In 1969 I could buy at Mohawk Gas Station in San Pedro regular gas for my VW Bug for 17 cents a gallon. However, by 1973 to 1980 it went from 17 cents a gallon to 50 cents a gallon to over 1 dollar a gallon in 1980. This created a level of Chaos in the U.S. economically that destroyed (economically at least) the average person's peace of mind and made formerly feeling wealthier middle and poorer people into feeling more like paupers than anything else.
Even me at 16 I could drive my 1956 Ford STation wagon that I called my "Surfwagon" to the beach or deserts whenever I wanted to be cause minimum wage was around 1 dollar and hour but gas was usually 15 or 20 cents a gallon. So, I could buy about 5 or more gallons of gas if I worked for an hour even at minimum wage even at 16. However, I usually made 3 dollars an hour so I could buy 15 gallons of gas for 1 hours work then too. I almost always had a part time job of one kind or another after school from High School on so I could take off and drive 400 miles a weekend regularly which was great for a 16 to 18 years old Teenager then.
So, as you can see this was a Golden Age for being a Teenage boy then under these conditions up until around 1973 when the Arab Oil Embargo happened and changed everything forever.
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