I've been driving around for the past couple of days with the little yellow gas light blinking on my green and grey Volvo. Stopping for gas can be a real pain in the butt because even though there are a million gas stations everywhere, only a few of those offer reasonably priced gasoline.
I usually use the Gas Buddy app from the Google Play Store in order to locate stations with a good price. By the way, I am not affiliated with that app in anyway. However, I do believe that it is extremely helpful in saving money when buying gasoline.
Source: Pixabay.com
I found myself at the local gas station down the street with the nozzle in my tank watching the numbers spin. 45 bucks for a full tank of regular. It was 30 bucks to fill up that tank last month. Gas prices have been on the rise.
My tires look pretty dirty and I can see that there is grime on the windshield. I'm really ripe for a car wash. That's another ten bucks and things haven't really been looking good over at my restaurant lately.
I couldn't help remember how things were when I was a kid. Going to the gas station meant you would get a free car wash after so many fill ups. You would always find a car wash attached to a gas station. Any gas station. I haven't seen a car wash attached to a gas station in a really long time.
I then remembered how fast food places would give you thick plastic cups that you could collect. Our kitchen was full of Star Wars, Hot Wheels, and a variety of other useful cups that we got for free just for going out to buy food at McDonald's and other spots.
Nowadays if you do happen to get a novelty cup, it is a piece of crap that will fall apart within a month or two.
I even remember getting free plates at various gas stations and hotels. Free forks and spoons too. My grandmother used to collect spoons in a large wooden cabinet. I bet a lot of people have grandmothers that did the same thing.
The world was interesting and everyone was ready to give you something free.
The grocery store used to give you a free cookie from the bakery every single day.
Life was really enjoyable.
So what happened?
My grandfather worked a very menial job. Nevertheless, he was able to support he and his wife in a large house with tons of money left over without working overtime.
Where is the free stuff?
Where are the menial jobs that are high paying?
I look around and I wonder where the joy in life is because it seems as though everybody is scratching so hard for that dollar that you can't even go into McDonald's to get a free cup of water anymore.
Water isn't free.
It makes me sad to think about the past.
Not just because of relationships lost, or things that I didn't make happen.... because of all the different ways that the world seemed better than it is now.
Most of those ways involve money.
I wish there was some to fix it all, but it just doesn't look like we're on that track.
I can't help but think about....
The Way We Aren't.
