Get ready for return of the bad '70s

[Ono]

Get ready for return of the bad '70s


Get ready for return of the bad '70s
James Breiner

In 1973 we saw human behavior at its worst. The Arab oil embargo created panic. People feared that they wouldn't be able to get their next gallon of gasoline, so they did what people do: They lined up at gasoline stations to get theirs.

Everyone was topping off their tanks. Fistfights broke out when people felt others had cut into the line. People with license plates ending in even numbers were supposed to go to the gas station only on even-numbered days, and the same with odd numbers. Highway speed limits were reduced to 55 mph everywhere from 75 and 70 in order to conserve fuel.

We were living in New England, where many people relied on fuel oil to heat their homes. The previous tenant in a house we rented had scrounged up a couple of 50-gallon drums and had his supplier fill them with the precious fuel oil to ensure that he wouldn't run out that winter. That behavior, multiplied a few hundred thousand times, worsened the shortage.

People started using their long-neglected fireplaces and burned everything from wood to coal, causing all kinds of problems with ventilation and fire safety. There was a run on firewood. Enterprising wood-suppliers jacked up the price and stacked their wood in creative ways so that more air could fill out a cord.

The price of gasoline was 36 cents a gallon, or, about $1.64 in today's dollars.

For a while, we changed our behavior. We bought smaller European and Japanese cars. Gas-guzzling American-made land cruisers declined in popularity.

Changes in tax laws encouraged people to install energy-saving devices in their homes. Some of these devices may actually have worked, but a lot of them were simply created to feed an enormous, insatiable demand.

A friend of mine had a geothermal system installed in his house that used well water to assist in cooling and heating his home. He took a $7,000 tax credit, which was a lot of money in the 1970s. If he hadn't had the tax credit, it would have taken him years to amortize the investment with reduced energy consumption.

The cost of energy became a factor in every business decision, from the types of windows installed in office buildings to the type of HVAC plant installed in a public building (it was a question of whether fuel oil, natural gas or electricity was the cheapest and most efficient way to get the job done).

After a while, though, people forgot. They built bigger houses farther and farther from where they worked, went to school and shopped. When was the last time you heard someone discuss the energy bills of a home they were thinking about buying? In the 1970s, this was on everyone's mind.

Compared with 30 years ago, people really aren't feeling the pain of higher fuel prices. In the early 1970s, inflation was approaching double-digits every year. So with little pain, they see no reason to change.

Gasoline prices are two and three times higher today in Europe than they are here. The news in the United Kingdom is that the price in Scotland passed 1 pound per litre over the weekend, or about $6.60 a gallon. In Italy and France, the price is about $5.50 a gallon.

Meanwhile, we are living in a fool's paradise. Big automobiles made a comeback in the new form that we now see everywhere.

If you take a drive down the country roads in northern Baltimore County, you will drive past field and forest and suddenly an island of enormous homes will appear. The people who live here are not farmers and factory workers. They are probably commuters.

It just isn't costing them that much, relatively speaking, to fuel their vehicles and homes.

No one has turned off the spigot yet. We have an abundance of space, relatively cheap land and relatively cheap fuel. So we see no reason to change.

I am not anxious to revisit the bad old 1970s.

But I fear what will happen when someone turns off the spigot.

http://washington.bizjournals.com/w...tml?t=printable

[exitwound]

sounds like fun to me....

[Ono]

I remember that odd and even stuff and waiting 3 1/2 hours to fill the tank.

[Laughing Jim]

Those were bad times.

I remember.

Disco began.

[Ono]

disco..........

[diamondgypsy]

I loved the '70's and the late '60's. I graduated from high school in the early '70's (yes, i am old) and well - I had a ball! I wasn't into drugs (never have been, never will be) but - the times were great! The clothes were fabulous and I wore them all - from micro-minis to bellbottoms. The music was some of the best that has ever came out of MoTown, etc. Janis Joplin and Jim Croce and Jimi Hendrix, as well as Bob Dylan - need I say more? And - WOODSTOCK!! Oh, yeah!

The only thing I despised was - The Vietnam War.

The '70's (and late '60's) - great times for me!!!!

Hah! Sweet Fun!

[GBA]

Originally Posted by Ono

I remember that odd and even stuff and waiting 3 1/2 hours to fill the tank.

I don't remember that, I was on a bike. :razz:



:D

[exitwound]

Originally Posted by GodBlessAmerica

I don't remember that, I was on a bike. :razz:



:D

0WN3D!!!