Sunday, September 25, 2005

Wrong Word gets around.

We had a bit of a meltdown here a couple days ago. And it was all over gas, and I ain't talking flatulence here.

On the 22nd I was minding my own business when my friend called me. As I was talking to her I could hear the newscaster say 'a dollar seventy nine a litre'. She says, "Mom is stuck in a gas line, she heard that gas was going up to a dollar seventy nine a litre." Just as she said this I heard the newscaster say, 'it's just a rumor'. So, I say, "It's just a rumor."

"No way, Jimmy's friend said it is already $2.11 in Halifax!"


Again I say, "Just a rumor, it's all over the news." She is having none of it.

Later, I head out to visit a friend. You would not believe it. People were lined up for a quarter mile in each direction at every gas station. Police were directing traffic. Stations were running out of gas.

Don't these people ever listen to the news? I inch my way past one gas station and come up along side a cop directing traffic. "Have you thought to mention to these people that it is just a rumor?" The cop shrugs his shoulders and waves me by. As I look up at the station sign, it is still at $1.12 the same as it has been for over a month.

I get to my friends house and she is buzzing, "It's just a rumor." I say, feeling like a broken record. "Nope, we just passed the station down there and it is already up to $1.26 a litre." The same station I had just passed. You think this is how things get started?

"I am telling you it is just a rumor, it was all over the news."

"Your wrong, the guy at Walmart...."

"What guy at Walmart?"

"A guy, I don't know his name, he said it was already $2.11 in Halifax."
Possibly it was Jimmy's friend, spreading the word.

"Oh, well then! If the guy from Walmart says it is so, then it must be so. I, foolishly, was getting my information from the national news. But the guy from Walmart is a much more reliable source."

I wonder sometimes how these people make it across the street on their own without becoming a grease spot?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Fuel.. is $2.56 to $2.69 around here ... last week it was $2.38 .. so I hope it will go back to that or lower before the end of my workday today.. cause i have to purchase some gas to make my 60mile trip back home.