Hi Everyone,

I can remember when I got my first car, the summer before the start of my Junior year at TUHS. It was a hand me down from my brother Roger, when he went off to the Navy; a 1950 grey Olds four door, automatic trans, with a 2-barrel carburetor on a 300 cubic inch V-8 and it put out a whopping 125 horsepower. It was a big boat of a car and I didn't win any drag races in it. The gas gauge never went past - full, even though gas was 24.9 cents a gallon at the time. I got an allowance of about 3-4 bucks a week, just enough to put some gas in, a quart of oil every 2 weeks, attend an after game dance, and get a coke and fries at Devine's Drive-In. Fortunately, I didn't have a girlfriend out in Valley Acres; she would have had to hitchhike in.
I caught a job that summer at the Texaco Gas Station (Waldrop's Auto Parts) working until 12 midnight on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday's. I missed all the great Wednesday Rec dances that summer. Jolly Jody and His Go Daddies and Rick Lee and the Barons were a couple of the headliners. Once the summer job ended, the extra money ($1 an hr) dried up and I was back to scrimping on gas. I believe I ran out of gas in that old Olds about 10-12 times that Junior year; luckily some of time I was in the heights when it happened and I rolled and pushed it down to the Chevron on Kern and 10th where the McDonalds is now.
Many times after school, I'd get out to my car and there were several friends sitting in it waiting for a ride home. I'd ask for gas money once in awhile and I would get a combined 57 cents or 83 cents or nothing at all. On Friday cruise nights on Center Street, we'd trade off riding in each other's car, so I saved some of my gas that way. I believe I set a record in that old Olds. One day at lunchtime, we got 15-18 people in it and cruised in front of the high school with the tires nearly flat. The Dean of Boy's didn't appreciate that stunt and my folks were called down to school. It was a great old first car. I saved up enough money to buy a set of fake white skinny white walls to put on the tires, boy was I ever styling then. I didn't have enough money to be a gear head, no fancy hot rod stuff.
Thinking about gas back then, I try to compare it to now. Seems we have been stuck at nearly $3 a gallon for quite some time now. Ginny and I pulled our 5th wheel trailer to Yellowstone last June and gas 50 miles inside the park was 2.69; when we left Taft, gas was 2.99. We paid 3.49 in Needles and in Arizona and Utah it dropped to 2.59. It just doesn't figure out in my mind somehow ?? We are sitting on top of all this oil and we in California pay some of the highest gasoline prices in the nation. Where's the justice ??
And, what is with the Mobil and Chevron stations at I-5 and 119, selling gas for 3.79 for the past 6 months or so ?? The same stations 11 miles further down the road in Pumpkin Center are 60-70 cents on average cheaper than their sister stations at I-5. Even in New Cuyama, gas was 3.69 last weekend at the small station where you'd expect it to be that high. I still can't bring myself to stop at those two stations out on the highway; if their gas is that high, what about the other things for sale inside ??
There is one thing to remember, when you buy gas in Taft, the sales tax stays in the City. When you buy your gas here, let the owners know that you support them and that you'd appreciate them maintaining a fair price. Most of them support the community in some way or another. Buying gas in Bakersfield doesn't help anybody over here. What goes around and comes around. Like I say "Live in Taft, don't just reside here".
See you around town.