GASOLINE prices in 1919

By 1915 the automobile industry in America kicked into second gear.  Ford's Model-T (from 1915 up) is not as collectible as Model-T's manufactured in 1914 or before.

Those old cars are not as collectible because Ford  and other auto manufacturers nearly doubled their production of cars in 1915-1916.  And in doing so, these old cars lost some of the previous quality found in cars in 1914 and before.

By 1915 about one and half million automobiles were produced and gas stations started springing up near roadways like mushrooms.  But gasoline was dirt cheap back then so lots of gas stations was a good thing, or so you might believe.  However, I found this little ditty written by Bill Davis, 1916, which sounds more like something some person might write today:

Go! Just keep going; never stopping for a rest.

All the day I keep on dodging bill collectors with a zest.

Summer clothes we wore all winter, Now 'tis spring, they're nearly through;

Once I paid my life insurance, now it's more than I can do.

Little ones are nearly barefoot, pantry shelves are empty now.

I have chopped wood most all winter, before this year I knew not how.

Ne'er before in my existence, has the tank on my machine

Ever starved, and froze the family, keeping 'er filled with gasoline.

(Bill Davis, 1915)