A photograph of gas lines in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania | 1970s

Posted on by Jake Wynn

In June 1979, long lines gathered at gas stations across the Keystone State as the federal government implemented a gas rationing system that gave motorists designated days to fill up based on their car registration’s number. License plates ending in odd numbers could fill up on designated days, while those ending in even numbers on others.

A black car waiting in line at a gas station during a fuel shortage, with a sign displaying a gas price of 83.9 cents per gallon.
Taken on June 27, 1979 near Pottsville, PA – it was published a day later. It later appeared in the Schuylkill Memories column of the newspaper in 2003.

This photograph shows a line of vehicles at the Fisca gas station on Route 61 south of Pottsville, PA during the gas shortages in the 1970s. These shortages were caused by, among other things, war in the Middle East and political turmoil in that oil-exporting region.

A June 28, 1979 edition of the Pottsville Republican newspaper, featuring headlines about gasoline shortages, OPEC prices, and state drivers dealing with an odd-even fuel purchasing system, accompanied by images of cars lined up at gas stations.
Headlines from the summer of 1979

The image was shared with the Republican-Herald by George S. Lord of Pottsville and re-published in the “Schuylkill Memories” column in September 2003. It looks like an original of this image was published on June 28, 1979.

Read more about the oil crises of the 1970s here

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