Gasoline prices were very high recently, as much as $4.30* around here for regular unleaded, but they were dropping steadily for the last week or so. Yesterday morning at about 7:45 a.m., I stopped at a gas station up the road and filled my tank with regular unleaded for $3.73 per gallon. At about 6:00 p.m. last evening I drove past that same gas station which was now wanting $4.20 for a gallon of the same gasoline.
What stupendous thing happened in those 12 hours that allowed them to jack the price up almost 50 cents? And although somebody actually tried to explain this to me once, I still don't understand why the price I pay isn't dependent on the price the dealer paid for the gasoline when he bought it and the big truck poured it into his tanks.
When Richard Nixon froze gas prices in 1973, I was buying my gasoline at a station near my house for 35 cents a gallon. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $1.77 in today's dollars, which is a far cry from $4.20. They even pumped it for you then.
Oh, my -- big memory instant replay: the view from the backseat when dad pulled into a service station, rolled down the window, and said to the attendant, "Fill 'er up on ethyl."
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*I have never understood that 9/10ths of cent thing and am rounding up to the nearest whole cent in this discussion.
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