No, this is not about the Jackson Browne song. Nor is it about me not having enough energy to get through the day. This is about the gas gauge in my vehicle. In the past month, it has started acting up. Sometimes it stays on E, even though I know I have gas in the tank. What makes it funny is for a split second, I think "man someone siphoned my gas." I think this because I lived through the gasoline crisis in the 1970's. The one I remember the best was the one in 1979. Back then it was almost an all day affair just to get gas. You had to wait in lines that were blocks long, and then you could only buy 10 gallons. If you needed more than 10 gallons, you could go wait in another line at another gas station. It was horrible! It was also a time when you had better have a locking gas cap, or what little gas you had in your vehicle was likely to get siphoned. It happened to me. The gasoline crisis in 1973 wasn't as bad (as I remember), but President Carter and his entourage decided one way America could curb its huge appetite for gasoline was to lower the speed limit to 55. Can you imagine driving 55 miles an hour on the interstate?
Back to my gas gauge. Sometimes if I whack the dashboard just right, it will move. Sometimes is starts creeping up slowly on its own. Sometimes it behaves as it should. Maybe my gas gauge is alot like people. Some need a kick in the pants to get them going, some have to warm up before they start working, and some just do what they should do!
1 comment:
Wow! That brings back memories. I bought a Honda Civic back then to conserve on gas. It was like driving around in a sardine can.
Another thing your story reminded me of was car-pooling. One year in high school, a buddy and I would rotate weeks driving each other to school. We did this for about a year to try to save gas money. Problem was his gas gauge didn't work. He kept up with it two ways. 1) He always kept up with how many miles he had driven since last fill-up, and 2) he had a long stick he'd shove down his tank to check fuel level. It worked! We never ran out of gas.
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