Gas

I understand from those I know in Asheville that there is almost no gas to be had. When news goes out that a station is getting some, lines form early in the morning with miles of cars.

Anybody out there remember waiting in line for gas in the '70's? I had this old brown Chevy Impala that looked like a cop car. Not a good thing to drive in those days when people were kind of paranoid all the time, but it was free, so I didn't complain.

One morning, my boyfriend (now husband) and I got up early to get in line for a fill-up. He was in front of me in his green Dodge van. Unbeknownst to me, I was idling in automatic choke, and when I put the car into drive to move forward a foot it went crashing into the van which threw it back into the car behind me, which sent me out into the street and flying through the intersection of Wake Forest Road and Hardimont Road through a red light where I did a 360 turn. I was braking, putting the car into park (!), nothing worked until I stalled out in the middle of the road. Even back then Wake Forest Road was a busy, traffic filled street and I was very vulnerable sitting in that smoking car.

My husband's first comment when he got out of the car and walked over to where I was sitting stunned in the driver's seat was, "Gosh, were you that pissed about waiting in line?"

I hate to see a repeat of those days of waiting in line for gas. It was an unstable time. Just like now.