An energy crisis

When I learned how to drive, gas was twenty-nine cents a gallon. My father pulled into the gas station and a ding, ding called the attendant who would put the gas in our car, wash our windshield and check our oil. When he was done, my father gave him two dollars. That was plenty.

Soon after I got my license, there was an oil embargo. We had to wait in lines. I would go out at six in the morning to get in line for gas, behind twenty other cars. The price went up a little. More than thirty cents a gallon. We had lost the familiar twenty-nine of so many years.

Now if I drive to the station down the street I must pay more than three dollars for one gallon of gas. Nearly forty dollars to fill up my little Honda.

Back when gas was twenty-nine cents a gallon, we imagined a twenty-first century of flying cars and solar power. Not fossil fuel and SUVs. A future of justice. Not unjust aggression.

What happened? I remember the spirit of determination, the spirit of exploration, the spirit of hope.

Ask not what your country can do for you. I have a dream. One small step for man.

Now we struggle to survive.

I worry about the youth, who have never known the days of hope and dreams. The days when gas was only twenty-nine cents a gallon.