by Edward Ellis, Special Correspondent
Gone but not forgotten by folks in my age bracket are the days when you bought fuel for your automobile at a “service station.” No sooner had your car stopped than a team of men would hustle out to check water, oil, and tire pressure at no charge, as illustrated in the nearby photo.
You did not pump your own gas in those days. No, sir. At your request, the unformed attendants filled your tank or delivered “a dollar’s worth” (about four gallons) while they busily washed the bugs and road grime off your windshield.
Gulf, Shell, Esso, Pure Oil, Sinclair, City Service, and Texaco were popular service stations around New Bern, but occasionally in the 1950s and 1960s, they went a little bit crazy. A dealer on one corner would lower the price on his sign by a penny or two. Then the guy on the opposite corner would drop his asking price a couple more cents. Then the first guy would go lower and, maybe, a third dealer, seeing his customers siphoned off would jump into the race to the bottom … and soon word would spread of a gas war!
Calls from pay phones would ring hardwired home landline phones, and the news spread like lightning during a summer thunderstorm. We recall a few times when the prices went down to a level that covered only the federal and state taxes, something like 11 or 12 cents a gallon. People would hurry out to fill their tanks whether they needed filling or not. Because gas wars did not last long. Usually, just a day or two. It was fun while it lasted.
By the 1970s, things changed. Not only were there “self-serve” gas pumps but, due to international politics, there were gas shortages too. Frequently, long lines of cars waiting for fuel. Sometimes no gas at all. The prices went up and up.
We remember a lady yelling at the pumps one day. “Thirty-nine cents a gallon!” she shrieked. “Have they lost their minds!”