Last week, when I filled up my tank, gas was $5.35 a gallon, for a total of $52.50. But I felt lucky when my car told me it would go 459 miles on that tank.
I also felt lucky I don't live in Los Angeles, where gas is more than $6.00 a gallon.
A woman in the grocery store, the other day, kept complaining to the check out clerk about the outrageous prices she encountered while trying to put food on her table.
The cashier was young, it certainly wasn't her fault that the prices are high. As she kept ringing up a very substantial amount of groceries for the woman, she tried to tell her that prices do go up and prices then go down.
The woman wouldn't listen and, as some people often do while complaining about one thing, the woman began to complain about something else.
The high price of gasoline. The young cashier kept ringing up the woman's stuff, keeping her cool until she was about to blow up.
Then she turned to me and said, "you've lived a long life, isn't it true that prices go up and down?"
I said, "yes, and we should be lucky we're not back in the 1970s when there was little gas to be had. Cars in Los Angeles, where I lived, were lined up around blocks, waiting.
And, should you want to buy a house, the mortgage interest rates at the end of the '70s were around 11%!"
That last one really got their attention.
The complaining woman was quiet, the clerk smiled at me.
Thinking back, I feel lucky that at least for now we have gas and I can afford to buy it.
I have my house and my car.
Perhaps the complaining woman was not so lucky.
Prices are high, that's so true, but please don't let your frustrations out on young people, on their feet all day long, trying to make a living.
I sort of wished I had said that to the complaining woman, but then I know it wouldn't have made a difference. None at all.
At the end of the day, I feel lucky I don't need to take my frustrations out on others.
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!
