{"id":8249,"date":"2025-11-30T10:10:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T15:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=8249"},"modified":"2025-11-30T10:10:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T15:10:37","slug":"gas-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2025\/11\/30\/gas-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Gas War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So here\u2019s a \u201cSunday Story\u201d \u2013 about gas prices and the \u201cold days\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bubble<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Woo Hoo!! Here in the \u201cAmazon Bubble\u201d of high gas prices, I \u201cscored\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As I drove by the local United Dairy Farmer, there it was on the price list:\u00a0\u00a0Regular – $2.12!!\u00a0\u00a0Across the street at the Duke and Duchess\/BP Station, it was $2.17.\u00a0\u00a0I felt like partying like it was 1999, or at least, 2007! (Sure, we all vaguely remember Covid prices lower, but where was there to go during Covid??).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s doubly odd that gas prices are so low in Pataskala.  As I\u2019ve whined about before, we are in the \u201cAmazon Bubble\u201d.  Lined up, seven days a week, are the little blue Amazon vans, filling up on Pataskala gas.  And, if local gas prices really are a product of good old micro-economics, simple supply and demand, then the demand at the gas stations in this \u201cbubble\u201d is always high, and drives prices up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normally our local stations around the corner run about $0.30 higher than gas stations just a few miles away.   All those little blue vans, line up right here.  In fact, drive ten miles to the \u201cFlying J\u201d in Kirkersville, even though it\u2019s located on I-70, and you might save $0.40 or even $0.50 a gallon.  So $2.12 meant it was time to line up the cars, and \u201cfill-er-up\u201d. (That\u2019s an old phrase from the era when there were actually gas \u201cattendants\u201d, who filled up your tank, checked the oil, and cleaned the windshields.  Let AI try to do that!!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whiplash<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And \u201cscore\u201d twice \u2013 my UDF loyalty card got me another $0.03 off – $2.09!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m even more sensitive to gas prices than usual this month.  Jenn and I are \u201cworking\u201d on recovering a dog in New Concord, a small village in Eastern Ohio. (It boasts of Muskingum University, John Glenn High School, and the boyhood home of Astronaut and Senator John Glenn).  It\u2019s about fifty miles away, and we\u2019ve been \u201ccommuting\u201d to a trap there several days a week for almost a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we first hand get to see gas prices rise and fall.  On Thanksgiving morning about 3 am, we paid almost $3.00 a gallon for gas at the local Sheetz Station.  There\u2019s a variety of gas prices between home and New Concord, usually cheaper at the Love\u2019s truck stop in Zanesville than the Love\u2019s just down the street in Etna, Flying J almost always the lowest.  Except for the Fuel Mart in New Concord, the nearest restroom to the trap.  Ninety percent of the time, it\u2019s the cheapest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But $2.09 a gallon in \u201cdowntown\u201d Pataskala.  What\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fury III<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m reminded of when I first got my driver\u2019s license, in 1972 back in Cincinnati.  I was driving a \u201cboat\u201d, the used car I bought from my cousin Brendan for $200.  It was a 1969 Plymouth Fury III, and it was huge, with two giant bench seats; easy to put eight kids in the car.  And, since it was modeled off of the \u201cpolice special\u201d of the time, it could fly.  It was a great first car, and big enough to protect a novice driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Morgan, our neighbor and a Proctor and Gamble engineer, taught me how to replace the head gaskets and generally keep the \u201cFury\u201d running.  It was a big engine in a big car with a ton of mileage on it.  But it worked for the first few years of my driving career, and served as a  great way to learn \u201chow to turn a wrench\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BC Glasses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And gas mileage \u2013 well \u2013 who cared?\u00a0\u00a0Gas prices were $0.25 a gallon.\u00a0\u00a0And when there were \u201cgas wars\u201d, stations across the street fighting for business, the price might dip down to $0.18 a gallon.\u00a0\u00a0A fill-up cost $5.00.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, gas prices got so low that gas stations were giving stuff away to get your business.\u00a0\u00a0The Marathon Station down on Springfield Pike in Woodlawn, gave away a \u201cBC Glass\u201d (after the BC cartoon) with each fill-up.\u00a0\u00a0When I finally got my first apartment in 1978, almost all of my glassware had the characters from \u201cBC\u201d on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So is there a gas war going on here in Pataskala?  Maybe just on the corner of Broad and Vine.  Less than a mile away at Kroger, gas is still $2.47.  But don\u2019t worry, Jenn and I will get one more chance to get cheap gas before the \u201cwar\u201d ends.  We got home from New Concord at 3 am last night, and we\u2019re headed back there tonight.  Sammy (that\u2019s the dog) has to eat sometime \u2013 hopefully somewhere in the dark of  New Concord tonight in our specially designed panel trap.  So we\u2019ll need to fill-er-up again, at least one more time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

2021<\/h4>\n\n\n\n