CC reader Sam P. sent me a link to a photo essay at Business Insider about the first energy crisis, which started in October of 1973. In response to the Yom Kippur War, in which Israel pushed back incursions from Egypt and Syria, OPEC halted all oil exports to America. At that time, OPEC was the source of two-thirds of all oil imports. The results were mayhem: gas lines, closed stations, odd-even days, 5 and 10 gallons limits (enough to fill up a VW but not so much a big car). I’ve picked a couple of the best gas-line shots, and maybe some of you who lived through it will share your experiences.
Gas stations bravely tried to stay open despite being out of gas. But that’s all folks had on their minds, especially if they were driving a big Cadillac.
I had this shot in my files, and I find it particularly poignant. Personally, the energy crisis didn’t affect me much, as I was living in Iowa City at the time, and it was very easy to just mostly give up driving without worrying about other choosing a provider alternative for myself. I had a nice Belgian ten speed bike (Vainqueur), and just rolled by the gas lines. And although biking got a huge boost from the energy crisis, it wasn’t a realistic option for many.
Oil prices quadrupled by January of 1974, and gas prices almost doubled. No wonder the Vega and Pinto had their best years ever in 1974, along with a whole lot of imports, especially Japanese. The Energy Crisis was a turning point; even though oil supplies came back, gas prices never returned to their previous levels (at least not until the late 1990’s, when they hit all-time inflation adjusted lows). And although many folks soon shed their uncomfortably tight Pintos and such, big car sales never recovered either, and the biggest selling cars would be mid-sized ones, like the Olds Cutlass.
The national 55 mph speed limit was bad enough, but some states went even further, like Washington State’s 50 mph limit on all highways. The only PAC I ever gave money to (National Motorist’s Association or something like that) was the one that finally helped get the double-nickle overturned. It sure took way too long, though.
Unlike today, a substantial percentage of electric power was generated by oil, so the energy crisis wasn’t just about gasoline, but cutting back on electricity use. Here’s Oregon governor Tom McCall working by lamplight. Whale oil?
The final shot. Since that’s a Peugeot 404 wagon, I can’t not use it. So how did you survive the Energy Crisis?
By sheer luck, I was driving a Fiat 850 sport coupe at the time. Speed limit was not a problem, since 55 equaled about 4,000 rpm.
I only remember it from the perspective of a child, but it did leave an impression. I think we were lucky in that my mother’s ’71 Ninety-Eight and my father’s ’73 LeSabre had a good odd/even combo of license plate numbers that covered us so we could always “get” gas in one of the cars. I recall sitting in the long lines with my mother, with the car turned off and all the windows lowered (unusual in New Orleans, even in the fall, as it is still A/C weather then). She would bring books for me to read, or would read aloud to me while we waited. I vividly remember her starting the car, moving up a car length, turning it off. Over and over and over. Knowing my parents, they were very anal about keeping the cars as full of gas as possible, so I doubt they ever risked running them dry (and I’m sure they were concerned that the crisis might get worse). I also remember that my father would sometimes take the streetcar downtown from our house–a good public transit option, I might add. That said, he always preferred to drive, so I am sure he thought it was a nuisance. As for any other changed behavior? Well, not so much. In 1975, the Olds and Buick were replaced with–drumroll–another Ninety-Eight and another LeSabre.
I don’t really remember much about the 1973 shortages, and certainly do not remember long gas lines in my northeastern Indiana area. I do remember the 1979 redux, when we were traveling to Philly to pick up my grandparents for their golden wedding anniversary, then continuing to northern New Jersey. In a rented Pace Arrow motorhome.
As in 1973, we had no real problem in the midwest, but out east, it was nasty. I recall being on interstate highways where cars were lined up out of gas stations and all the way down the exit ramp and into the right lane of the highway. My father bribed a lot of pump jockeys on that trip to keep the big 6 mpg motorhome in fuel. We even had to wait in an early morning line after the state of New Jersey released an emergency supply through Hess stations so that we could continue our trip.
Then, miraculously, as we continued our vacation into Canada, all fuel lines and shortages disappeared. When we got home, my best friend proudly told me that he had seen a gas line – 3 cars. I later learned that the shortages were regional in nature, caused by price and distribution controls that had hung around after the rest of Nixon’s 1970 wage and price freeze went away.
I find it fascinating that everyone’s perceptions of energy and prescriptions for energy policy (like CAFE) still seem colored by these experiences of forty years ago, despite the fact that the U.S. will finish out 2013 as the world’s largest producer of oil and gas.
The Midwest was relatively unscathed, wasn’t it? There were a few minor lines in Iowa City, but for the most part it wasn’t a very big impact.
We sat in plenty of lines in the Chicago part of the midwest. I had just gotten my license and it was my job to make sure the family fleet was always gassed, so I would sit in line, fill-up, go back home and get another car and repeat. I soon discovered that waiting in gas lines was the perfect place to get all my homework done
Interesting you mention the gas lines in Canada, ie none. I remember, as a kid, watching the mayhem in the USA on the news and not seeing a single sign of it here. Weird.
There were lines and rationing in Kenosha, but I never sat in a line for more than 15-20 minutes. The 10 gallon ration certainly didn’t last long in my ’69 343 Ambassador.
The TV & Appliance store I worked for was right next to a gas station, where we gassed up all the service vans. We would just wait until mid-morning when the lines went down.
Not weird, really. Just government at work. When the whole price and distribution control thing got thrown into the ashcan in either the very end of the Carter administration or the very beginning of Reagan (not bothering to look it up), the lines disappeared and prices came way, way down. Stayed that way for years.
OPEC’s embargo that specifically targeted the US.
The entire western world was hit by higher prices, but the US was targeted for punishment by also having its access to oil reduced.
The gas lines in the US may not have been evenly distributed, but they were caused by an overall lack of supply. OPEC controlled much of the world’s supply, and Americans were able to buy less of it during the embargo.
In NW Ohio, this was an almost non-event. No lines, no nothing, just higher prices. When the “second energy crisis” hit in 1979, it was the same thing. I was in Las Vegas, and the only lines I saw was when a couple of stations had some radio promotion and sold gas for like .49.9 or something close to that. I managed to get one tank at the cheap price. A friend of mine lived in the NYC area in 1973, and his first experiences driving were sitting in lines waiting for gas.
I was nearly 16 I was more worried about my 2nd ever boyfriend ditching me because he was gay and anyone finding out, and my upcoming O levels I was finding Chemistry,Maths French,Music and Art especially hard,my brother had a Ford Anglia which he used only on the wettest and coldest days otherwise it was his trusty Yamaha DT175.Mum traded her Ford Granada in for an Escort and Dad sold the Dodge Dart and bought a new Allegro.It saved gas by not working!
We were kids when this happened and I remember odd-even days well. Between not being able to get gas whenever you wanted, the long lines and more often than not “out of gas” signs it was scary. The doom and gloom around global warming is not something a youngster can fully understand let alone feel threatened by. Wars in far off lands, as awful as they are, are usual not part of your daily life.
The oil crisis was different. As a kid going with Mom to buy gas it was easy to imagine how this could end up. Some day, maybe very soon, there won’t be any gas. Then what?
Fuel economy was all people talked about. I can’t think of an issue besides 9/11 that dominated the national discourse to the extent the 1973 oil crisis did. Overnight the worst cars went from being the slowest or ugliest to the ones with the worst MPG. It changed me for life – as much as I like 60s and 70s Detroit iron to this day I won’t let myself buy a car that gets single digit MPGs.
Some of these images are just begging for a bit of tweaking in Photoshop, for example:
… and another:
Louis, I’m baffled. I don’t see any alteration, so it might be just me. I paid extra attention because I saw both locations this morning and in 1973. Please, give me a clue?
More color added back in.
I adjusted the ‘levels’ (relative brightness of shadows and highlights), adjusted the colour balance (original had a magenta cast), increased the colour saturation, sharpened the edges, and applied a mild ‘unsharp mask’ filter.
The difference will be obvious if you double click the original and modified images to display them full size, and then tile them on your screen.
I’ve been using this basic technique, plus dust and scratch removal tools, to restore hundreds of old family pictures, dating back to about 1910. It’s a lot of work, but very rewarding.
I kind of miss those stamps. MY parents got them all the time and gave them to me, and I got a lot of stuff with them. The S&H store was close to my house and I would go over there and get the latest catalog every quarter or whenever it came out. When a family friend died, we found literally thousands of S&H stamps in her closet. I took them to S&H and traded them for 4 AFX slot car sets. With the stuff I already had, I had the track to make some awesome setups. With what I had left, I bought my mother her mother’s day present, and her next birthday present. I’ll have to look up and see when they went out of business.
I am with you on the stamps. I remember being thrilled beyond measure when I was allowed to lick the stamps my mom got from the grocery store and put them into the books. I loved the big dial machine over the cash register that the cashier would use to get the stamps after mom paid for the groceries. I still have an old workbench out in my garage that was purchased with S&H Green Stamps.
Got a basketball and hoop with those stamps. My parents got some nice household items that they would never think of spending money on. Of course, they did spend money on them — indirectly.
I noted the discolorations from age too, and thought oh this could be fixed in Photoshop as well, but didn’t take the time, but would have otherwise.
Nicely done the both of them.
No one has survived it because the eco-nags and greenies decided that along with those embarrassed by Vietnam, to use the Energy Crisis to being preaching against their fellow citizens. Instead of criticizing neighbors for their drinking, smoking or philandering, it became fashionable to harp about what your neighbors drive, how they drive, where they drive to, and force everyone to take a giant guilt trip along with their trips to Sunday Mass.
The Energy Crisis criminalized Americans for living. Expressways designed for 75 mph became mesmerizing death traps at 55 mph. Getting across the Dakotas meant jacking yourself up on uppers, caffeine and loud music in order to avoid falling into a coma once you left Souix Falls. Grandparents and elderly drivers were pulled over and ticketed by patrol officers duty-bound to pull over anyone going over 55 mph. The Energy Crisis made law abiding, a joke. Following the speed limit was for cautious dorks after years of being told life was best lived in a muscle car.
The Energy Crisis jammed the Federal Government’s anal probes into the posteriors of any American who attempted to live as a free-choosing consumer in a Free Marketplace. The new Green Billy Grahams tub thumped against anyone who didn’t seek their blessings before flipping on a light switch, mow their laws, or wipe their butt. Unbelievers who shunned Sunday services discovered a new god of the environment, and demand that America rebuild the Garden of Eden. The new Pilgrims only differed from old Cotton Mather in that they wore their belt buckles around their low-rise Levis, instead of around their hats. The Puritans and the Environmentalists both believe that Man has sinned and that Earth is better without us.
The Energy Crisis is forever with us. If we haven’t been told that our oil supplies will dry up by the next Congressional elections, we’re being told that we’re destroying the Ozone Layer, we’re causing hurricanes, McDonalds hamburgers are killing natives in Nambastan, cell phones are causing Global Warming, or that folks in Detroit won’t have enough snow to cover their city’s abandoned ruins this January. Instead of Millerites selling their possessions to ready themselves for the rapture, we’ve got lobbyists taking billions in tax dollars in order to sell us solar-powered bird baths in Minneapolis.
The Energy Crisis came at a time when a generation of Americans were uncomfortable inheriting their generation’s confidence in an American future. A generation that dreamed and planned for an atomic powered Chevrolet passed that baton onto a generation more comfortable with a neutered Prius that run on Amazon rainbows. The folks who prayed the Rosary parented a generation afraid to pray because it could offend someone somewhere.
We didn’t survive. It was the opening salvo of stupidity we live with daily.
For those of us too young to remember OPEC I or II (I wasn’t born for the first one was 2ish for the 2nd one) your revisionist + heavy dose of political innuendo makes you sound like a crackpot. Perhaps you need to try another website.
+1 I think he has this rant copied in his browser ready to paste whenever he’s triggered by something.
One of the problems I have with his version of history is that I’m pretty sure he was too young to actually remember the perfect Garden of Eden that America was in his imaginations (or fuzzy childhood memories) before it was destroyed by the evil conspirators.
I’m particularly sore about the atomic-powered Chevrolets having been stolen from us. Given the quality of Chevrolets back then, I’m sure atomic versions would have worked out real well…
It was a Vega!
The Three-Mile-Islander
The Chernobyl
and the Fukishima!
A blast to drive, that’s for sure.
VanillaDude was an “issue” on The Truth About Cars. He was cut off. Your call Paul.
I don’t know Twalton, it seems to me he’d fit right in at Tea-TAC.
Sounds like someone’s skating on thin ice while carrying an anvil. Paul, remember the civility thread a month or two back? You give folks like these an inch, then they kick the door in, invite their reactionary friends to Zerg-rush us, and ruin another website with their cut-n-paste BS.
Again, your call…
Don’t forget the 100 mpg carb, Paul.
Of course, America was paradise before the guvvamint got in there and spoiled all the fun with all their wealth and job killing regulations.
America really was a better place before the Puritans landed in 1620. They went and started makin’ rules right away!
The fact that the F150 is bigger, heavier and more powerful than it was in the ’70’s, yet is the number one selling vehicle sort of disproves his point.
Eh, give and take with a grain of salt. There is a still a lot of “do as I say and not as I do” regarding energy use, back then Congressmen were talking about rationing fuel for Americans while being chauffeured around in 4 ton Cadillacs and Lincolns, that they would get topped off for free in the Congressional Garage……….FFWD 20 years later and Gulfstream G5 flying, 12,000 sq-ft vacation home Al Gore is criticizing ME about how I use energy. Right.
Carmine, Al Gore’s not a good example; he’s done as much as anyone to walk his talk regarding climate change.
Yeah, like a lot of rich guys he has a big house, but it also doubles as his office. In recent years he has completely renovated the place with solar panels, geothermal heating and energy efficient lighting.
Al Gore. Is he the dude who told me I have to spend $8.99 for a light bulb that produces roughly half the light of the 100 watt incandescent that used to cost 99 cents for a 4-pack? To save about a quarter a year on energy? Or the $100 gas water heater that now costs $350?
It’s very easy to save energy when you have unlimited funds. The “point of diminishing returns” is being seriously breached.
Thank you.
Are you guys arguing that the average person can’t save money by saving energy?
I’m a guy of fairly modest means and yet have managed to make some practical energy efficiency investments that have paid off.
It starts with being open to new ways of doing things. That includes looking at life-cycle costs rather than simply purchase price.
The Energy Crisis sold a lot of CB radios as we all learned how to be speed limit outlaws… “Breaker one-nine, what’s the ten-forty on that smokey?”
The “must have” accessory of the ’70s
“I’m eastbounder looking for a westbounder, I need a smokey report and and need it bad!”
How big did CB get?
Within a few years everyone of the big 3 1/2 was offering a CB radio option in their cars.
Yup, my Dad had one mounted in his 76 Monarch. I still remember that his handle was “The Green Hornet”. Remember too that when C.W. McCall released “Convoy” (a song about CB radio culture among truckers) it became a No. 1 hit on both pop and country charts. “Looks like we got us a con-voy.” The CB radio was a huge cultural phenomenon. Even if you didn’t have one of your own (like me) it was always easy enough to see the big antenna on the back of the guy who whizzed past you so that you could follow along in his wake at 75 or 80 mph.
I remember “Convoy,” which was all the rage at the time, as were CB radios. “Convoy” seemed to glorify driving heavy trucks, which has to be about the most thankless job there is.
James Earl Jones said in an interview that he had a Cadillac with factory CB in the late 70’s, after Star Wars had come out, and his handle was of course…..Darth Vader.
My Dad’s 78 Mark V came with a factory CB radio as a $321 option.
I agree that CB had a huge albeit brief impact on the culture – TV, movies, songs.
I have to point out the method of transport on the Mark V window sticker…..
CONVOY!
Yikes, $321 for a factory CB? That is $1340 in today’s dollars. It’s almost twice what the 460 engine cost. That is serious moolah for an accessory in those days and I am sure Ford made a mitt-full cashing in on the whole CB schtick.
@Canucknucklehead – did you check out the price of the quad 8 track unit lol?
“How big did CB get? ”
I’d say we had us a convoy
And in honor of the spirit of the times, here are the lyrics to ‘Convoy’. Apologies in advance for any nostalgic earworms.
” “Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck. You gotta copy on me, Big Ben, c’mon? Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, for sure, for sure. By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c’mon. Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen, yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy…
Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June
In a Kenworth pullin’ logs
Cab-over Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy haulin’ hogs
We was headin’ for bear on I-one-oh
‘Bout a mile outta Shaky Town
I says, “Pig Pen, this here’s Rubber Duck.
And I’m about to put the hammer down.”
[Chorus]
‘Cause we got a little ol’ convoy
Rockin’ through the night.
Yeah, we got a little ol’ convoy,
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy
‘Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy!
[On the CB]
Ah, breaker, Pig Pen, this here’s the Duck. And, you wanna back off them hogs? Yeah, 10-4, ’bout five mile or so. Ten, roger. Them hogs is gettin’ in-tense up here.
By the time we got into Tulsa Town,
We had eighty-five trucks in all.
But there’s a roadblock up on the cloverleaf,
And them bears was wall-to-wall.
Yeah, them smokies was thick as bugs on a bumper;
They even had a bear in the air!
I says, “Callin’ all trucks, this here’s the Duck.
“We about to go a-huntin’ bear.”
[Chorus]
‘Cause we got a great big convoy
Rockin’ through the night.
Yeah, we got a great big convoy,
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy
‘Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy!
[On the CB]
Ah, you wanna give me a 10-9 on that, Pig Pen? Negatory, Pig Pen; you’re still too close. Yeah, them hogs is startin’ to close up my sinuses. Mercy sakes, you better back off another ten.
Well, we rolled up Interstate 44
Like a rocket sled on rails.
We tore up all of our swindle sheets,
And left ’em settin’ on the scales.
By the time we hit that Chi-town,
Them bears was a-gettin’ smart:
They’d brought up some reinforcements
From the Illinois National Guard.
There’s armored cars, and tanks, and jeeps,
And rigs of ev’ry size.
Yeah, them chicken coops was full’a bears
And choppers filled the skies.
Well, we shot the line and we went for broke
With a thousand screamin’ trucks
An’ eleven long-haired Friends of Jesus
In a chartreuse micro-bus.
[On the CB]
Ah, Rubber Duck to Sodbuster, come over. Yeah, 10-4, Sodbuster? Lissen, you wanna put that micro-bus in behind that suicide jockey? Yeah, he’s haulin’ dynamite, and he needs all the help he can get.
Well, we laid a strip for the Jersey shore
And prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with bears
But I didn’t have a dog-goned dime.
I says, “Pig Pen, this here’s the Rubber Duck.
We just ain’t a-gonna pay no toll.”
So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight
I says “Let them truckers roll, 10-4.”
[Chorus]
‘Cause we got a mighty convoy
Rockin’ through the night.
Yeah, we got a mighty convoy,
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy
‘Cross the U-S-A.
(Convoy!) Ah, 10-4, Pig Pen, what’s your twenty?
(Convoy!) OMAHA? Well, they oughta know what to do with them hogs out there for sure. Well, mercy (Convoy!) sakes, good buddy, we gonna back on outta here, so keep the bugs off your glass and the bears off your… (Convoy!) tail. We’ll catch you on the flip-flop. This here’s the Rubber Duck on the side.
Convoy! We gone. ‘Bye, ‘bye.” “
I remember Convoy very well. We went to the cinema with the family to watch it, dad was a truck driver, so we just had to go.
A few years later I bought Ertl’s 1:25 model kit of the Convoy Mack.
Sure, it was a Mack all right and it was black….
BUT IT WAS THE WRONG MACK !!!
Ertl didn’t tell me they put a DM in the box instead of the (correct) RS-model Mack.
AND I ALREADY HAD THEIR MACK DM600 !!!
(good quality model kits though….)
And it showed us the stupidity of owning this big, fat, stinking broughams.
I enjoyed the energy crisis. I worked for a bicycle shop. And commuted by bicycle daily, saving my car for autosport on the weekends.
VanillaDude=Travis Bickle
You almost cost me a keyboard! He is a little over the top.
Listen you screwheads……..
Here is a man who would not take it anymore…..
Here is…..
VanillaDude is a scream! Often good for a chuckle.
I was going to add to my comment but maybe now as a rebuttal to VD that nothing has changed at all. I see folks all the time driving by themselves in full-sized SUVs that get no better mileage than a full-sized sedan 40 years ago. They took the improvement in technology and applied it all to power and performance not MPG. That happened because a lot of people wanted that. Not sure how government has changed anyone’s behavior but there are more choices now. Something for everyone was never truer than it is today and that’s a great thing.
I also drove a Yamaha – but I went to the Enduro 175 of my childhood as the Norton Commando I just bought in ’72 didn’t get much better mileage than a VW. Plus, I somehow violated that code the Jesuits require and had to transfer to a different school. Paul has also managed to picture the last politician completely deserving of our respect. It was the best of times, it was the worst……..
I was 9, and a bit of a news junkie even at that age, so I had an awareness of the event.
On a daily basis, it seemed a non event. There were few if any gas lines in Omaha, NE. It was short lived if it did happen.
My parents were conservative with their money, and needed space for a family of five. We had a ’68 327 Impala sedan in ’73, and by ’76 they felt confident enough to trade it on a new 351 LTD.
I do recall that there was a call to save energy anyway you could, and the idea of putting up outdoor Christmas lights became an issue for a year or two. I’m guessing we skipped them in ’73, and possibly ’74 to avoid being looked down upon. They did seem a bit scarce in those years. I loved holiday lights as a kid, and was quite disappointed when we couldn’t put up our string of 25 C9 multi-color bulbs across the front of our house, but we single handedly solved the crisis!
We only had one car until about 1980. My dad took the bus, or carpooled through much of the ’70s. He had access to a company car on an “as needed” basis, usually just several weeks a year (pretty cushy looking Olds 88 Royales). There were a fair number of bus riders in our neighborhood both before and after the “crisis.” It was the way we lived as single income middle class families.
Most of the people who were most affected by OPEC I were the older generations, mostly the WWII generation, who were the first generation to fully experience driving and car ownership as a way of life. Baby Boomers and subsequent generations have largely lived as adults post OPEC and have adjusted accordingly. So for me, having started driving in 1992, and not really being able to afford something I really wanted until the 00s, I suppose I am more of a responsible driver. I do not think of having a car as just transportation (like so many do especially women) but it is not a Constitutional right either. I suppose that makes me part of that mushy middle (the only thing I will say about politics). I enjoy what I can within reason. Looking at all of the old cars are wonderful but they were what they were at that time. Just like quaint main streets and small stores. It is all about context. Beautiful semi handcrafted cars from the 1920s and 1930s were of an era when few drove and those that did were much better off than the average citizen. Today’s cars are like a commodity. The fulcrum has shifted.
Thanks VanillaDude! Excellent comment. I think it was H.L. Mencken who said
“Puritanism is the fear that somewhere, someone is having a good time.”
I was born in 76 and my first memory is of the Three Mile Island Crisis on television. But I have read in several places that the petrol shortage would have been dramatically alleviated had Nixon’s price controls not been in effect. There would have been a dramatic and temporary spike in the PRICE of petrol but the shortage would have been immediately alleviated. Carter gets a lot of blame for ruining the economy, and somewhat deservedly, but Nixon really began the screw ups.
I was 7 back in 1973. I only remember that cars were not allowed to drive (at all) on Sundays, see picture.
The vast majority of car owners already drove fuel efficient small cars in those days.
Renault 4, Renault 5, Fiat 127, Simca 1100….that class of FAMILY cars.
Yes, those were FAMILY cars. (you see why the Civic wasn’t a “revolution” here ?)
I’m pretty sure that the small French cars 40 years ago used less fuel than the ones now. Of course they were (much) lighter and far less safe back then.
What a fantastic picture!
I was too young to know what was going on in 1973, but I suppose my father – not exactly known for his automotive decisions – was ahead of the curve with his purchase of a new 1973 Toyota Carina earlier that year (good luck finding one of those for a CC article, though I’d love to see one).
Great pic indeed. Reminds me of this photo taken on the 405 Freeway during “Carmageddon” a couple years ago:
I was driving a 55 DeSoto at the time of the first gas crisis (12 mpg on a good day) and my mother was driving a 72 Valiant with the 318 V8. We both spent some time in gas lines — in New Jersey, you couldn’t get gas unless you had less than half a tank. A family friend with a 71 Electra waited for two hours and the pump jockey looked at her gas gauge from his vantage point outside the car and said it was more than half a tank although from behind the wheel there was no quesiton it was less. But there was no appeal! I remember calling home in February 1974 excited that I’d found a new apartment (where I’m still living) and Mom was even more excited because just before she got to her office the Sunoco station on Route 17 put out a sign that they had gas and she pulled in and filled the tank!
And we survived, despite the ravings of VanillaDude!
I was 21 and working my way through college at a Crown gas station in Richmond’s East End. Since I drove a VW and had a bicycle as a backup, I wasn’t much affected by the shortage, or the price. However, everyone else was. I would start my shift at the station at 2 pm by walking out to the pumps where a quarter mile long line of cars waited for gas, more or less patiently. Placing my supper of two bologna sandwiches atop a pump, I spent the next ten hours jumping across the island from car to car, giving them their ration of fuel. Usually I was stooped over because of those damned fillers under the license plate. Those cars just kept coming and coming. I sure earned my $2 an hour.
When I started living in Boston, Comm Ave., from 1971, I had a car, which at the time was possible with street parking. The crisis hit, drove the car to my parents and left it there. Used public transportation from that point on. Watched all the gas lines on the TV. Never had to participate in that.
Oof. My namesake and I were both born in that fateful year. I had a younger coworker, a few years back, who liked to come over to my cube and say, “1973!” Because I’d reply, “Great year for America!” and he’d laugh. I’m both too reactionary to forego my every-so-often big block and too chastened, by history, to pretend it’s harmless.
Perhaps the “golden glow” of memory has dimmed somewhat, but I don’t remember any problems w/ obtaining gas during ’73-’74 in Georgia. At the time, I was driving a ’62 Dodge Dart 318 c.i., which was replaced w/ a 1970 Charger 318 c.i.. I very nearly bought a ’67 SS 396 Chevelle, but the old adage “never look at a used car at night” proved to be too true. Interestingly enough, a good friend taught me how to drive a stick in his Vega 2300 3 speed. I DO recall paying $0.77/gallon for Amoco Super Premium in 1977! 35+ years later, I drive a stick everyday (Honda) and I STILL have a 1970 Charger!! 🙂
When the oil crisis hit, I was a college student at Arizona State University. I remember the event well, although its effect on myself was mild. I was driving a Vega at the time, living off campus and almost always walked to classes. Most of my driving was local but I remember by January most of the stations were rationing gas with ten gallons the limit. If you needed gas you hit the gas stations early before they sold their allotment for the day.
I remember some of the commercials- when the oil embargo started, GM was running commercials extolling the virtues of small cars-by January I remember newspaper ads in which Buick was pushing Opels and Pontiac was extolling the virtues of six cylinder Venturas, which previously had been pushed off to the back of the dealers’ lots. However, a few months later after the embargo had ended, people seemed to have forgotten about it and life was back to normal. I do remember a radio commercial from a Phoenix car dealer around April or May of ’74 which ran something like: “Now that the energy crisis is over wouldn’t you like to drive a real car and not some little s**t box?” It would seem people have short memories.
We survived 1973 by having two small cars. By luck one had an even plate and the other had an odd plate. Taking turns waiting in gas lines. No matter what you were doing if you saw an open station with a gas line you got in it (if there was no last car in line sign stuck on the back of a vehicle).Transferring gas between the two cars. Keeping a can of gas on hand in case a car ran out.
The urban legend at the time was that there were dozens of full oil tankers waiting offshore just far enough to be out of sight, and that the whole thing was just to raise prices. The other was that station owners filled up their family and friends cars in the middle of the night. It did seem that as soon as prices got high enough gas became available again.
There is some partial truth to the “friends and family” thing, my grandmother was in the hematology dept. at a local hospital and the dept. Chief of Staff’s brother or cousin, owned a Shell station, the good doctor would pay a low ranking orderly to take all of his staffs cars over to the Shell station to get their tanks filled whenever needed, No line, no waiting.
As to surviving the Energy Crisis of ’73, it was a doddle: My ’73 Vega was for weekend autosport. My main ride was a ’73 Raleigh Sports 3-speed, and I had excellent job security at A. R. Adams Cycle Shop in Erie, PA.
I used to laugh going in to the gas station with a five gallon gas can on the Raleigh, picking up some gas and pouring it into the Vega for the weekend. Normally hit every autocross weekend with a full tank. And laughed and laughed and laughed at those bit vinyl roofed boats waiting in line for enough gas to get them home and back to the gas station the next day.
Showed me the urban truth that bicycles rule for commuting – something I haven’t forgotten to this day.
Vanilla Dude, you need a bicycle.
I was ten at the time, and my dad went out and bought a Pinto. Great car for a family with 5 kids… he let my mom deal with feeding the Checker.
I was a young teen not driving as of yet. I remember my parents went and looked at a new VW Beetle. They were not impressed with small cars. They kept their Oldsmobile 98. Dad liked a car with lots of metal around him. Living in the mid-west I don’t remember gas being to hard to get.
I was 8 at the time. Dad was in the service and we lived on the base, so we didn’t go out past the gates for awhile. I think he left earlier & walked to his post and Mom got the car so we could go to the commisary once a week. The car was a white ’70 VW weekender westy camper, (no pop-top but it had the wood interior, curtains, crank-up screen windows, folding table, mini-fridge and futon) so it didn’t use that much gas.
College. In residence. No car. Canada.
Oil crisis? 🙂
I was ten years old growing up in Ontario, Canada, so it wasn’t an issue for me. I rode my bike to school and my dad had no trouble getting gas for his new ’73 Impala. We also lived within a short drive of three oil refineries. Forty years later I’ve owned a few cars, but now we just rent one when we need it…and I ride my bike to work when the weather’s decent.
It certainly left a mark since up until around 1990 my parents insisted on having one car with an odd numbered plate and one with an even numbered plate, just in case odd/even gas rationing came back. I also remember them groaning about 69.9 cents per gallon being really expensive. When I started driving i the 80s, 69.9 was cheap.
Born in ’74. Can remember “NO GAS” signs from ’79 just as I was learning to read.
Bought a 40 MPG car at the end of January ’08 at which point deals (and a choice of colors with manual transmissions!) could be had just before prices skyrocketed that summer – one of the few well-timed financial transactions in my family’s history…
I had similar luck back in ’08 when my Grand Marquis got totaled, I picked up a ’97 Escort 4 door with a stick for cheap $$$. Little beast got 40+ mpg right when gas passed the $4 mark.
The gas crisis in 73 was pretty bad in LA – the whole west side was tangled with gas lines. Despite the fact that I had a Maverick LDO with the 302, small tank, and lousy mileage, I survived it easily due to the fact that I was a graduate student and didn’t have time to drive that much. Also, I think that people behaved fairly well overall, with some sense of community spirit in the coping.
The gas crisis in 79 in LA was a whole lot worse and involved more incidents of confrontation and violence in the gas lines. People were fairly fed up with the “malaise” years and being held captive (literally for some) by politics in the Middle East.
So long ago its almost hard to remember. In 1973, I was a graduate student in suburban
Chicago.
Chicago was a crap place to drive anyway so I don’t remember much changed. I certainly found enough gas to go grocery shopping and to see my girlfriend–now wife–on the weekends. What I do remember is a huge plume of smoke one Sunday morning. The local Chevy dealer had a goodly sized indoor shop area, which burned, taking a good number of unsellible Caprice barges with it.. Nothing was ever said about suspicious circumstances, but I always wondered. The only other thing I remember was my Dad buying an Audi 100 as his commuter car. That did not end all that well, but that’s another story.
I kept my 383 Challenger parked in SoCal most of the time, and rode a little Honda 125. When I needed gas, I just squeezed past the line of cars to an open pump in the middle of the island.
Being in Panama helped. Preferring bikes to cars helped also but the biggest help was a traveling job in a Navy International scout with Navy gas pumps. Gas hit $.50/gal on base and about $1 in the republic. When I did drive my own car it was a 61 vw beetle. Considering wages I think gas is probably lower now.
I was in I think the third grade when OPEC 1 hit so don’t recall too much of that one, though in the Puget Sound area, it may not have been as bad as elsewhere that I know about.
At the time, both parents drove larger vehicles. I think Dad was driving the ’70 Plymouth Fury III, and Mom the ’64 Dodge 330 station wagon we’d had since new for a while longer. By that summer, the transmission (the good old Torqueflite) had gone out and was replaced by a used one from a junk yard, it shortly went from being a main driver to a third car for my older sisters to drive back and forth to school and around town locally for a few more years. I forget what Dad got to drive, but Mom ended up with the Plymouth, I think.
Anyway I do recall in part the ’79 embargo as I was in Jr High at the time, and Mom was driving the ’76 Vega wagon, and I think Dad was driving the ’71 Ford Custom sedan he’d gotten from a GSA general auction a year or so before, if not that year. I DO know he bought a ’74 Chevy Nova to have driven out to my oldest sister and her first hubby in Wisconsin to replace their rusted out ’72 Vega in the fall of ’79.
Since then, they gradually increased their gas mileage and went smaller with the then new compacts of the day I know that Dad had the first gen Accord between 1976-1978, but had to sell it not because of anything with the car, but because he had 2 daughters in a private university at the time (locally), and he an administrative staff doing self insurance and risk management for a local school district, so with a car payment on top of two college tuitions, something had to give. The Honda lost.
Since then they’ve downsized their fleet to compacts for the most part, though they had two later day mid-sized vehicles, a ’95 Chrysler Concord, and Mom’s last car, a 2004 Dodge Stratus. They also drove 2 Honda Accords, one an SE-I sedan they bought used in ’87, and a 91 EX sedan they bought new. After Dad died, Mom sold the Concorde due to it being too larger for her, and bout a ’97 Honda Accord EX sedan, which was replaced by the Stratus in 2005.
However, both of them got at least mid to upper 20’s highway so likely a major improvement over cars like the ’70 Plymouth, and the ’75 Grand Fury with the 360 V8 etc.
Today, I tend to favor smaller cars myself, largely due to living in the city, and parking on the street, and I prefer the mileage they get, while still driving on the spirited side.
I was “coming of age” then; I had just turned 16 and got my license. I remember the palpable sense of worry and “WTF?” by my parents, the long lines, odd numbered days, etc. Strangely enough the May 1979 second mini-crisis hit just as I was graduating from college; half my family couldn’t travel to my graduation.
I work in education now, and discuss October 1973 at length with my 8th graders – the gas crisis, the Six-Day War, and the Saturday Night Massacre. Of course the topper is my HS picture with the hair down to the shoulders.
Imagine if we had today’s technology then? Gas Buddy would have helped tremendously…..
I was taking driver’s ed around that time; my father had just bought a ’73 Country Sedan (weird name for a wagon) with a 400/2V which of course wasn’t great on gas; he bought it mostly for vacation/camping (replacing our ’69 Country Squire)..it had those Firestone 500 radials that delaminated after very few miles (fortunately someone had put the car up on lift early on and discovered the problem).
Anyhow, he also had his old Renault R10 which he drove to work…interestingly, it was that car that “suffered” by getting traded in on a ’74 Datsun 710 specifically due to the gas crisis…I should ask my Father why he did it in retrospect (almost 40 years ago) since the Renault almost certainly got better gas mileage than the 710, but I think it was because the 710 had automatic transmission whereas the R10 was manual, and my Father wanted my mother to drive the 710 instead of the Country Sedan wherever possible to save gas…my mother “kind of” knows how to drive manual, but she was never very good or practiced at it, so I think he wanted a more economical automatic car she could also use….so the Renault (with only about 20k miles at the time) was traded in on the 710.
I remember one fellow student who was complaining about it taking $25 to fill their tank (maybe 28 gallons, American cars had pretty big fuel tanks to go along with their less than stellar fuel economy at the time)…of course $25 in the ’70’s seemed like a lot more money than it does now.
I had opposite problem..my Fiat 128 had great gas mileage, but such a small tank (I think it was 7 gallon) that it still didn’t have a big cruising range…you used to see that mentioned as much as fuel economy, since even if you could afford the price you might not get to an open station (but of course bigger tanks took longer to get to 1/2 full if you had to wait to fill up, so you had to time your stops). Plus the 128 took premium fuel, which (for economy cars) was pretty unusual I thought back then (premium leaded before the cat converters were in place). I can’t remember if there were specific shortages of unleaded gas, but I don’t think unleaded was used much for another year or so in most cars.
I remember the gas lines, and also that some stations weren’t open at times…travelling “locally” we usually knew the patterns of which stations were open, but when we travelled on highway to other areas it was kind of scary to not know whether we’d be able to get gas to continue on.
My dad rushed out and bought two new full-sized Dodge Polara Customs for 5k. It was like a two-for-one deal. One was blue with a white top and the other was gold with a brown top. Both with a 318 and a paisley interior. Our neighbor went out and bought a ’73 T-Bird, awash in luxury. It was gold with a white top and white leather interior. So for some, it was the perfect buying opportunity for real-sized cars.
Wow, wonder why he bought 2 (was one for holding his place in line at the gas station while he drove the other?)…though I’m sure the 318 was about “normal” for fuel economy back then, I guess if you didn’t have to worry about fuel shortages (and didn’t mind the increased price of fuel, which of course was offset in the great savings in cost for the cars you just bought) it was a great idea.
I’m sure my Dad paid a correspondingly higher price buying the 710 when he did (not that it got that great fuel mileage, it was just better than the Country Sedan)…but we did live where there were fuel shortages and lines. If you lived in an area without that (unless you suspected that it might eventually affect the area you drove in as well) you were smart to take advantage (especially since large cars like the Polara would only be offered for another 5 years or so). Would have been neat to take my driver training in the Polara (also would have a spare car in case I cracked up in the other one).
I was 7 during the 1973 oil crisis and remember sitting in the back seat of my father’s 73 T-Bird that he had just gotten in September..waiting in line at High Ridge Shell in Stamford CT….the line would be blocks long and not only did you have to inch along but you also had to wait for the lights to change my father would go ballistic as you could literally watch the needle drop…shortly after the T-Bird was garaged and my father’s station car-63 Plain Jane Corvair was pressed into daily service. I used to make him drop me off a block from school as I never wanted to be seen in it-but it was great on gas and in snow. In 79..like a few others the family fleet had both odd and even plates so one car was always ready to go. But never once did the old guy ever think of giving up his Detroit iron and head down to the Toyota or VW dealer…
While I was not around at the time of this fuel crisis, I can clearly see that most Americans haven’t learned a damn thing, especially those who continue to drive gas-guzzling vehicles.
Which is why I laugh when people complain about gas while trying to fill up an Excursion. So laughable. So stupid. So very…American.
What lesson is it exactly that we haven’t learned? Do we need to model ourselves after some other country so that we’re impervious to political instability in the Middle East and the whims of an oil cartel? Maybe if we all drove Smart cars that run off unicorn farts would never need to worry about fuel prices rising 4x in 3 months ever again. Yep, we Americans are really stupid.
Hey! We’re ‘Murricans!!! We have a God-given right to big, fat, ugly, gas-hogging, ill-handling, cheap-attempts-at-looking-luxurious, show-off, cars.
And no Commie is going to stick us in something that drives, handles and sips gas!
I was only a child myself when the Energy Crisis hit. My father purchased his ’73 T-Bird earlier that year, but since his work was within walking distance, it wasn’t too much of a problem (it only had 24k miles on it when he passed in 2009). One of the things i remember was that there was a gas station in Beacon Hill in Boston that had gas but the prices were outrageous ($2-$3 per gallon).
By the way, did the spirit of Carroll Shelby travel back in time ?
I see some ghost image of a man with a hat walking towards the blue Mustang.
I think he wants it in his shop.
– sigh –
this led to my dad reluctantly selling his ’68 GTO convertible. It couldn’t get from Long Island up to Armonk NY every day with odd/even day gas.
I didn’t relocate that car until 2002. Now it’s in my garage and I ain’t never gonna give it back.
That photo of the governor with the oil lamp strikes me as a highly political photo-op. Or at least the cynical side of me sees it that way today. I rather doubt he did much work by the light of that lamp.
I’m a week late getting here, and only arrived in the world at the end of ’73 so can’t comment on that crisis. But I was 5 for the second one in ’79 and remember it well. Here in New Zealand the government’s method of dealing with it was twofold: speed limit reduction and car-less days.
The speed limit dropped to 80km/h (50mph), and remained until the late 80s I think.
Car-less days were applied to all cars less than 2,000kg. Cars had to have a sticker on the windscreen saying which their car-less day was – ours was Tuesday. From memory there were fairly big fines if you were caught driving on your car-less. I remember Mum stressing about what to do if my younger sister or I needed an emergency trip to the doctor on our car-less day. Thankfully Dad’s job at the local BL dealer came with a van (’73 Morris Minor) which was exempt from the car-less days. The car-less days lasted for about a year I think.