As Time Goes By

    Occasionally, while perusing X (or its relatively more liberal cousin, Threads), I’ll come across a post which gives me pause.

    

    So, it was with the below.

 

    At first, I chalked it up to ignorance.  How in the world could this person NOT believe that, once upon a time, we were only allowed to get gasoline on “even” or “odd” days, depending on the last number of our license plates?  What an idiot, amirite? 

"That's malarkey!"

    On the other hand...

"The border is completely secure."

    Then, I stopped to consider that this happened in 1979. FORTY-SIX YEARS AGO.  Good grief, the vast majority of those who remember this actually happening now get colonoscopies or yearly prostate exams.  Or both.

I won't judge.

    This being the case, I thought a history lesson was in order. This also being Penwasser Place, of course, it will be a ridiculously brief history lesson.  I mean, after all, NOBODY wants to take the time to read some long-ass boring lecture.

    

    Believe it or not, the gas crisis of 1979 wasn’t the first gas crisis of the 1970s. 

 NOTE: Trust me, as someone who lived during the 1970s, it was an excruciating decade. If you remember Nixon, Ford, gas crunches, hostage crises, Jimmy Carter, Billy Carter, my parents’ divorce (okay, that’s just me), the Star Wars Christmas special, and disco, you know what I mean. On the other hand, I lost my virginity in 1976. So, on balance… 

Never understood why it took so long, though. 
I mean, I was such a looker. 

    There was, arguably, a worse one in 1973 that was fueled (pardon the pun) by the Arab world’s anger over US support for Israel. That one was bad. 

    I remember long-ass lines for the gas station as my father fumed (once again, pardon the pun) over the wait.

All the while as I sat, in the winter, with the windows rolled up, as he smoked like a tire fire.
  Hey...fumed. A double pun!

 

    Thankfully, I was only fifteen years old and my Schwinn didn’t need gas.  So, yeah, the only things which really bothered me were inconvenient boners.  

    Then, in 1979, Iran cut off oil shipments to the United States over its displeasure with American support of Shah Mohammed Pahlavi. 

Not Irish

    While the reasons behind that resulting gas shortages were much more complicated than that, let’s just go with that for now (remember: ain’t nobody got time for that). 

    Now, as to Threads girl’s amazement about using license plates to determine who got gas, yeah, that actually happened.  In an attempt to ration existing supplies, consumers were only allowed to gas up their vehicles based on the last number of their license plate. 

    If it ended with an even number, you could only get gas on “even” days while “odd” numbers were restricted to “odd” days.”  I know this may seem complicated to some, but that’s how things went. 

    Hey, math is hard for some people.

"Twelve out of ten historians have judged me
one of the best presidents in U.S. history.  No joke."

    NOTE:  I wonder how, in today’s world of vanity license plates, this would go down. Perhaps, if the last letter of your plate is A-M, you’d be “even.” If N-Z, “odd?” Hey, just a suggestion. 

Although, like deployment of nukes, a third term of Donald Trump,
and President Michelle Obama,
 let's hope we never have to see that.

    Although, like nukes and President Michelle Obama, let’s hope we never have to see them. Then, in November, Iran took 66 Americans hostage crisis which sparked a huge rift between our nations. 

And Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran by Vince and the Valiants 

    Luckily, like my virgin self of 1973, I really wasn’t affected all that much by the 1979 gas crisis. You see, I had left Norfolk, Virginia, in March of that year for a Mediterranean cruise with the Navy.

Ladies, you can see that I was hot. 
No seriously, this was Egypt in 1979. 
It was frikkin' hot.

    By the time I returned in September, things had pretty much returned to normal.

Of course, John Wayne was dead.
  So, that kinda put a damper on things.

    

    Until November.  Oh.  Wait.  Already covered that.  Sorry.

    

    So, you see, what may seem like only yesterday to a lot of us, more of us have little to no recollection of times which are, in reality, long since past. 

Speaking of long since past,  my last colonoscopy is long since past.