SPARE CHANGE: This isn't the first time Rhode Islanders have felt a gas price pinch

Scooping up some oddznendz along with a pile of pollen:

• Don’t tell me about the gas crisis. I started it.

Now that I have your attention … no. I didn’t start it. But there’s some history there. I remember the previous major crises, at least four of them.

• In 1973, war in the Middle East caused OPEC to turn off the spigots to America and its allies. Gas prices, then about 30 cents a gallon, doubled.

Presidential place-holder Gerald Ford struggled to find a solution. The Middle Eastern combatants eventually settled things, but gas prices stayed near 70 cents.

Oh, while people were scrambling to buy compact cars, my zany Aunt Mary bought a white (guess they were out of pink) gas-sucking Caddy. She drove this 12 mph per hour beast the rest of her life.

• We’ll skip 1979 for now. Which brings us to 2008, when prices reached about $4.50 per gallon under President (and former oil exec) George W. Bush. Scariest part of this is it led to the Great Recession. By that point, gas prices were secondary.

• Ah, 1979, the Jimmy Carter years … the worst gas crisis until now. Gas shortages led to odd/even gas rationing … if your license plate ended in an even number, you could buy gas on certain days only. Same with odd numbered plates.

If you missed your day, start walking.

I spent part of that summer working nights at a self-service gas station/mini-mart in my home town of Pawtucket.

It was a decent job for a few weeks. Then came rationing.

Cars would be lined 12 deep night and day. We changed the price signs manually. I was the one who first turned it to $1.00. I stared a minute, like Richard Dreyfuss mesmerized by the pile of potatoes in “Close Encounters.”

The store closed at 11 p.m. sharp. Once at 11:02, a scary guy (maybe an ACI alum) on a Harley demanded gas. I explained about the pumps being off until morning.

He exploded, pounding on the locked door, averaging 20 threats in 20 seconds.

I was 20 years old and possibly going to die because of gasoline. Well, he wasn’t going to push me around. Nope, I called the cops and hid inside the locked freezer until things were safe.

I showed him.

• And now back to modern times. This feels like the worst because it’s accompanied by inflation, supply shortages, lingering COVID or variants, mass shootings galore.

The gas prices this time are downright European.

President Joe Biden is so out of ideas he’s trying squeeze petrol from Saudi Arabia, one of the least enlightened countries on the planet. Part of me finds this desperate and sad. But when I see the pumps at the $5 per gallon range, I think, “Smart move, Joe.”

Eventually this will end, as people whine about an unfinished pipeline and electric car owners gloat at the rest of us.

But there is optimism if you look back … wisdom from former Vice President Dan Quayle: “The future will be better tomorrow.”

Jim Gillis is a Daily News columnist. Send him email at jimgillis13@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: SPARE CHANGE: This isn't the first time we've felt a gas price pinch