I am still shocked to find myself excited if I find gas less than $4 a gallon these days. I remember it was 35 cents a gallon when I started driving. Of course, back then I also charged 50 cents an hour to baby sit! I was much in demand and often got 75 cents or $1 an hour (Woo Hoo!!) from the parents with difficult children. And, that still wasn't enough.
Today my neighborhood station dropped the price of gas to $3.76 and I pulled right in to top off the tank. I intended to use my debit card but it wouldn't take it. I then realized it was already turned on and just waiting for me to start pumping. It had been prepaid for $10. I got all excited that someone had done a random act of kindness or a random act of stupidity by driving off before they pumped. I paused to contemplate my good fortune. Then I heard the clicking of someone trying to get the gas to pump. It was a young girl in front of me and I could tell she was expecting gas to come out but nothing was happening. I called to her and asked, "Did you prepay?" She had. "How much?" $10. I told her something must be wrong with her pump and quickly filled my tank with the two and a half gallons. Tee Hee. Not really. I told her they had put it on the wrong pump and waited while she went in and they reset the pumps. Gotcha, didn't I?
In spite of my frequent references to age defining things in my life, I do not consider myself old. I just keep having moments where my mind will jump the track, typically in mid-sentence and I cannot think of the right word or even what the topic was at the time. It is very frustrating. Sometimes at work I get up from my desk and head toward a destination and, unless I have a page in my hand that is a clue of my intent, I will stop, look around and have to back track to figure out where I was going. I just tell myself ......
Oh, yeah. I tell myself that it is just because I have too many things on my mind.
Tags: old age, gas prices, nostalgia, Mad Men
5 comments:
OMG I thought you really did steal that Gas! you had me going for a minute there..... ha ha
I think these days we all get excited when it's below $4 a gallon. When I first started smoking you could buy a pack for a $1. Now they want close to 6.50 per pack. Glad I quit this past Oct. It would of been a delight if someone had indeed prepaid for gas in a random act of kindness. In the end you did the right thing telling the young woman what had happened. (Hugs)Indigo
I can't wait until we see gas here at less than $4.00 a gallon (I'm in Southern California); our highest was $4.69 and now I saw today a station at $4.19 so we're getting there slowly but surely
I sympathize with you with the memory issues; I'm having them too (I turned 50 this past December)
in reference to your comment in my journal, my first journal on AOL was "of menopause and minipaws" and then my second one was "a corgi in Southern California" after we moved from Montana to Southern California; then I left journaling for 15 months in October of 2006 and when I started again this past December, I just went with Koda's Corgi Tales since I figured if anyone remembered me, they would definitely remember Koda :)
yes, it is nice to reconnect; congrats on being a grandmother :)
betty
Up here in the W-B,Pa. It is $3.85 a gallon
I can so relate to memory problems, lol!
xoxo
Post a Comment