This is about gas

Back in the last millennia, when I was much younger, a little thinner and every bit as good-looking, I worked with a guy named Roy Ivey at the San Angelo Standard-Times.

To quote Ron White: I tell you that story to tell you this story.

Roy was a really good guy. Like any of us though, he did have his own peculiarities.

I, for instance, detest mean people. And people who tear up the property of others just for kicks. And people who lie, cheat or steal. I pretty much detest jerks in general.

Roy, on the other hand, fumed about something much more incremental.

These days, I’m inclined to agree with him. I’ve come to understand that it’s just a part of the aging process.

Roy’s pet peeve was the price of gasoline. Every penny per gallon stirred a cacophony of complaints, an avalanche of anguish and a gaggle of gripes from his lips.

Understand that Roy was not poor. A decade or so older than most of us at the paper, he had been in the same job for years and his house payment was minimal compared to what the rest of us were paying in rent for one-bedroom apartments. Plus his wife worked. Not many of us were double-income households.

Understand that he wasn’t cheap. Frugal was a word best used to describe him, but he wasn’t stingy or anything like that.

He was the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back if you really needed said shirt. Of course, you might get a lecture to go along with it, but that’s just how he was.

I teased him unmercifully about being a grumpy teddy bear.

But I never needled him about gasoline prices. Well at least not after the first time.

A self-described bomb-throwing moderate, it seemed the only thing my friend Roy would really let get to him was the price of gas. Let gas go from $1.21 to $1.24, and you’d think his house insurance had just tripled in price.

I’m surprised he hasn’t keeled over from a heart attack with prices around $3 a gallon these days.

After I left San Angelo to work in Shreveport, I once called Roy while filling up with gas just to tell him I was paying 84 cents a gallon thanks to some local price war. I didn’t stay on the line much past the point where I heard him start to gurgle.

The best thing about working with Roy was that I knew he would always know where the best gas prices in town were. In fact, if it were worthwhile to drive out to Grape Creek to fill up with gas, Roy knew exactly what day to go.

We’re hoping you can help us tip off readers the same way.

Starting today you can find a story on our website asking readers to submit the best gas prices they’ve found in the area. (I expect a lot of input from Andrews.)

Just log on and tell us where you’ve found cheap gas. Of course, it’s got to be available to the general public, but we want to know time, price and location of the octane bargain.

If you don’t want to go online, then shoot us an e-mail with the subject line gas prices to oanews@oaoa.com. I’m afraid we can’t really handle phone calls.

Of course, these days I’m afraid of filling up my car as well.