It could be said that America lives or dies at the pump; there would be quite a bit of truth to that. We are a mobile nation, a nation of drivers and distances. We are a nation of both nostalgia and wanderlust. It is at that most American of locations that those two seemingly contradictory views converge. It was only last night, as I filled my trusty cars' tank at my favorite low-priced throwback-of-a-gas station on the south end of Main St., that I got the chance to witness a functional microcosm of where we currently are as Americans. As I finished up my purchase of fuel, a middle-aged lady pulled into the pump directly on the opposite side of the one I was using. Before she exited her vehicle she rolled down her window and asked me, "Do you think this is cheap?" She was, of course, referring to the price per gallon. I replied that I thought it was and that she wouldn't find a better price in town. "Boy, it went up quick," she then said. I agreed that it had and thought to myself...(Read Full Post)