Major Gas Crises, Unheard Of Prices

Bicycles were popular thirty years ago for both recreation and transportation. Here the Middendorf family is out for a ride with their children strapped into "kiddie seats". Today they'd be wearing helmets, and seats attached in front of the handlebars are considered dangerous. I don't think that they even made helmets for kids back then.

It was a time of ecology awareness and excersizing for good health. The early 70's was also a time when suddenly gasoline prices soared "through the roof" and riding a bike was good for the heart and easy on the wallet. With gas prices nearly doubling and approaching fifty cents a gallon I bought myself a 10-speed and often took my cameras to assignments around North Miami and to Barry College in nearby Miami Shores, a trek of maybe 4 miles each way. It wasn't just the cost of gasoline. It was the long lines at the few stations that might actually have fuel on any given day. Soon it was again plentiful and prices retreated somewhat.

Maybe six or seven years later we had a repeat of the fuel shortage with gas crossing the buck a gallon level ant topping out at $122.9. Again it retreated, but that's a story for another day. The film was Ektachrome shot with a Leica M using flash for a story in The North Dade Journal. The large dark area at the top was intentional so that the title could be superimposed in white or a light color.