The cost goes up. The cost goes down. You fill 'er up and gasp. Or maybe you see the price and think 'I better fill 'er up before the price goes up.'

Gas. The beast needs to be fed.

You've driven around Sioux Falls and seen that price there on the corner and pulled in, took out the plastic card, slipped it in and out real quick, pulled the pump out, popped it in the car, and watched it go...ten, fifteen, twenty dollars. And more. And more.

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And you wish it was like the 'old days'. You remember when you just got started driving and gas cost...how much?

Well, if you're looking at what your Grandpa or maybe Great-Grandpa paid when he first got behind the wheel, the price was sure different. If, say, he turned 15 in 1955 he was paying right around .26 cents a gallon. Wow! Wasn't he lucky? Except, of course, Gramps was making about a tenth of what you're taking home from work now.

In other words, it's all relative.

I started driving (legally) I think at about 15. That's when I got what we called a 'farm permit'. Basically, we could drive to school. We could drive when mom or dad was in the car. And at that time, driving my dad's Chevy Biscayne, we were dropping about .33 cents a gallon into that gas hog. By the time I got my first car of my own, a used '63 Chevy Impala, it'd run me about the same. A couple of bucks would pretty much get you through the weekend. And if there happened to be a Gas War, that two bucks would stretch you through the whole week.

It was back in 1979/1980 that gas first hit right at a buck a gallon. I'm sure we complained about it, how the world had gone crazy. By 1990 it had gone up to close to $1.25. So if you were born in 1970, started driving at 15, well you were already used to a dollar plus.

You can check out the price of petrol the year started driving here. And when you see your parents or grandparents paid quite a bit less, remember they made quite a bit less, too.

Remember, it's all relative.

TheState.com Contributed To This Article

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