Conserving Gasoline

During WWII the Federal Government rationed gasoline to the general public

. This was

a strategic commodity that was needed in the war effort. Each family was issued a book

of stamps allowing you a specified number of gallons of gasoline per month. If you used

up your allotted amount of gas before the month was out you did not go anywhere

the rest of the month.

We lived 16 miles from town and dad worked in town and the amount of gasoline he was

allotted was not enough for him to drive to work every day. Luckily there were three

other men in the same area who worked at the same place as dad. With four of them

taking time about driving, each one only had to drive one week out of each month. If one

of them had car trouble and was unable to drive his week, he would give his gas

allotment that week to the one driving in his place.

Dad developed other ways to conserve gasoline also. Anytime dad started down a hill, he

would shift the transmission into neutral, kill the motor, and coast down the hill. At the

bottom of the hill, after the car slowed considerably, dad would turn the switch back on,

shift into high, let out on the clutch and start the motor again and go on. I remember one

hill where we could coast for at least half a mile.

On the 16 mile trip from town to our house, dad could coast at least 3 miles. Did this

save very much gas? It would save about a gallon of gas on each six trips. At that time it

wasnt the price of gasoline that had everyone being so conservative, it was the shortage

of gasoline. As I stated earlier, if you used up your allotment before the month was out

you just didnt go anywhere unless you could find someone who had extra

stamps that would sell them to you.

It wasnt until I was almost grown and started studying the Texas Drivers Handbook to take

the test for my first drivers license thatI found out you werent supposed to let a vehicle

coast downhill. Of course, by then they were putting automatic transmissions in

most cars plus power steering and power brakes and you couldnt let one coast anyway.

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