Guilty, nostalgic pleasures.

[gridlore]

Channel surfing last night, I happened across one of my favorite movies of all time, Smokey and the Bandit. Great, mindless fun with Burt Reynolds.

But what really caught my attention was the gas prices we see along the way. Unleaded, 38 cents a gallon. Diesel, 49 cents a gallon. Amazing.

Comments

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

People were up in arms when gas first broke the psychological barrier of $1 per gallon.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

In my neighbourhood (Sydney, Australia), it's about $1.30 per litre. Even filling the bike is starting to get expensive.

[kshandra]

I do my best to keep remembering that the prices per gallon we're seeing in the US have been the per-liter prices overseas for years, now. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, that $1.30/litre price is the Australian urban rate. Head into the outback, and it's closer to $2/litre (when you can get fuel at all; NT maps commonly have icons on them showing what types of fuel are available where, including "emergency fuel only" spots).

It's not uncommon for it to take a couple of hundred dollars to fill the tank on a large 4WD.

[dalen-talas.livejournal.com]

Blame the automobile manufacturing corporations for purposefully blocking the development of alternatively-fueled vehicles. It's a conspiracy, I tell you!

[murbin.livejournal.com]

Another movie that I noticed this in was "Witness."
Great movie, at least in MHO.

Watching it recently pointed out two things that really nailed it being a few decades out of date were, the gas prices, and the use of pay phones.