Remember When $1.89 Gas Made the Front Page in Maine?

My mom recently found an old newspaper clipping and it took us both back to a time where you layered your necklaces, wore very big sunglasses, and gas was $1.89.

It was a clipping from the Sun Journal and there I was, 20 years younger and pumping gas at a pump in Lewiston at the 7-Eleven.

I was approached by a journalist being asked about gas prices, because believe it or not $1.89 was high. The piece that Daryn Slover wrote was titled, “Pain in the Octane.” 

Drivers across Maine were talking about it back then, that price genuinely felt outrageous.

If memory serves, January of 2005 gas prices were around $1.40 so hitting $1.89 by August felt insane and it only got worse, reaching up to $3.00 per gallon due to the Hurricane Katrine in the south. It did go back down to $2.50.

I remember that day clearly. I was pumping gas into my 2004 Toyota Corolla and I think I remember telling him something along the lines of “I just put four dollars of my last money in the tank because gas prices are crazy.” 

Looking back now, it’s almost funny. Ten dollars could practically fill the tank in that Corolla back then. Today, that same ten dollars barely nudges the fuel gauge up.  

Fast forward to today and gas prices in parts of Maine are hovering around $3.50 per gallon, which is nearly doubled what it was.

We could get into the why but, who wants to be depressed, not me. 

Seeing that old clipping is a reminder of just how much things have changed and evolved with the times. It also makes me feel old. 

It’s strange to think that something once considered shocking now feels like a bargain. But of course, back then, minimum wage was different and so was the market. 

And apparently, my younger self was there to document it, all thanks to the Sun Journal.