Ahhhh, the good old days…
I was sitting out in my car this morning waiting for Long John Silvers to open for business when I was inspired to dig into my car’s personal archive…
Yes, it’s a rolling trash heap.
What, your car doesn’t have a personal archive like mine does? That means you are either someone whose car isn’t very old, or you just like to ride in a clean machine. I’ve owned my car now for 13 and a half years, and cleaning the junk out of it is something that rarely never crosses my mind. It has become a veritable rolling Smithsonian, particularly when it comes to charting the price of gasoline in this area over the last decade and a half.
Yes, I have an armrest full of old, old, OLD receipts from gas pumps… and that’s what I decided to dig through this morning. I knew exactly what I was looking for, and here it is for you to gaze at and reminisce about a simpler day and time….
Printed on genuine papyrus.
Yeah it’s faded out a bit… what would you expect from a relic that’s spent 13 years rotting and sweltering while hidden away in my car’s armrest? But you can still make out the important details of it, and if you don’t have your spectacles on you, let me highlight them for you….
Woohoo!!!! Now that’s what I call a fill up!
I got this precious fossil fuel for a mere 93 cents a gallon on December 16, 2001! Now, this was the Murphy’s gas station outside of my Mecca I worked at, and since I used a Mecca gift card, I got 5 cents off per gallon… but that still means regular unleaded gas was selling for 98 cents a gallon at that time. I like to bring this up every time someone complains that gas hasn’t been under a buck in two decades. People seem to forget that the price of oil, and subsequently gas, crashed and burned in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy in 2001… which was odd given the overwhelming fear at the time that gas would instead shoot through the roof. This reprieve on our wallets lasted into the first week of 2002 before the price climbed back up into triple digits and never looked back….
Don’t worry… there is a loan officer on site for your convenience.
Alas, I don’t have a receipt from when gas was 65 cents a gallon in December 1998 because I didn’t have a car at the time… but I hope this little fossil I unearthed was both informative and satisfied your thirst for a blast from the past. Oh heck, it isn’t even Friday, but since it’s been away for so long, let’s go ahead and brand this post….
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I didn’t realize the Neon has a spoiler. 🙂
I remember borrowing my now-ex-husband’s car when we were dating and that I had to use premium gas. 99 cents per gallon, and it got horrible gas mileage. That twelve bucks a week really killed me.
Mine does, because it’s just so badass!
I remember when filling up for 12 bucks a gallon seemed like a lot. Now I can’t even top off for that…
The fact that I’m going to be paying 4.09 per gallon in a few minutes hurts just a little bit more now.
That makes the $3.69 we’re paying here right now almost seem like a bargain. Almost…..
can you send me the ole display? I would place it on our gas station, I bet within a minute all cars of britanny would be there and the people would come with buckets and bowls. ( currently our gas price for 1 liter is 1.51 ($$2.09) –that’s for a gallon: $$8.68)
I remember how much you said gas was over there on your post for Bacon. We’d have to make some serious adjustments to our way of life here if gas prices got that high….
I remember that we had strikes as the price went over 1 euro for a liter. Now it is 1.51 and they all accept it. Probably they not only lost their money, they lost their balls too.
We moved to Alaska in 1996 and I was horrified at the $1.35/gal prices. I was especially horrified because MrFilly had convinced me that we needed to trade in his perfectly sweet jeep for a flippin’ V10 (ten) Dodge Ram so we could do a do-it-yourself move to Alaska. V-TEN!!! About a year later we traded the Ram in for a…… WHITE NEON! Woo hoo! But, then of course 7 years later we moved overseas and yes, culture shock. We found an awesome car for MrFilly that had two types of fuel tanks on it, one was for gasoline the other was GPL or LPG. It was very inexpensive to buy the LPG/GPL, and it allowed us to be able to do some traveling via car through parts of Europe. I feel for easyweimaraner who must live with those prices daily!
YAY! The Little White Neon! BeepBeep!
I think the first time I remember gas getting around the ungodly $1.35 mark was during the Desert Storm. Thankfully, it quickly went back down to around a dollar for most of the rest of the decade….
Hey! Just got the graduation announcement! Please extend my congratulations to Sam!
Extended! 🙂 thank you!
Petrol/gas prices vary so much country to country.
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EP.PMP.SGAS.CD
Your car is quite fascinating. I got mine new in 1995. A good year for spiffy red Lancer coupes!
Spiffy red! That’s what I wanted when I went car shopping 14 years ago was a red car. Instead, I wound up buying the only blue car I looked at. Funny how that works out…
Your car looks well cared for. It’s a classic!
Petrol prices have dropped here a bit. If I have done my maths right, it’s currently US$8.29 per US gallon. Yikes! I currently pay around US$130 per month to get to work and back, which is around one and three quarter tanks.
LOL! Don’t let that photo fool you! For one thing, I took that picture in September 2009… and it also doesn’t show the millions of little scratches and dents its gotten from 14 years of being parked in Mecca’s lot every night! The front two hubcaps have been missing for a while, it has minor scars from three different accidents (Only 2 of which I was actually involved in!), and don’t ever venture onto the inside of it without a hazmat suit!
But it’s a damn good car! And we have an excellent relationship…. it keeps me on the road, and I keep it away from the junkyard… 🙂
I miss being able to fill my tank with 20 bucks….
I never dreamed I would eventually have to spend $30 to fill up my little tank. I can’t imagine how those with ginormous gas guzzlers spend upwards of $100 to fill up….
My little Cavalier generally takes about $35 to $45 to fill up depending on the fluctuations in price. It’s ridiculous.
When I bought my car, it cost £25 to fill the tank (40 litres). When I sold my car two years ago, it cost more like £55 to fil the tank. There are some differences between the petrol here in the UK and Europe and the petrol in the USA, I think – if Jeremy Clarkson had his facts right on Top Gear, anyway.
Maybe your gasoline is supercharged with rocket fuel!
For what it costs now, you’d think so!