At the Gas Pump
So there we were, all in a row. Me with my white Kia sedan. A rough-skinned woman, smoking a cigarette, sat in her 1980something GMC truck while the man with her jumped out of the truck’s bed and stood looking at the gas pump. A younger guy climbing out of his low to the ground, souped up Honda was goofing around with his companions while he dug in his pocket for money.
Each of us went through the motions of pumping and paying for our gas. I went inside and handed the attendant a twenty dollar bill. It was all I could afford. As I headed back out to pump my gas, I passed by the young man who was clutching a ten dollar bill. The woman, still sitting in the truck, was having an argument with the man who was attempting to pump gas into the rust hole riddled, primer gray truck.
“Just put five dollars in! I’m not going to fill up at three dollars and seventy-seven cents! Just put five dollars in and we’ll drive down to Ingles where the gas is cheaper!”
The young guy walked back toward his pimped out yellow Honda and laughed over his shoulder. “Gas is going to be up to six dollars a gallon by Jew-lie!” he hollered at the woman.
I waited for my pump to click off. $19.78, $19.87, $19.96…….$20.00 Click.
“Shew-eeeeeeeeeee!” Laughed the woman, breaking into a smoker’s hack. “Gas gets that high, I won’t be able to afford to drive to the county office to pick up my relief check!”
We all laughed. I shook my head as I hung the trigger back in its holder. I pushed my gas tank door closed and slid back into the car. As I turned the key, the fuel gauge slowly inched its way up. A quarter of a tank for twenty dollars. I love life in George Bush’s America.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Gas went up to $3.95.9 yesterday! It was $3.87.9 before that. People are starting to get really pissed off about it too. Someone told me yesterday that they heard that gas will be $9.00 a gallon a year from now. I don’t know about that but I wouldn’t be surprised by $5.00 by the end of summer which just sucks. I wonder what the next big oil companies record profit per quarter is going to be?
May 14th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Lib - $3.95? That’s crazy! I wonder if that guy’s prediction was right? Are we going to see $6.00 by July. Our family has reached the breaking point. We cannot pay for our commitments and purchase gasoline and food. We’re making choices each pay period about what to pay, what to hold back and every month, when I think I’ve put aside enough case for necessities, I fall short. Unfuckingbelievable.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Um… it’s been over $4/gallon here for a few months now.
Regards,
Tengrain
May 14th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Ever see a hamster running in a treadmill/wheel?
That’s us.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Here in Australia, petrol is currently at $1.37 a litre. With 3.8 litres in a gallon, and at the current exchange rate, that’s equivalent to $5.50 U.S. per gallon. And last time I was in Europe, fall of 2007, petrol was 1.30 euros per litre. Yet, life goes on there. People just drive more sensibly. It also helps that other places have better mass transit than the U.S.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:50 am
I hope all the people that said aWol would be nice to have a beer with finally realize that thanks to aWol they no longer have any money left for beer!!
May 15th, 2008 at 7:08 am
Ten - I’m afraid it’s all relative, isn’t it?
quirky - Exactly
Bukko - We have terribly inadequate public transportation here in the U.S. and here in the Atlanta area, it’s dismal. Practically nonexistent. And I live in a rural area where there are precious few jobs so people have to travel to Atlanta for work. It’s a catch 22. One recent improvement is the advent of vanpool services, but there aren’t enough of them and someone who lives where I do would still have to drive about 14 miles round trip to reach the van.
Kulkuri - Once again proof that elections have consequences.