We all have memories of unusual things. Well, I remember when you could buy gasoline cheap, really cheap. That was back in 1940, before the, War, a long time ago. Don't believe me? I have a picture to prove it. Mother took a picture of goats pulling some sort of contraption. Dad was standing off to the left side in the picture. A gas station sign happened to be caught on camera on the right side.. There it is: anti-knock for 14 cents per gallon and ethyl for a penny more at 15 cents per gallon. So for a penny more, you got a better grade. Do you remember when the engine would knock when using a low grade of gas? I do. When that happened, Dad would buy a few gallons of Ethyl grade to mix in. That took care of the knock until the next time.

Back in the late 40's , when I was first married, money was tight. When I needed gas, it was time to search under the car seats or dump out my purse. There was always some change somewhere. Scratch together a dollar's worth. Gas was only three gallons for a dollar. Not everywhere, but poor folks knew where to go.

We drove used cars back in the day. They were well broken in by the time we got our hands on them. Then, most car engines survived very well on the cheaper blend of gas. Even Dad;s old pre-War four door 12 cylinder Lincoln didn't knock too badly on the cheaper stuff.. I do remember when gas prices started to rise. With price controls during the War, there wasn't much inflation. That all changed with peacetime. No more rationing and no more cheap gas. We were furious. Gas prices rose, slowly at first with apologies, then they continued to rise with no apologies. But five dollars a gallon now is ridiculous.

We don't say, "Fill ''er up" anymore. Now, it's how much do we dare put on our credit card..