Word: station
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...immovable object is the empty service station. Why it may be empty is a complicated question, but the fact is inescapable: gas stations just do not have as much fuel to sell as they did a year ago. Each month, oil companies are allotting their station chains anywhere from 5% to 20% less gas than in the same month of 1978. Every month, many stations are drained early, and in the last week of the month they start closing early in the evening, or on weekends, or until they get the next shipment. Come Memorial Day and the start...
...only on odd-numbered days, with even numbers only on even-numbered days. The plan will do nothing to increase supplies, or even to reduce consumption. It is aimed solely at reducing panic buying, and in its first few days, it failed to do even that. Most station attendants ignored an order to sell gas only to drivers whose tanks were less than half full...
Across the nation gas stations are closing on Sunday or shortening weekday hours to conserve supplies so that they will have a few drops left to sell at the end of the month. In the Pittsburgh area, some 60% of all stations now close on Sunday; in Madison, N.J., some stations are selling gas from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., closing until 4 p.m., then reopening till 7 p.m. To date, however, most drivers have simply grumbled and driven a bit farther to find an open station...
There are ominous rumblings that the effects of the gas shortage may get much more troublesome. Gas lines have started to appear in Rhode Island, though they are short (only 15 cars or so) by California standards. Says Peter Montaquila, who owns an Arco station in Providence: "I'm getting lines between 7:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. A lot of the cars are driven by housewives gassing up for their husbands. Topping off has started; we're selling $2 and $3 amounts." Some Rhode Island dealers are apprehensively distributing bumper stickers (pompously worded PRIDE, HONESTY AND SERVICE...
...station closings bring out a suspicious streak in many drivers. Across the country, large numbers of motorists believe that the shortage has been contrived by the oil companies and the Government to push up prices. Says John Langille, a Boston salesman who keeps topping off the tanks of his two cars: "It's the same as in '73. As soon as gas goes to $1.20 a gallon we'll have all we want...