Suerte left a comment on my prior post that got me to thinking. He commented that he remembered when gas was .26 cents a gallon. I thought and thought about it and even asked Mom if she remembered what gasoline sold for when I was a kid.
Maybe it is a guy thing to remember the price per gallon but Mom and I could only remember the actual dollar amount that was allocated for gas in our household. It was $3.00 dollars a week. I recall we only went grocery shopping as well as filled up the car on Wednesday.
Why only on Wednesday? We were living in Austin at the time so I only know about that general area. If you grocery shopped at HEB or filled up at a gas station close to HEB (there was no relation between the two entities) you got DOUBLE Gold Stamps.
What are Gold Stamps? They were stamps you pasted on a little book they provided you with and after you filled it up you could go to their store and choose from a variety of gifts. Each gift had the corresponding number of booklets you needed to buy that item. Anybody remember that?
I recall when my best friend’s parents bought her a car (it was an older model vehicle) I would chip in .50 cents and we would go to the full service station and ask Mr. Flores to put $1.00. I can still see his smile as he asked her if she wanted him to check the oil and she always said “yes” :D
With a dollar’s worth of gas we rode around through the main drags in Del Rio (yeah, I know there weren’t many) and it was always enough. However, I recall her fuel gauge did not work and one time we ran out of gas and I was so embarrassed!! I think someone gave us a ride to Mr. Flores station and he loaned us a gas container.
Wish my memory was better but by this time I was sixteen years old and I had quit writing a journal so details are sketchy. Thanks for the memories Suerte.
Can you believe it is February already? Only nine more months to the cook-off!!!
Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.
