Clif Knight 

Never in the nearly 70 years of driving my own car did I imagine paying $4 a gallon for gas to keep it running.  

I paid the price plus 10 cents more because I had no choice. I had to go to Huntsville to see a doctor; my walking ability is limited by a bum leg with an artificial hip joint.  

I suppose I should consider myself fortunate, however; as far as Geanell and I are concerned, we both are retired, our children and grandchildren are gainfully employed and raising families of their own, and we’re used to getting by on a fixed income, with a small adjustment for inflation.  

We are thankful we don’t have to foot the upkeep for driving an automobile or pickup to and from school and work at a distant location five days a week.  

We see little or no hope for the cost of fuel, both for home heating and motor vehicles, making a turnaround in the near future. The move to release l00,000 barrels of oil per day from national reserves over the next few months might reduce the cost to consumers by a few cents per gallon, but it will not restore the nation’s ability to regain self-sufficient status of the pre-2020 era.  

The price could reach $10 per gallon before the nation achieves all-electric. 

I can remember when you could buy a gallon of kerosene from the rolling store for less than a gallon of gasoline. In 1950 we met the peddler with an empty one-gallon kerosene can, and he filled it for a quarter. Our mother used kerosene to start fires in her wood cook stove and to treat fresh cuts and stab wounds on the hands and feet of four brothers and me. 

Two years later, I was part owner and driver of a 1931 Ford Coupe. For a quarter’s worth of gas, we could drive it from Lineville to Anniston and back on a Sunday afternoon – and drive it from Barfield to Lineville High School and back the next week for another’s worth.  

I traded for a 1948 Plymouth Coupe as high school graduate and worked a 24-7 shift at a station on the highway. A gas war was raging on that highway at the time. We marked down a gallon of regular gas to12 cents. We also pumped the gas and washed the windshield at no cost.