[joewp]

I had just gotten my license in 1973, just a few months before the Arab oil embargo and experienced first-hand what an energy crisis is. The things I saw and did back then are part of what makes me a doomer about a permanent oil supply reduction. I see many optimists here who think we'll all work together and sing Cum By Ya while building wind farms with our ethanol powered machinery, and I don't think those people were around back then to see what really happens when addicts are denied their fix.

So I'm just curious, were you aware of what was going on in the world back in the seventies oil shocks? By "aware" I mean at least somewhat near driving age, at least enough to notice how much more your mother or father was paying for gas and maybe even notice the anger and frustration they and other drivers were feeling waiting on long lines for what used to be easily and quickly available or are you a mere whippersnapper who thinks rap is "new" music?

Were you aware during the 1973/1979 oil shocks? Poll ended at 04 May 2007, 21:29
Yes, I was well aware 15 29%
I was marginally aware in 73 and driving by '79 7 14%
I was marginally aware in 79 7 14%
I was barely a twinkle in Dad's eye before Reagan took office 17 33%
I barely remember gas under two dollars a gallon 5 10%
Total votes : 51

[TT]

My first child was born in 1973. I was very aware.

I was aware that we could only buy petrol every second day and then only a certain amount. I was aware that service stations ran out of petrol and we couldn't get any. I was aware that our local supermarket ran out of food and it took many days before it was restocked.

When you have seen an empty supermarket due to a lack of oil it changes your outlook on life somewhat. We who live in our paved suburbs are unable to provide for ourselves.

My experiences in the '70s are propably why I am a doomer today.

[thylacine]

Although I was only 14 in 1979, I clearly remember TV and newspaper articles stating that oil would start running out in about the year 2000. Thirtyish years on and it's a prediction that was not too wide of the mark really. It was memories of those predictions and curiosity about how accurate they were that set me off to see what the state of play was with the oil industry in the 21st century.

So all this current PO awareness is, in part, just the resurfacing of ideas that have lain dormant for the last few decades. "Those that forget history are bound to repeat it".

[MonteQuest]

I was 22 in 1973.

I have posted about how things were in this thread.

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic27480-0-asc-0.html

And this one:

Hoarding Gas and Oil

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', 'D')uring the 1973-74 oil embargo, gas prices doubled within days. Gas rationing resulted in hoarding, and Western economies accustomed to cheap oil sputtered into recession. Rationing of gasoline forced many motorists to wait hours in long lines at gas stations to obtain just a few gallons. Drivers of vehicles with license plates having an odd number as the last digit were allowed to purchase gasoline for their cars only on odd-numbered days of the month, while drivers of vehicles with even-numbered license plates were allowed to purchase fuel only on even-numbered days. People rented their license plates for the day if they had gas and others didn’t.

People slept in their cars overnight to be in the front of the line. You couldn’t buy a locking gas cap, gas can, or siphon device to save your ass. People punched holes in your gas tank with a chisel to get around the locking cap. Fist fights broke out at the pump, tempers flared, guns were drawn; people got hurt.

There was some black market gasoline hoarding. Some people hoarded it for their own use. You would often see two or more 5 gallon Jerry-cans strapped to the bumper of cars or in the backseat. The “approved only” gas containers grew out of this time, as people would fill up milk jugs or glass bottles at the pump. There were lots of Car-B-que's. It wasn’t about the price of gas; it was about getting any at all.

[Dvanharn]

I remained in the San Francisco Bay Area after leaving the Navy in 1966, and soon began to attend night school at a local 2-year community college while working a full-time day job. By 1967, I was active in the anti-Viet-Nam War movement, and becoming aware of the scale of environmental pollution and resource depletion going on in the world. When the gas crisis hit in October of 1973, I was finishing up my lower division work and planning on transferring in to U.C. Berkeley as a Junior. I was married at the time, working a swing shift laboratory job and lived only a few miles from campus. I either rode my bicycle or drove my old Volvo to school and work. With full-time work and full-time school, and I literally didn't drive much, and the gas crisis didn't leave much of a personal mpression as details, but did contribute significantly to my awareness of resource limits.

I completed the coursework to earn a multidisciplinary B.S. Degree in Conservation of Natural Resources at Berkeley in June of 1976. I went to work in sales in solar heating after graduating, but I was not successful in those crazy early days of solar. Many companies and many people got in and shortly therafter, out, of solar heating. Many poor products and systems were sold in those days, but there were some good ones, including Heliodyne of Richmond, California, now one of the oldest solar heating manufacturers in the country.

The memories of the oil crisis faded for most people, and the green revolution prevented the global famines and starvation that Paul Ehrlich and others had predicted. However, as the years went by, I kept an eye on resource and pollution issues, and unlike most of the people I worked with in technical sales in the Carter and Reagan Years, supported the Sierra Club and other environmental and conservation organizations. I discovered Jay Hanson's www.dieoff.org website in 1999, and realized that civilization's temporary reprieve from a meltdown was coming to an end - probably within the next couple of decades.

I live in the same town as the Postcarbon Institute's founder, Julian Darley, one town away from Richard Heinberg and Matt Savinar, and and not too far from Jason Bradford of the Willits, California re-localization organization (WELL). I have met them all, and follow their work and writings. I am worried that the next crisis will make the 1970's like child's play, and feel powerless to do anything to make a better future for my family and grandchildren. It's a damned frustrating feeling to see what's coming, and be unable to convince your loved ones that technical ingenuity and the miracle of capitalism are quite unlikely to bail us out this time. America did not learn the lessons of either Viet-Nam or the 1970's energy crises, and the current situation is painful to watch.

[frankthetank]

Just a baby. I talk to my mom about it sometimes, and she tells me about her experiences, although i don't think she or my father understood where it would lead us. I'll have to ask what my dad's thoughts were (he died back in the early 90's). Sometimes i wish i could have grown up in the muscle car days, when everything seemed so much simplier.

[The_Toecutter]

I wasn't even swimming around in my daddy's nutsack at that time.

Not born until 85.

[Wednesday]

I was a small child but I remember gas lines.

If your license plate was even numbered you could buy gas on even numbered days, if it was odd, you were allowed to buy it on odd numbered days.

Strange the things we remember.

I also remember being taught about conservation and ecology in grade school, but by the time I got to high school it was never mentioned.

[careinke]

I was attending Washington State University. Getting home on vacation was a real pain because it took more than a tank of gas. The solution was to take the Greyhound. That way you did not get stuck in the middle of no where with no gas.

Cliff (Start a revolution, grow a garden)

[peaker_2005]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Toecutter', 'I') wasn't even swimming around in my daddy's nutsack at that time.

Not born until 85.

[Pablo2079]

I was 11 in '79. I remember thinking that I wouldn't ever drive because either:

a) We'd have had WWIII

or

b) We'd have run out of oil.

I remember making gas masks using activated carbon and filter floss from my aquarium supplies. I used to stash supplies in various locations.

Very odd for 11. LOL

[username]

Born in '84, but I heard enough stories about the gas shortages of the 70's to put two and two together. I wasn't fully aware of how soon things could go downhill until about 2-3 years ago.

[Hawkcreek]

--

[Kingcoal]

I remember watching the gas lines on TV. People in California were shooting each other over filling up. We actually had a SHORTAGE back then. Gas stations would put signs out saying "NO GAS." I lived in a close suburb of Philly. My dad took the train to work every day, so he wasn't affected very much. In fact, we were always able to fill up. Back then, most cars were doing about 10 miles/gal.

Then Reagan came along and fixed everything. Sometime around 1983 or so, things started turning around. Gas got cheap and the economy started to boom again. Yeah Reagan, boo Carter! Ever since then I've been waiting for the inevitable apocalypse. Hasn't come yet.

We had a different economy back then. We used to make stuff and export. Those industries were very sensitive to commodity prices and whatnot.

[MD]

I had just started driving and through that particular crisis became very interested in energy efficiency and alternatives.

I was aware. Then for a long time I was not.

[oowolf]

I arrived at my new Montana mountain home in early September 1973. I drove from Santa Paula, California in a 1958 Chevy 3/4 ton truck listening to Loudon Wainwright III's "Dead Skunk" and the new Bob Dylan soundtrack to "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" on my 8 track player. About a month later the embargo began and I knew I'd done the right thing. I was 24.

[dinopello]

I was 6 in '73. I do remember sometime in the 70's seeing pictures in the paper of gas a station with 99.99 cents per gallon. I remember my Dad getting rid of the big car (Impala?) and getting a VW bug. Later, we got a Dodge Omni when it first came out (78?)so we could have an 'American' car again. Now, he's back to an Impala.

[lawnchair]

Not old enough to remember 79 very well.

In the first crunch my father drove an Opel Kadett. 1.5L - 75hp - nearly 40mpg? People were regularly making him healthy cash offers for it.

[whatpeak]

Still in high school, but I was aware of OPEC by '73. By coincidence a history teacher assigned OPEC as the subject of individual study. It was ironic to have fuel shortages in Torrance because there were so many refineries nearby. Worked as a petroleum transfer engineer during the 70s and remember the lines.

[pea-jay]

I was born between both events. I wasnt around for the first or aware of the second. You guys are my link to the past.