I was born in a small town in Maine and the only gas station in town had gas shortages before it was fashionable ;-) Really. They would run out of gas and then it would be Friday or Saturday before the tanker truck came back through with more.

Most everyone either worked in town (classic New England mill town) or sat on their porch watching everything that happened, so it wasn't that much of a crisis.

>Do you remember the days when most of the gas stations were owned and run locally? When you drove to the cheapest station or the station owned by a friend or a friend of a friend? When conglomerates starting buying them all up and merging and then started under-pricing the little man, those remaining complained that it was the calm before the storm. They stated in news interviews that eventually when the big guys either owned all the little guys or drove the few remaining out of business that then the slow increase in petrol would ensue due to lack of competition. Interesting. I'm not saying that has anything to do with the current price of petrol, but it is interesting to think back on it. Wonder if any of those little guys are still around?