Thought I'd start a new thread on what people remember about the last gas crisis in the late 70's.

When I was in my young 20's I suffered thru the oil embargo during the 70's and it was a mess. Just before things went crazy I moved from the east coast to the west coast and then bang. I had barely a nickel in my pocket at the time and had two cars, old Buick station wagon I purchased in CA and a 78 Fiat X19 I brought from the east coast, loved that car; not the Buick.

I had just sold a 78 Jeep CJ5 with a 304 V8 / 3 speed to get the Fiat. That thing drank gas when it was parked. 9 miles on the highway and I have no idea what it got when I was cruising up and down the beach at Wallops Flight Center in VA. Gas was already moving up in 78 and I remember thinking how was I going to afford paying .59 cents a gallon. I remember it jumping from the low 40 cents. I remember gas at 29 cents a gallon as a teen driving my 71 Mach1.

I remember odd / even days where you could only fill up when your last tag digit was odd on an odd day or even on an even day. I was immune to this because I never got rid of my out of state plates on the Fiat.

Companies were allowing employees to skip out on work to get in line to fill up. Lines were several blocks long and it took several hours to get to the pump. Many times the station had to close because they were out of gas or had reached the limit they could sell for that day.

I was the last in line one day and the attendant hung a big sign on the back of my car stating I WAS LAST. People were begging me to let them move the sign to their car. I was scared to let them do it and scared to not let them. I remember them arguing with me.

Still have pictures I took of the line ahead of me going around several blocks. People would get out of their cars to talk to others as they waited. It was a very sobering experience and one I do not want to repeat.