Gas Lines: The Crisis of 1973

The world lined up to buy gas in 1973…and it was ugly!

So bye, bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry

And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye

Singin' this'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die

Don McLean wrote and released the song in 1971.  Much of it was biographical, as a reflection of what was happening in America during the 1960s with the assassinations of the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Jr, and the Vietnam War. 

For McLean, it started with what he called the end of the happy 50s, the tragic plane crash of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JD “the Big Bopper” Richardson in February of 1959. The day the music died.

And then the gas supply dried up…

There were two separate oil crises in the 1970s:

• 1973 with a war in the middle east  

• 1979 with the Iranian revolution

North Americans from coast to coast faced persistent gas shortages as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, disrupted oil supplies.

Here’s what it looked like in the first one in 1973:

• Drivers would go to stations before dawn or late at night, hoping to avoid the lines.

• Odd-even rationing was introduced — meaning that if the last digit on your license plate was odd, you could get gas only on odd-numbered days. 

• Some gas stations took to posting flags — green if they had gas, yellow if rationing was in effect and red if they were out of gas.

• To conserve gas, the maximum speed limit was cut to 55 miles per hour. 

• To cut energy consumption in the broader economy, daylight saving time was introduced year-round at the beginning of 1974, facing criticism from parents whose kids had to go to school before sunrise in the winter months.

And we were driving big vehicles with big engines and poor fuel economy that were not particularly well made.

We felt the pain in our wallets at the gas pumps.

Not surprisingly Auto sales were hurt by the embargo as the price of gasoline soared. The industry never recovered!

A quick sidebar:  In the early 1970s GM, Ford and Chrysler had nearly 83% of the new car industry.  Yes, you heard that right…The ‘Imports’ sold only 17% of the all the cars sold!  

Fast forward 10 years and the total share was down to 71% as the Japanese automakers saw their smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles soar in popularity.

I stopped driving North American cars when I sold my 1976 Chevrolet Caprice Classic and replaced it with a Mazda.  That Chevrolet had a massively fuel inefficient 350 cubic inch V8 engine, bench seats in the front and an AM/FM radio!  I’ve never gone back!

Musicians responded to the crisis.  This novelty classic from Brent Burns was directly aimed at OPEC, ‘Cheaper food or no more food’:

If they don't lower the gas. We're gonna lower the boom, Quit shipping all that wheat and corn, forget the Golden Rule. 

If they don't lower the price of crude we're gonna cut off the food And in about a week they'll sing a different tune.

Yikes!

And 6 years later before we had the opportunity to fully recover, we did it all over again…

Until next time…

Watergate: A Redemption Story

Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience bother you? 

Tell the truth’

Those lyrics from ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd in response to Neil Young’s Southern Man. Ahhh…the battle of the bands!

Watergate broke in 1972 during Richard Nixon’s second term as president.  The break in occurred at the Democratic National Headquarters offices in the Watergate Hotel in Washington. It was and is an example of dirty politics:  an attempt to get information of the election campaign plans of the Democratic party through any means possible…even if illegal.

Watergate captured our attention.  I was 14 years old at the time and it was a topic of discussion in at least one class at high school.  

And it was impossible to escape news coverage.  

I wind you back to the media landscape in 1972:

• 3 US TV networks dominated the market
• Nightly newscasts at 6 pm were ‘must see TV’...Walter Cronkite anyone?
• 2 networks in Canada
• 2 daily newspapers, the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail
• Local radio

Watergate dominated the news in all media, especially TV.  It ushered in new phrases including ‘Deep Throat’ a particularly memorable one in reference to the source that gave the reporters much inside information.

‘Tricky Dick’ was another that was applied to President Richard Nixon…and it stuck for the rest of his life.

Along with probably his most memorable utterance, ‘I am not a crook’.

After the fact, the movie ‘All the President’s Men’ told the incredible story of the lies, duplicity and tactics that the President and ‘all his men’ told to defend themselves.

Watergate was also a two part story.  The first was the break in itself which was illegal.

The second part and the more interesting one was the ‘Coverup’ that escalated right up to the President himself in the process swallowing up everybody in the executive branch of his Presidency.  

A sidebar:  Richard Nixon was a Republican.  I can’t help but note with much interest that US politics since 2016 have taken place at the hands of Republicans.  But I digress…  

But the story that caught my interest concerned one of the Watergate conspirators, John Dean, chief counsel for President Nixon from 1970 until he was fired by in April 1973. 

He was involved in early strategy sessions discussing plans to bug the Democratic headquarters and later to photograph documents.

After the break in occurred and the coverup was in full swing, he was intimately involved in advising the President and team on defensive strategies.

But he smelled a rat!  And he was right.  He was being set up as a scapegoat for the entire affair and despite his deep involvement, decided to look after himself.  

‘United we stand, divided we fall’!

He decided to cooperate with the Senate Watergate Committee who were investigating the Watergate scandal.  He made a deal that resulted in him being found guilty at his criminal trial but with reduced jail time.  His testimony and subsequent trial was covered by all the news outlets, in particular TV.  They enjoyed massive ratings and we enjoyed front row seats to the biggest political drama we had seen.

Dean’s testimony was crucial in linking Richard Nixon to Watergate.  He resigned in disgrace and was forever tainted.  He never got redemption.

Dean on the other hand rose from the ashes and built a new life first as an investment banker (and why not), an author and lecturer.  

And that’s what we like isn’t it.  Redemption comes to the person who is contrite, takes responsibility for their actions and pays the price.  That strategy wipes the slate clean…you get to move on with your life.

But Watergate was just the beginning…

Watergate exposed the darker, corrosive nature of politics.  Today  with social media, politics has become a dismal game that preys on our basest fears.  

James Taylor captured the zeitgeist in this song about Nixon and Watergate:

I just now got the news; He seems to tell us lies

And still we will believe him; Then together he will lead us

Into darkness, my friends

Until next time…