by Parvenu

Created on: May 23, 2008   Last Updated: May 28, 2008

I've always had this habit of saving the receipts I get for the gasoline I use. I put the receipts in the visor above the driver side seat. They stack up and really serve no purpose until recently. When I am at a stop light or in the car wash I'll go through these receipts from over the past year and ask myself, "Can the prices really have risen so high?"

I never thought much about gasoline. I'd just go to the filling station and have the attendant fill the gas tank. Now I find that I'm requesting a specific amount, for example, twenty dollars instead of having them just fill it up.

No longer to I take long road trips up to Westchester County. In fact, I don't use the car for anything other then the bare essentials. It's getting to the point where I have to be extremely careful about how I use this liquid gold which I took for granted for so many years. I rarely shop at the mall and now I weigh my options about whether or not to go to the cheaper supermarket which is further away or stick with the supermarket in town. Groceries are now much more expensive.

Around my block and my neighborhood the houses are up for sale. I live in what is known as "The Ru-burbs" or the rural suburbs. Most people have moved here because they could get more house for their money. Almost everyone here commutes, (including myself) to work. Now that prices have risen to such heights it is no longer cost efficient to live here. Our car payment are less than our gasoline needed just to get to and from work.

The cost of gasoline is changing the landscape of America. It affects every area of our lives. We depend on it for food, clothing and our livelihood. It is not a luxury and something which we all must afford. Like most Americans, I do the best I can with what I have. I cut back everywhere I can, preferring to stay indoors or putter around the house rather than take the family to a movie or a trip to the shopping mall. I may even change my religion if it means going to a closer house of worship. Before long we may all be hitching up the horse and carriage and working at the local road side stand. I for one will be planting the largest "Victory" garden you've ever seen this year in order to save on vegetables. I walk whenever I can to whatever destinations I can and limit my supermarket trips to once a month or pick up whatever I can either going to or from the office. We are a resilient people and I am confident that Americans will rise to the challenge. Either we will find a new way

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