Pickles by Brian Crane for March 18, 2025

I wish we could go back to 0.89 cents per gallon.

Johnny Carson said that once gas reached $1 a gallon, the gas shortage would go away. He was right.

…and some guy pumped it for you!

and cleaned your windshield

and checked your oil

AT NO EXTRA CHARGE!!

Is he driving a Bel Aire? Nice. A blast from the past.

Average price of a gallon of gas yesterday in the US was $3.078. Adjusting for inflation, that works out to $0.51 a gallon in 1975, which is about right.

When I worked at a four corner gas station back in the 60s, we had “gas wars” to see how long we would stay at less than 20 cents a gallon. We would be swamped for hours. Then politicians figured out how to tax gasoline without anyone being able to say, “No!”, and the price has gone up ever since.

I’m with you, Earl!

I was convinced after yesterday’s strip that Earl was going to claim he doesn’t live in the past like he used to, and then go on to regale us at great length and excruciating detail with the events that caused him to give up the practice.

I can remember 30 cents per gallon. I remember 5 cents for a candy bar or a pop cycle. I was going to buy a candy bar two day ago at a convenience store, and the guy said $3.50 please. I said, “I’ll pass.” and walked out.

It would be nice if you could get a gallon of gasoline for $0.30, like you could in 1958 (the year I was born). Of course, the federal minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the average wage in private industry was $4,600/year. Why does nobody say they wish for that back?

It’s all you got when you are old.

In the early 1960s I worked at an Atlantic station, which had “Red Ball Service” which was, clean the windows, check the oil, and the tires if asked, and we passed out foam red balls to stick on top of your radio antenna!

The internet is a bit slow there, though.

A 1949 Studebaker. My neighbor bought one brand new.

nice car, Earl

The leaded gasoline back then should not be missed.

Back when gas was just going up in price, I got gas while I was on my lunch break. I was expecting to pay 33 cents, and it was 42 cents. I absolutely panicked! (This was when I was "between husbands and living in Section 8 housing with two girls.) I got $1 worth of gas – 2 gallons and two drops – and pulled out of the station in a hurry.

Unfortunately, I didn’t leave the way I entered and ended up on the weirdest street in Maryland. This is a one-way, single-track road that goes all the way around Towson. Once you’re on it, there is nothing to do but keep going. I was late getting back from lunch and told my supervisor I had “gotten lost”.

“Where did you go?”

“Just over there,” and I pointed to the gas station; you could see it from the office window! When I told her what had happened, she just nodded and said she understood perfectly.

I worked for a pump manufacturer that made a fortune when gas prices rose over a dollar. Then the company squandered all that money.

“You wouldn’t believe how cheap gasoline is there” …and houses and cars and groceries…

Back when gas stations only had two pumps.

When I was 16 (1966), gas was 23.9. But I was also only making .35 an hour!

I remember 19.9 cents. Those were the days.

At least, in retirement (I’m there) we don’t drive as much!

Love that ’51 Studebaker!

Earl liked the price of eggs in 1970, just .61/dozen.

EVERYTHING was cheaper.!!!!!!!!!!!!

No internet,black and white tv with 3 channels

I’ll take a dollar’s worth and check the oil please.

I miss the past because it was more civilized. One never had to worry about getting shot at, brake checked or forced off the road because he was only going 10 MPH over the speed limit. Or being hit by a “stray round” sitting on his porch. Or being bombarded by other people’s ‘entitlements’, desires and opinions. One could go downtown without fear of being attacked at any time for any or no reason. It just seemed to be better back then somehow.

Nowadays we think of McDonald’s as being a person’s first job. Back then it was gas stations.

I remember when gasoline was 14 cents per gallon.

When your daily driver was built in 1950, that is really living in the past – and it is impressive!

I love that Studebaker 51 , i think. My first car was a 48 Hudson with three on the tree

I remember when gas first hit $1 in the 70’s and most gas pumps didn’t have enough digits. Some stations showed the price per half-gallon.

I just want to go back to full service where they checked your oil and tire pressure and cleaned your windshields for free.

Oh, for the days of affordable stuff!

In 1965 I took a civil war history trip around Missouri on my motorcycle. One small town I went through had a gas war, and it was 12 cents! The average price at the time was 20 cents, and I had never seen it below 18 before in any gas war. I wanted to go home for my car and a few gas cans, but home was a hundred miles away.

I remember 25 cents a gallon. My first fill up.

Everything was better in the past!

The origins of the Studebaker Corporation date back to 1852, when brothers Henry and Clement Studebaker opened a blacksmith shop in South Bend, Indiana. Studebaker eventually became a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn wagons. Studebaker began selling gas-powered in 1913. The company acquired Pierce-Arrow and launched the Rockne line named for the famous University of Notre Dame football coach. Studebaker paid Rockne to give talks at auto conventions and dealership events. During the early 1930s, Studebaker dropped the Rockne brand and sold Pierce-Arrow. In the mid-1950s, Studebaker merged with Packard. By the late 1950s, the Packard brand was dropped. Studebaker created the iconic and popular bullet-nosed 1953 Starliner and 1963 Avanti sports coupe. In December 1963, Studebaker shuttered its South Bend plant, ending the production of its cars and trucks in America after 114 years in business.

Is he driving a Studebaker? Bulletgrille gives it away.

I don’t remember the low prices so much as I remember driving almost a week on a “dollars worth”.

I’m with ya,earl….my sister tells me this all the time but I tell her: I like it there,just like Earl‼️

Pardon me, but gas is a LOT cheaper today. Consider this: In 1964 gas was about $0.25/gal. Also in 1964, quarters were silver. One silver quarter bought one gallon of gas. But today, that silver quarter is worth about $7. So the price of gas hasn’t gone up… The value of your money has gone down. Gas is currently on sale at half price.

Adjusted for inflation the cost of gas has been pretty flat for the past 75 years.

Everyone wants old-time prices — no one wants old-time income.

“Amen” to that.

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift – and that’s why we call it the Present” (A A Milne).

Sadly, Earl has a much longer past than future. On the other hand, as a comic strip character, he may never die.

It was 25 cents a gallon back when I started driving. Could fill up the bug and go get a hamburger for less the 5 bucks.

True, but we still were happily warring on other nations to keep the world safe from democracy.

The Studebaker certainly is a thing of the past.

When I first started to drive I got gas for .29 cents a gallon.

My benchmark was hamburger being $1/lb

Looks like a ’51 Champion Coupe.

Back in the early 1970s, I knew a man who worked at the Texaco Refinery here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He worked where the tankers filled up. He said, “When the price of a gallon of gas is raised one cent the stations don’t profit from it. But, the refinery profits up to a million dollars.”

God, if the author can remember what a Metropolitan looks like he must be old!

So he’s the one who killed the ozone (and continues to do so with his ancient no-emission-controls car)

I think it was 55 cents per gallon when I started driving.

The Studebaker looks in great shape

Don’t know where Pickles lives but it’s definitely not New Jersey. We still don’t have to pump our own gas unlike less civilized places.

That’s why we love talking about the past. For the love, the good times, and the nostalgia.

Remember what is even better about his car?

He could actually fix it on his own. Even go to the junkyard for a replacement part and spend a pittance doing so.

Had a tail light get p!ssy on my truck two weeks ago. It’s an LED with a blind spot radar in it. Freaking manufacturer wants $2453 for a freaking new tail light.

To put that in perspective, that one tail light is supposed to cost 3.5% of what the truck cost new.

I remember my dad refusing to pay more than 29.9 for regular.

One time, and one time only, I got gas at the unbelievable price: 3 gallons for $1.00.

I remember the panic when the gas price approached $1 per gallon. Most pumps then could not handle anything over 99.9 cents/gal.

I loe this car!

I love the Studebaker!

I lived in California for 36 years and it has nearly the most expensive gas prices in the US that whole time.

I remember $0.36 a gallon premium… yeah, I’m that old.