Great Memories of a Gas Shortage

We're back to gas rationing in NYC and Long Island today.  This leads to my second post this week involving Ian Hunter.   In the summer of 1979 before I went to college, there was odd/even gas rationing.  My friend Annemarie and I would take her parents car, the boom box (which ran on batteries) and wait in line at the gas station in East Rockaway to fill up their tank. 

That spring Ian Hunter released You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic.  We loved that record! Still do. We'd wait in line for an hour or so to get gas, boom box blasting (I don't believe there was a cassette player in her parents car) and sing along to Just Another Night, Cleveland Rocks and Wild East.  It's nice to look back on a time of crisis with such fond memories.  Just proves what's been said a million times, good music can get you through any situation. 

Fight For Your Right To Party

I just voted, which is sort of like fighting for the right to party.  The electoral college seems like an archaic way to elect a president, but those of us in NY are spared the constant onslaught of political ads that my friends in Florida are not.  I admire those who are voting in the makeshift tent booths that are set up in no mans land areas hardest hit by the storm.  A lot of the tents are without heat and they have to wait online in the cold. I was lucky, I waited inside a school.

I'll leave you with some inspiring music from Ian Hunter and the Rant Band: When I'm President.
Although Ian has lived in NY for years, he was born across the ocean, making him ineligible to hold the title.  

Cross my heart
Hope to die
When I'm President
Pigs are gonna fly

With a statement like that, don't you wish you could vote for him?