Here's How Much Gas Cost The Year You Were Born

I'm just a wee bit older than most of the people I work with.

OK, I'm older than virtually all the people I work with. While I prefer to be called the elder statesman, they prefer to call me the old codger.

With that being said, a lot of our conversations deal with 'what it was like back then'. And despite what they think, no I didn't grow up with Laura Ingalls in the Little House on the Prairie (although come to think of it, I did grow up in a little house on a kind of prairie).

Well, as chance would have it, one day recently we were talking about the price at the pump, what a gallon of gas cost. Right now, it's somewhere in the two-dollar-something range. We've seen it as high as the four-dollar-something range and when I mentioned that I remembered gas at less than half-a-buck a gallon, there was an audible gasp.

Well, I saw a little something on Facebook that said in 1973 (and yep, I was drivin' by then) gas was about 43.9 a gallon. Hmm...yeah, that sounds about right. So I did a little further checking and found out:

The year I was born (never mind when that was) gas was around .26 cents a gallon. Fast forward 10 years or so and it had zoomed up to .30 cents, and 10 years after that .53 cents.

I sense a trend going on here.

And you can find out how much gas cost the year you were born right here.

The other thing I mentioned to the 'youngsters' was the term 'gas war'. Remember those? Well, they didn't and I guess there hasn't been one in decades. But yes, back in the 'old days' I remember my folks driving to Sioux Falls and my dad smiling because there was a 'gas war' going on....each gas station (no convenience stores in those days) would try to stay a few cents below the next one down the street.

So yes, there was a day when gas was under a buck, under half-a-buck, under even a quarter. But before you think to yourself how cheap it was...

Here’s How Much Gas Cost The Year You Were Born