Lines stretching for blocks.
Wait times between 30 and 90 minutes.
Strangers screaming and honking at each other in frustration.
That is what a stop at the neighborhood gas station is like for millions of Atlantans. “We’ve been out here [for] an hour,” said Delores Wilks, a grandmother who sat in a Ford Taurus with her daughter as they waited for a pump to free up at a QuikTrip in Sandy Springs, a northwest Atlanta suburb.
Attendants placed plastic bags over pumps to indicate when there isn’t gas on the premises, and around the city dubbed “…too busy to hate,” there was plenty of plastic bags—and plenty of frayed nerves. “Last night, I drove for two hours to find gas,” said Jamal Harper, a twentysomething musician. “By the time I found a station, it was [10 miles away] on Buford Highway, and I had to wait for almost two hours.” Stories like these have become more common, as commuters from all areas in metro Atlanta are experiencing gas shortages, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the late 70s.
As Washington struggles to decide whether or not to bail out the finance industry in the wake of record drops on Wall Street, the average American remains befuddled and belligerent about the economic crisis happening on all streets. “I just don’t get why they can’t do something,” Wilks said. “It’s getting ridiculous—we’ve put up with rising gas prices for years and now there’s no gas, it’s getting to the point where you can’t do the most basic things anymore—is that America?”
–todd williams
