Gasoline and trips of the past

The Easter holiday is over and the end of school looms on the horizon. Both are heavy travel times. A new game on the block is guessing how much the price of a gallon of gas will go up on a daily basis.
On a day trip recently, we came upon this old gas pump with really old prices on it. The top strip of squares can only register up to $9.99, so I assume that’s what it cost for a full tank. Go figure. Today that would get you a little over 2, maybe 2 ½ gallons of gas.
I realize that things change and progress costs money. My grandma told me that during the war years, the Heymann store in Lafayette ran “pennies on the dollar sales” and all of the women in our neighborhood gathered up all the good tires they had and all of the gas ration tickets, put both tires and gas in one car, then piled into that car and off they went.
I faintly remember going once or twice and when the ladies came home, they started sewing with the material they had purchased. Many an Easter dress was made with Heymann material.
That, and from a country store somewhere between here and Ville Platte called “Louisa’s”. It was located out in the middle of nowhere and was set up in this little woman’s home.
I recall material stacked almost to the ceiling and spending a good portion of a day watching the old ladies sort through stack after stack before they made a decision.
Times have indeed changed. I am now one of the “old women”.

Georgie Manuel.
April 27, 2014.