I’m just a hair too young to remember car lines for gasoline in the 1970s, but I do remember my parents explaining to me why cars’ gas fill lines had to be unlatched from inside the car.  (For younger folks:  because gas was so rare and important that people were siphoning it out of cars in parking lots and driveways.)  Here’s video of a gas shortage in South Carolina.

To those of you who lived under Carter’s administration: was this a common sight? And will the gas shortages be worse this go-around? https://t.co/YZ9JESx4gr

— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) May 11, 2021

When we bought a new car a little less than a decade ago, I noticed that the manufacturer had skipped the interior lever to unlock the fill line, and I wondered whether that was overconfidence.