What a Shock That Was

Just the other day the sun was shining bright and it was a totally wonderful day. However, I found myself very bored. I didn't feel like mowing the lawn and there was nothing in the garage that really needed my attention so I decided to take a trip to the local shopping mall.

That is a trip I usually try hard to avoid but this time boredom took over. On the way I noticed my gas gauge was reading a little low so I pulled into the station for a fill up.

While the young man was filling my tank with regular the thoughts of an other time flashed across my mind. A time long ago. A time back in the 1950's and 1960's.

At that time gasoline only cost.18 cents a gallon. It didn't break the bank to fill up. And you didn't worry about how far a gallon would take you.

I was just a kid and I had always wanted some kind of hot and fast car. I bought a 1968 Ford ElCamino. It had 3 duce carbs all connected to operate together, an Edelbrok manifold, Mag wheels and mean, wide tires.

It was hot. It would lay a strip of rubber on the blacktop as long as a football field with a massive cloud of white smoke filling the air. Man, what a car.

I was a young kid with the car everybody wanted. But a week after I bought it the cost of gas took a surprising turn. Gasoline shot up in price to.75 cents a gallon.

My dream car with its 3 duce carbs was getting a low 4 miles to the gallon. With High gas prices and low mileage I had a decision to make. Should I keep my dream or sell it?

All my friends said the gas price wouldn't last, it would go back down. Well, I think by now most people would agree, it would not be going back down.

After tearing myself up over that dream car I reached a decision. I was young but married and had twin boys. So feed the gas tank or feed the kids. The kids won. I sold the car. But is was fun for the 2 or 3 week that I owned it.

The boy at the station handed me my gas receipt and I saw that I had just put $40 dollars in the tank.

Ok, down the road I went headed for the mall. I'm a man so the first place I went was quite naturally the tool department. I found a nice dremal tool and threw it into my shopping basket.

Then while wandering around I spotted a shirt that looked good. I found one in my size and it went into the basket. A new shirt deserves a new pair of blue jeans so into the basket they went.

As I said, I'm a man so I don't usually do the shopping. I'm usually only there to push the shopping cart around. My wife takes care of the shopping and the check out so I was really shocked when I paid out.

With the small amount in that little shopping basket I just lost over hundred dollars. Damage done I took my prize to the car and carefully loaded it in.

While I was there I thought I might as well pick up something for dinner so I went back in and started a journey down the rows of food in the grocery section of the store.

I saw cans of food like corn and peas and many others and I also saw the price listed on the front of the shelf. What I paid 35 or 45 cents for was not shouting "buy me, buy me" and the prices were 3 and 4 dollars per can. The cereal was just as bad. A.39 cent box was now crowding $5.00.

I found the meat department and tossed a couple of steaks into a basket along with some salad fixins and went to pay out. Another shock. Two little steaks were over $10.00. Wow, get me outta here.

As I left I heard on the car radio that movie theaters were going to raise the cost of movie tickets to $15.00 per ticket and I thought about movies when I was a kid.

I could go, and did go, to the movies two times each week and watch two full length movies, a cartoon, a serial, upcoming previews and a newsreel. We could easily waste away 5 or 6 whole hours in entertainment and we did it all for only one half dollar. Just.50 cents would entertain us for a long time.

What do you get at the movies today? One movie and you are out the door. And it only cost $15.00.

(for those of you who may or may not remember, a serial was like a movie divided into short segments of about 20 or 30 minutes each that were shown one segment with each new movie change. The idea was so you would come next week to see the next segment.)

Things have changed so much over the years that I think I will never leave my house again. What I wouldn't give to return to those cheap old days.

Len Roe is the Owner and CEO of Diversified Distribution of Oregon. He is also the author of several books and has written articles for both business and pleasure. Some of his articles are humorous and emotional. To see more of what he has written go here: http://www.InternetMoneyInfo-noscams.com
and here: http://www.BoysElectronicToys.com

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