"Back when gas was 30 cents a gallon, and love was just 60 cents away" - Tom T. Hall

I remember hearing my parents telling me what things cost or how little money they made when they were younger. It always annoyed me. And I guess there were some of the stories I didn't believe. Now I do it. All the time, my daughter has informed me.

My lifelong passion is golf. I've been playing since the 1970s. And when I started, a round of golf cost two dollars. Really. Heck, a season pass was only 28 bucks. These days you can't get a BEER for $2 at any golf course.

On my 16th birthday, I wanted some "waffle stompers". These were the hiking boots that were the big foot fashion item at that time. So my dad drove me to the mall and laid down $16 to get me a pair.

I'll bet I've got several pairs of tennis shoes in my closet that cost over $100 now.

I just assumed that I wouldn't live long enough to see brand new pickups cost more than my first house, but I have.

When I started driving, gas was 86 cents per gallon. Last weekend in Bozeman, I paid $5.69.

Gas prices in Montana
Credit: Mark Wilson, Townsquare Media
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Speaking of that, I paid $115.00 per ticket to see Kenny Chesney. While my first concert ticket was eight dollars to see Boston at the Metra in 1978.

And I can tell that I'm older now because Albertson's had a sale on my favorite Lighthouse thousand island salad dressing. I saved $1.50 per bottle. It made me happy.

Today I'll be looking for deals at the golf course.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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