitman bridge every day with executives at Campbell Soup in Camden.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
I went through it twice. The early 70's and the late 70's (or early 80's). Odd even was the final shake out.

I did early and late seventies also. I remember in '73, my first year of college, my car developed an engine knock before I even got out of town on Sunday afternoon for the three hour drive back to school.

I nursed the car home. My Dad and I went scrounging for gas cans we could use to carry enough fuel in the trunk for his 6 hour drive to my school and back, since there was no way to know whether he could refuel in mid trip. I know now his car was a rolling bomb. The things parents do for their kids….

Late 70’s – had a Vega - good gas mileage but had a cross-town commute to work so rationing made life problematic. I remember lines around the block, and 60-90 minutes waits. The odd-even system solved that problem overnight.

 

[Gary Allan]

Yes, I drove around with 5-10 gallons of gas on long trips from PA to MA. I'd never do that now ..then again, we aren't rationing now. I was delivering nuke meds at the time and commercial was exempt. The only thing was that I didn't drive commercial vehicles most nights. I had a piece of paper from the carrier in NYC that stated that I was exempt, but it really didn't mean anything. Luckily I had enough vehicles with odd or even tags to manage to do my 400 mile per day deliveries.

 

[JoeBob]

In early '74, most of my driving was short trips, so I wasn't really affected by "odd-even". Later in '74, I bought a different car, onto which I put license plates with my amateur radio callsign. This confused station owners enough that I was able to buy gas any day I wanted.

By '79, I had a motorcycle which got about 60 mpg. I also had a '65 Plymouth station wagon with a bad transmission, only had first gear and reverse. During the worst of the shortage, I limped that wagon to a filling station I knew was going to have gas. Sat in line, early morning, ate breakfast, read the paper and listened to the local news station (AM only radio in the car) until the line started moving. Got to the filling station (it was about a quarter mile away, and I was far from the last person in line) and filled the tank. Limped on home in 1st gear, parked the car, and siphoned out the fuel for my bike. That 20 gallons got me through until supplies eased.

 

[PandaBear]

I remember it went to 4.50 a gallon a few years ago, and at that time everyone I know were carpooling with strangers all of a sudden.

I remember at one time I had passengers with directional name, one's called Deep, and the other is called Nir (Near), I joked that I should changed my name to Up to match them.

 

[Shannow]

Remembe rationing taking place when I was working in service stations, and going to uni.

It's a pain which ever side of the counter you're on.

 

[Silk]

We had gas rationing in the late '70's....and carless days too.The gas stations shut on friday night - no gas for the weekend.I rode motorcycles back then,and we would make a fuel drop hidden on the side of the road when out on a ride,so we could get back home again.My wife and I went on a 300 mile trip,and took extra fuel with us....I was on a Norton,but she had a Triumph Trident which really sucked the fuel.We used the last of our spare fuel half way down,and she got extra fuel from a farmer...and I drained some from my tank to get her the last 20 miles.

For cars we had to select one week day as the day the car would be off the road,and there was a sticker on the windscreen denoting which day it was off the road.As we rode motorcycles most of the time,we reckoned we were exempt.So I got two stickers of different days,and put them in Gladwrap...and put on which ever sticker was appropriate.Of course some days there was a hasty change while driving when the wrong label was up.

 

[jcwit]

Right, gas stations shut down Friday night at 6:00 pm and didn't reopen till Monday morning at 6:00 am. I was coming home from a deer hunting trip in No. Minn. when Pres. Nixon came on the radio with the announcement he was closing the gas stations on the weekends. This lasted quite along time as the next spring I went to the National Muzzleloading Shoot in So. Ind., and the stations were still closed on weekends at that time. This was all in the early to mid 1970's.

 

[Pablo]

Ah, the good old days.

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

Originally Posted By: GROUCHO MARX
I was wondering how many members of the board here remember the gasoline shortages and the rationing of the early '70s?


I remember 73, 78?, 05,(Katrina shutdown).

Do you remember rationing in the 40's,(WWII). Had to buy ration stamps for many commodities, gas, meat, sugar, lots of other stuff. Could not buy new tires of any kind.. My dad worked for Willys Overland in Toledo. He bought a new 1942 Willys 4dr. in late 41 like this one,

and 2 sets of new tires. We lived on a farm, his brother had the next farm. We had most of the food we needed and traded extra ration stamps for things we didn't have or couldn't produce.