Remember when

remember when a gallon of gas was under $1 in California in the 90s?
I remember in high school i drove a 67 mustang and i pumped gas for 89 cents a gallon.

 

That 89 cent California gas was likely the exact same vintage as I pumped for 29 cents here. I wanted a '67 Mustang Fastback so bad I could taste it... but couldn't afford it.

 

When I was about 13 in 1982, living in Northern California, Mustangs like this one were just 12-15 year old used cars, and they were all over the place. $2000 would have gotten you a really nice one. Project cars were $800 or so. I spent hours pouring through JC Whitney catalogs dreaming of the things I was going to add to mine. I started saving up but life changed... parents got divorced, dad and I moved back east, and priorities were all reset.

 

When I was dying to have one the 67's were only about 3-5 years old. I don't recall how much they were selling for, but it was out of an 18-year-old's price range.
Sometime in late 1970 or early 1971 I ended up buying a 1967 Galaxie 500 for $800. It was exactly like this one (2-door, same colors) but this pic is not mine.

 

Funny i was just talking to my 14 year old son about how much cars were back then. For example I been into old school japanese cars. Had a couple of 240z's, S13, S14 and couple of old corollas. I never paid more than $700 per car back then as project cars... Now those exact same cars in pretty bad shape are a 5k+ now a days. Wish i would of kept at least one of those cars.

 

Aye.
Big Block Chevelles were going for 1500-2500.
If I only had a Wayback Machine.

 

Now and then someone would pull up to the pump and say "gimme 5 Regular".
You then ask, "Dollars or Gallons?"

 

You guys remember fuelman

 

Doing it in with a BB-gun was next anyway. I mean that always happened in my neighborhood.
I'm pretty sure that every GI Joe around had a hole or three in him. The models got the gun and firecrackers. You skipped the firecracker by using the can of air.

(For the record, the balloon power would be equivalent to rocket propulsion rather than jet.)

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1950s-vintage-newell-ping-pong-ball-134770044

One of my favorite toys growing up.

Toy pump gun that shot ping pong balls.

Below was the exact gun that I had ... It loaded like a regular pump and would fire as fast as pumped.

And the ping-pong balls would not damage anything (for the most part) lol

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-newell-ping-pong-toy-1995174212

 

Those were great. I used to shoot my older sister on the ass when she wasn't looking, then run for my life.

 

I learned to count change when I became a paperboy at age 13. And I made change for my customers with this.




Edit:. No, I never throw anything away.

 

I paid $1200 for my '69 SS 396 Chevelle in 1972.

I need that Wayback Machine too.

 

Just think, in 40 years people will say “I only paid $50k for my 2022 Tacoma brand new”.

 

How relaxing would it be to have an old 240z, first gen Celica or similar early Japanese car to tinker with, right? Easy to work on, relatively inexpensive parts, reliable to zip around with, small enough to stay out of it's own way in the garage? But you can't find anything reasonably priced unless it's rusted beyond saving.

Now might be the time to snap up an unmolested early Miata, but even those are getting harder to find and prices are creeping up. And sadly at 6'2" they just don't fit me.

 

yes something thats super unique about old school japanese cars.
I remember coupes were the only body type that people wanted back then... like the datsun 510 or people only wanted AE86 GTS corollas. Now even 510s 4 door, wagons, sr5 corollas and 2+2 280z's are ridicously pricey. Crazy how the market has gone up in the automotive world.

 

Round here these days some pay damn near that for a 3-4 year old truck with 40-50K miles.

 

my son still has one

 

Yes