‘Pump Shock’ May Electrify Drivers

Bought gas lately?

I’ll admit I’m not very observant. I tool around, air conditioner humming, B.B. King on my tape deck.

When my car dash warning light blinks, I whip into the gas station, pump, give the guy a $20, get change, and head out.

Whooooaaaa!

Recently, after pumping a tank, I went inside the fast-service place to pay. I stood in line behind people buying Po-Boy sandwiches, soda pop, juice, beer, chips, milk, cereal, dog food, George Jones cassettes, cigarette lighters which, when you hold them upside down, the lady’s clothes come off (science gives us another useful miracle!), panty hose, roasted chicken … hey, is anybody here buying gas?

Finally I got to the guy.

Pump 7, I said, handing him a $20 bill.

Silence. He still had his hand out.

“Bit short, sir,” he said.

How much?

“Oh, about $7.”

Wowza!

I went into “pump shock.” I paid $1.50 or so for the same gas which cost me $1.17 per gallon last time.

I’ve started paying closer attention to the price of gas. Oil company spokesmen explain the latest price surge with something about refinery conversion from heating oil production to … blah, blah, blah.

Remember 1974? We lined up for gas like it was liquid gold. We waited hours, wrapped around the block. New underground businesses sprung up: black-market gas, like it was World War II, kids made money volunteering to wait in line with the car if parents would pay extortionary fees.

Fossil fuel leapt past $1 per gallon. It never receded below a buck again (except sometimes in south Georgia).

I know something about gas.

My father owned a Standard Oil service station in the early 1950s at Ellinor Village in Ormond Beach. We won plaques as the company’s largest volume gallonage sales outlet in Florida.

I was a kid on our team of “attendants.” Matching uniforms, short haircuts and a smile. Pump your gas, wipe your windshield, brush out your car with a whisk broom, check your oil, water and tires, and send you on your merry way with gas at 25 cents per gallon.

That was then, this is now.

Don’t blame the poor guy who owns the station. He’s probably making around two or three cents per gallon. Actually, he’s hoping you’ll get your car serviced there, or buy orange juice and cigarettes, as much as gasoline.

Blame Fatcat Oil Companies. It’s like a sour love affair, can’t live with or without them.

But, dawning on the techno horizon is a vehicle which may make gas companies gulp.

General Motors announced early this month that by fall it will introduce for sale: ELECTRIC CARS!

! The EV1 will be available at Saturn retailers in Southern California and Arizona.

The EV1 is stylish and quiet. It has no engine, transmission, cylinder heads, valve trains, fuel injectors, spark plugs, pistons, oil filters, oil, exhaust, timing chains, starters, fuel tanks or recommended fuel.

Plug it in at home, recharge it, and go.

This isn’t new.

At the turn of the last century 40 percent of all American automobiles were steam-powered, 22 percent used gasoline and 38 percent used electricity.

Slow? On March 11, 1994, the prototype EV1 hit 183 mph on a test track in Texas.

Sure there’ll be bugs to work out with electric cars.

But, hey, aren’t millions of Ford gas-powered cars and trucks being recalled even as I write because they may erupt in fire? Talk about bugs, does anyone remember the Edsel?

OK. I love cars, but I don’t like oil companies playing games with my pocketbook, which has been happening, like, forever.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see one of those electric cars. Speed with no sound or gas. Hummmmm.

For more information call 1-800-25ELECTRIC. They’ll tell you all about it.

xxxx