Update on Wordless Wednesday Post
Travel June 16th, 2008On May 21 I posted this picture I took at a defunct gas station in my area, showing a ridiculously low price for gasoline. Someone in my area wrote to the local newspaper and asked why it’s still there and if any information could be found about the station’s owner.
Since many of you asked about the sign, I thought I’d fill you in.
It seems the owner is a fugitive from the law, trying to avoid “10 counts of issuing bad checks, two counts of theft by deception, and related charges.”
I guess taking down the old sign is last on his list of priorities. It’s estimated the station closed down in the spring of 2002. So that’s the last time we saw $1.29/gallon gas. And it can be safely said we’ll never see it again.
Stumble it!
June 16th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Found you through Lauren! š Great blog!
Crazy stuff…about this story.
Jessica’s last blog post..Screams
June 16th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Selling gas that cheap, even in 2002, no wonder he’s wanted for passing bad checks. Poor guy went broke. š I hope we at least get back down to $3.00 gas.
June 16th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I can remember buying gasoline in 1999 (in San Diego, CA) for $1.01 per gallon.
The summer previous (10 years ago exactly), I was in France, where gas was roughly $4.33 per gallon. This summer, gas prices exceeded that, making our current gas prices the highest I have ever seen in my entire life (since I’ve not left the country since 98…how sad…)
I recently wrote about it here: http://sanctimony.net/2008/06/greener-than-ever-before.html
…and then proceeded to sell my car. It’s now between $4.59-$4.85/gal for the cheap stuff. Honestly, I hope it keeps going up — or that our government finally starts taxing gas sufficiently to pay for the cost of maintaining the infrastructure (as they do in Europe). Apparently the impact on our wallets is the only thing that’s making us lazy, selfish Americans finally do something about the impact of our actions on the environment.
helena’s last blog post..Don’t let the bed bugs bite
June 16th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Wow ! That was awesome of that reader to investigate. Now why am I not surprised that the culprit was an Indian guy.
Jaffer’s last blog post..The Mosaic Picture Meme
June 16th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
I’ve noticed one of the things that seems to date films the most, is when you watch a modern looking film but see one or two dollar gas in the background.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
We have a gas co-op here in St. Cloud where you can prepay for your gas and lock in on the price. I remember being really nervous when I bought 500 gallons for $1.79/gal because the price dropped right after that for awhile. Oh, to have those gallons now š
Jeff’s last blog post..Weekend Update
June 16th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Jessica — Welcome and glad to have you on board! And thank you! Weird, eh? Wonder where the fellow is…
Lee — I’m thinking it’ll take a miracle for prices to drop below $3.50 in my lifetime. Feels very much like a fact of U.S. life right now.
helena — Incredible. Just over a dollar? Really? I agree we need to pump more money into the infrastructure. Providing another way for us to travel relatively easily, such as easy access buses and rail, is the only way Americans will give up their beloved cars. I checked out your post. Thanks for linking.
Jaffer — I’m glad someone wrote in about it. The columnist who takes these questions is an excellent researcher. He often answers puzzling travel/road questions for readers with more information you could hope for.
FunboxComedy — Ha! Yeah, that and gigantic cell phones. Remember those? I had one circa 1995 that was the size of chalkboard eraser. Funny!
Jeff — Where have I been? I never heard of such a thing. That’s awesome. And I’m sure you’re thrilled to death right about now. There was another article in today’s paper about some home heating oil companies not allowing people to pre-pay and lock in due to the volatility of the market.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
just another reminder of why I drive a Honda Civic..:))
robert bourne’s last blog post..Almost
June 16th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
It was on this evenings news that one local garage was charging Ā£1.99 ($3.91) per litre, supposedly because of an impending strike by the road haulage companies. After it became a news item, they quickly dropped their price back down to Ā£1.20 per litre! Such greed!
Babs – beetle’s last blog post..The Mosaic Picture Meme
June 16th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Well, this doesn’t involve me until I’m 16. Of course by then, gas prices will be higher.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Oh dear, I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood. This was back years ago when gas prices WERE actually $1.79, and I was nervous because I thought they would never exceed that again (HA!). I easily burned up that purchase in less than a year.
Jeff’s last blog post..Weekend Update
June 16th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Awww…….look how cute…$1.79.
sue’s last blog post..Trash Talking the Hamster
June 16th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Wow! Who’d of thought the owner is a fugitive of law! The average price of gasoline in my area is $3.90… or at least, it was this afternoon! Of course, it could be higher by now!
darla’s last blog post..Labels and Notepads, Galore!
June 16th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Dude was hanging paper to pay his suppliers for that cheap fuel! Wherever he is now I’ll wager he’s on foot.
Jenny’s last blog post..You Say Yamato
June 17th, 2008 at 4:36 am
robert bourne — I drive a Civic as well. She’s pretty good on mileage. I weep for the SUV drivers.
Babs — Every penny counts with prices like that! Glad they were busted.
Regan — Buy a bike. Save yourself!
Jeff — Oh, geez. I was thinking one could get a price like that from buying with others in bulk ahead of time.
sue — Quaint, isn’t it?
darla — Who would have thought we’d be watching the signs change almost daily? I try to ignore the price. I almost wish they didn’t even post them so large. It’s depressing. Although we are lucky these aren’t European prices. For now.
Jenny — It’d be interesting if that story helped track him down once and for all. Unless he’s using an alias.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Regan: I agree: buy a bike! I rarely fill up my tank myself, but the last time I did, I almost had a heart attack.
JD at I Do Things’s last blog post..I Eat (some of the) Lucky Charms so you donāt have to
June 17th, 2008 at 10:59 am
im gonna buy a biomass car or something that does not involve gas or oil
or i will but a two person bike that i can ride with regan to the highschool
June 17th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Yeah, you can’t even use that sign for litres even… ours is now $ 1.37 / litre.
*Sigh*
Maureen’s last blog post..Laughing All The Way FROM The Bank
June 17th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Kathy:
Very interesting sign. I can remember getting angry when gas broke above a dollar a gallon. “Rip off!” I yelled. Then, of course, in the mid-1970’s we had gas rationing and those ridiculously long lines at the pump. “Rip-off!’I yelled.
From as far back as I can remember I can recall the liberal press writing tons of articles about how we have it so soft. They wrote about how the poor Europeans had to pay $5.00 per gallon, and we should do the same. Unfortunately, they also wrote stories about how if the cost of a barrel of oil reached $50 a barrel, that was the point where it was economically feasible to develop wide spread solar energy. Now look at the price of oil. “Rip off!” I yell.
So buy an alternative fueled vehicle, they say. What about the Toyota Pri-Ass? In theory that’s a good idea, but the Pri-Ass carries a huge energy saving premium. In other words, you pay up front for the savings you’ll get over the life of the vehicle. Again I yell, “Rip off!”
Have a nice day!
Swubird’s last blog post..LADY GODIVA
June 17th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
pretty funny!!!
June 17th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I always loved the 9/10 on the price.
What does that mean? 9/10 of what? A penny?
June 17th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Gas is $4.09 here. I’ll dust off the tricycle.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
It’s almost $9.00 a *gallon here in the UK. Almost worth driving over the pond to get filled up!
*That’s a US Gallon which is smaller than the UK gallon because your pints are smaller.
Isn’t gallon a funny word, the more you look at and read it the stranger it looks!
Brom’s last blog post..What lies behind the veil?
June 17th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Oh those were the Days! I’d sell my body…okay, my soul for gas at that price again!
Peggy’s last blog post..Blown Away
June 17th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
JD at I Do Things — The one thing I’ve started doing is driving slower. Read somewhere you can save up to a $1 a gallon by dropping down to the speed limit or lower, when possible. Makes me realize now what a speeder I usually am!
brooke — Not a bad idea. And you’ll be healthier for it.
Maureen — Insane. Hope your car situation improved and didn’t cost you a fortune. You need all your money to pay for gasoline!
Swubird — Can someone please tell me what happened to the “green” decade of the 70s? I can remember all the talk about it then, and somehow we’re back at square one again. Seriously, does someone know why we’re finding ourselves in this situation again?
KFJ — Funny and sad.
BabaBooey — I poked around a bit and this is what I found:
The prevalence of nine-tenths of a cent gasoline pricing seems to owe its existence to several factors:
āa penny used to be worth something
āUncle Sam wanted a piece of the gasoline action
āPeople want to *think* theyāre getting a bargain, even if they know better
āOld habits die hard, and after a while, just get built into the system.
windyridge — I just had the funniest image of someone driving to work on a tricycle. I could try it, but I’d need a bigger seat.
Brom — $9/gal is incredible. I would almost never drive, except for necessities. Would probably car pool and also take up biking. Again, I’d need a very large seat, but maybe if I road a bike often enough, eventually my seat would get smaller! I thought there was a word for when a word repeated over and over starts to sound funny. Here’s what I found: One fan of this practice says “the word becomes feral…reduced to its essential nature, without any mental meaning.” The word becomes nonsense, like a word you just made up. Now “feral” sounds funny to me.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
That’s too bad that the gas price isn’t real. If it was, that owner could be rich and not have to worry about those bad checks any longer! LOL
Joy Smith’s last blog post..More Long Distance Savings
June 17th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
So, the husband came home and said, āHey, I heard about this gas station on 191 thatāsā¦ā I was so excited I cut him off, āā¦still displaying a dollar something for gas? I know. My aunt took a picture of the sign and put it on her blog.ā
Is there a word for that??
June 18th, 2008 at 3:08 am
Ah, the good old days when we could afford a tank of gas without worrying about also being able to buy a gallon of milk.
and for swubird, maybe if the much maligned “liberal” press had been given more credibility, we American’s wouldn’t have bought all those gas-guzzling suv’s and hummers to drive the demand for gas beyond the beyond.
I just donāt know how I can afford to fill the tank of my Bentley with my social security checkā¦just kidding I have neither a Bentley nor a SS check.
June 18th, 2008 at 4:28 am
Joy Smith — Can you imagine the lines leading up to the station? It’d bring that part of town to a standstill. In fact, that happened a few weeks ago when on Exxon station sold gas dirt cheap as part of a promotion. People lined up for miles. Crazy!
Any who wants to blow her nose — I can just picture the deflated look on his face. Tell him The Junk Drawer should be his first stop for news and information. I’m trying to put the Morning Call out of business.
Daniel — I’m just glad milk hasn’t increased in price by over 200% in the last few years. If it did, I’d have to buy a cow. I’m thinking of getting myself a Flintstone car. You know, the kind you start by getting your feet going really fast. Think of all the calories I’ll burn. “..beyond the beyond” is right. Cripes. Never thought I’d see these prices.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Gas in Alberta, Canada is around $1.30 per litre, roughly $5 per gallon. Of course, bottled water is nearly that expensive as well.
Tim’s last blog post..Playstation Game Cheats for Oddworld : Abeās Odyssey
June 25th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Tim — Yikes. That’s painful. Re: the water, I’m thrilled to be off bottled. I bought myself a Brita pitcher and love it. Wish I’d done it sooner. We used to spend $75/mo. on Aquafina. Can you believe it?