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Date:         Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:04:12 -0400
Reply-To:     Mike <mbucchino@CHARTER.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mike <mbucchino@CHARTER.NET>
Subject:      Re: gas prices? change quickly? vanagon content. :)
Comments: To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
              reply-type=response

Yesterday, I drove my '87 Westy down to Micsquamicut Beach in Westerly, RI for LIMBO's annual Tranporter Rites of Spring get together. Kinda cool ocean breezes, but a good time was had by all. Stan-agon was there, and he told me that he doesn't travel as much as he used to. Gas was over $3.50/ gal for regular; they say it't'll be over $4 this summer.....I just suck it up and pay it, like everyone else. We all need to do something about this load of crap.

Money's just money, stuff is just stuff........

People are what's important.

The health and welfare of you and your family is the most important thing that's forthcoming to you. The wealth and hellfire is what's forthcoming to the others that ride on all of our backs, taking as much as they can steal from the rest of us while they have the chance.

Mike B.

----- Original Message ----- From: "John Rodgers" <inua@CHARTER.NET> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 9:28 AM Subject: Re: gas prices? change quickly? vanagon content. :)

>I did a lot of my growing up at Gran'ma's house in the old rural south. > On a lonely country dirt road, the old house had walls with only one > side - you could see the two by four saw-mill run 2x4's on the other > side. Gran'ma swept the floor with a straw broom, and any dirt and dust > swept up was disposed of by lifting the edge of a worn throw rug and > sweeping the debris through a crack in the floor. The only running water > was a pitcher-pump at the edge of the back porch. Some years later she > got an electric pump, and had an outdoor shower installed where the > pitcher pump was. You stood on a concrete slab and took a cold shower > with water straight from the ground - cold as rip. The run-off would > trickle down a little shallow ditch where butterfly's congregated by the > hundreds to suck up the salts from the washed bodies and the soaps. > There was a chamber pot under the bed in each bedroom, and the bathroom > was an outhouse out back by the barn. Gran'ma wouldn't tolerate the > nastiness and flies of an outhouse any where nearby. There was no air > conditioning back then, and what ventilation there was came by way of > open windows and doors. There were screens on the windows to keep out > the flies and mosquitoes. In winter the only heat was wood in a > fireplace. Back then gasoline was only $0.18 and I can remember going on > my bicycle to get a can of kerosene and it cost a $0.05 for a gallon. > Gran'ma loved a Coca Cola when she could afford it. Cost a nickel for a > bottle of coke. she would scrimp and save here pennies until she had > enough then would send me down the road on my bike to get it. She loved > her Coco Cola - she said she always felt better after having herself a > Coke. But of course that was way before they removed the cocaine from > the Coco Cola formula. I have since seen Coco Cola syrup bottles that > state specifically that "The Cocaine has been removed from this > product!" My first job I every had that paid for my labor was at a > service station. I was an attendant - pumped gas, cleaned windshields, > aired tires, all for the princely sum of $0.20/hour. > > Things have changed! > > What I see going on right now I don't like at all. The rapidly > increasing fuel prices are driving inflation like crazy, yet at the same > time, to be profitable, companies are trying to reduce costs and are > fiercely cutting back every way they can to both make a profit and stay > alive. A big chunk of that cut back is coming out of the employee's > hides. Down sizing, cutting jobs through attritions. It is not a good > sign. I hope it changes sooner rather than later. > > John Rodgers > 88 GL Driver > > Joel Walker wrote: >>> I was thinking about this as well, and I remember >>> gas prices hitting $1.00 in 1979. >>> So I looked it up... >>> the national average was $0.86/gallon in 1979, >>> $1.25/gallon in 1980. >>> Ah... the good old days, >>> you could buy gas with loose change and get >>> enough to go surfing. >>> >> >> >> harrumph!! ;) >> >> folks, it's all relative. depends on how old you are/were, >> and how much money you had at the time. >> look at car prices! look at house prices! >> EVERYthing costs more now. >> in 1904, a BUCKET of beer (bring your own bucket) cost a NICKEL!!! >> but consider, in that year, the average hourly wage was a QUARTER! >> >> in 1954 (which i remembers better), the first u.s. jet airline flew. >> the boeing 707. the first nuclear submarine was launched. >> the first color television transmission, the first heart-transplant, >> the u.s. only 48 states, with a population of 163 million folks. >> >> there were only 106,000+ motor vehicles registered >> in the whole country, of these, passenger cars numbered >> only 48,000+ ... and that was SIXTY percent of ALL the >> passenger cars in the whole world. >> many states did NOT require a test to obtain a driver's >> license ...and no interstate. >> the familiar white-on-red "STOP" sign? first time it showed up ... >> had been black-on-yellow before that. :) >> >> a new car averaged $2000. a vw beetle was like $1300. >> a vw bus was like $1600. >> >> and a gallon of gas? depends on where you were, but the >> national average was ...<drum rollllll> ... TWENTY-ONE CENTS. >> now, i recall a gas war at an intersection in our town, and >> it got really nasty ... the Humble station (which is what Esso >> was before they became Exxon) and the Sinclair stations got >> down to TWELVE cents per gallon. >> >> spare change for gas? heck, with my $0.75/hour ditch-digging >> wages, i could take my $38/week, and fill up the beetle, >> drive 30 miles with a date to the movies (big town, indoor >> air conditioned theatre!! ... only hospitals and theatres had >> air conditioning back then!), buy drinks and popcorn, >> come back home and stop at the Dairy Queen for shakes and fries. >> and all that ... on a ten-dollar bill. >> >> but things weren't all great ... >> tires were $12. but only lasted a year. if you were lucky. >> you NEEDED to carry a good spare tire, cause you WERE gonna >> have a flat ... just a matter of where and when. >> and we were scared of polio ... closed the town >> swimming pool one whole summer when two cases of polio showed >> up in town. i nearly died of whooping cough when i was four >> year old. doctors actually made house calls, back then. >> later that year, we got tested with the 'new' polio vaccine. >> 1 out of every three houses did NOT have a bathtub. 1 out of >> 4 houses had no telephone ... we had one, but were on what they >> called a 'party line' ... you and three or four neighbors >> shared the same line; everybody had a separate ring ... one >> ring was the Smith's, two rings was the Jones's, and three >> rings was us ... and ol' lady Gaddis used to listen in on >> EVERYbody's calls. >> a newly built decent house was $20-23,000. really. new! >> beer was up to $0.30/quart. in glass bottles. >> a first-class postage stamp at the post office was three cents. >> >> later on, in 1968, vw changed the vw bus ... and i hated the >> new ones! til i got to vietnam and ran into a bunch of aussies >> who used one as a transport, picking their folks up at the >> airbase and bringing them back to their compound. and as >> time went on, i got used to them .. the aussies AND the vw >> bus. :) so when i got out of the army, first thing i did was >> buy a brand new 1971 vw bus. blue and white, 4-speed. >> $3025.95. tax, tag, and all. >> >> then, in 1979, the vanagon came out. oh, crap! i was in love. >> went about six times to the dealer ... they KNEW i was gonna >> buy it. :( and so i did. $10,200. >> and that was only NINE years from buying the 1971 bus. >> >> so i kinda think we can all expect prices of everything to >> go nowhere but UP. :( >> >> and remember this: >> all the food you eat, all the magazines and newspapers >> you read, everything that you spend money on, involves >> either gasoline or diesel fuel. even if it comes on a train >> or plane, it takes fuel. and the more that fuel costs, >> the more they are gonna pass that cost on to you. >> i've never yet seen a company decide to make LESS profit >> when they could raise prices and pass the higher costs >> on to the customer. >> >> if i were a betting man, i'd bet on much higher prices by >> September ... higher prices on everything. including the >> water that comes out of your faucets ... i used to work >> for the water works (digging ditches, remember) and we used >> a lot of gasoline and diesel fuel. and all our pipe and >> supplies were delivered by trucks or trains, both of which >> used a lot of diesel fuel. >> >> unca joel >> <the only reason i'm hanging around is >> to see what the hell happens next!> ;) >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> >> >> >


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