I work with a Mila, originally from Ukraine.
And I’ve run out of gas to the point of being stranded, once. It was an older vehicle that I borrowed from my mom while I was a new driver, and she later said “oh yeah, it never actually shows when the tank is almost empty, so I try to always fill up when it looks like there’s an 1/8th left.”
AAA came to my rescue.
I consider Gravy to be something the poll missed.
I only ran out of gas once, in a rental car with a defecting gas gauge.
Never have run out of gas. Came real close, though. Was trying to get home for Thanksgiving from a five-hour drive away; didn’t have a car yet, and got a ride with several other people, all IIRC in our early 20’s, probably gotten together via a literal bulletin board. Year was in the 1970’s. None of us had been paying much attention to the news. We left with a partial tank of gas in a VW Beetle.
About halfway there, somebody noticed that the gas tank was getting pretty low. Somebody had a vague recollection of having read something about gas shortages, so we thought we’d better stop at the next station. We pulled off the limited-access road and found a gas station, late in the day, Thanksgiving weekend.
They just laughed at us. That wasn’t “something about gas shortages”, that was the gas crisis of 1973. They were out of gas. Just about everybody was out of gas. Stations that had any were restricting it to regular customers.
We got back in the car and got back on the road. No cell phones. I don’t know why we didn’t call our assorted families from the gas station, but we didn’t – we probably figured they couldn’t do anything about it that night anyway. We just kept on driving. The gas gauge got lower, and lower; and we got gradually closer to where my parents were living, which was meant to be the first stop after which the rest of the carful was intended to go on another hour or two further. The gas gauge dropped to empty. The car was still moving. We got to a major bridge between us and my parents’ place. The car was still going. We made it across the bridge. We made it through the little village, out the other side, onto my parents’ road – and into their driveway.
At which point we all piled out of the car and spent the night there; the rest of the carful calling their folks to tell them where they were. Next morning, my father called his regular gas station, found out that they could and would fill up the Beetle. Which started, and drove another mile or two to the gas station, with my father following in his car in case they didn’t make it.
I have rather a fondness for Beetles.
One of my college roommates was named Tagdh; he and I are still in touch.
I briefly worked with an Aoife at my last job; she was based in Dublin, and was impressed that an American knew how to pronounce her name.
Maybe I did once in my foggy youth. I do recall one episode c. 30 years ago (30 y/o) driving to my parents’ Ohio home, decided to take 250 as a shortcut, forgetting that it went right through Amish country. And that I had failed to top off when I got off the interstate.
I only noticed the low gauge about 10 miles in, had passed quite a few Amish buggies, but no gas stations. As the needle crept towards empty, I kept hoping and praying that I would come across one before it conked out-or maybe I should backtrack the interstate. Kept plugging on…
A Shell suddenly appeared beyond the next curve, yay. Pulled in, and recalled that my car held 11 gallons…
Filled 'er up, and noted the figure on the pump.
11 gallons.
I only had what was in the fuel line, doubt I could have gone another mile. [Yes I know letting the fuel line get drained like that is a Bad Idea]
Examining that stretch now, I count only 3 stations in 25 miles (no Shell tho I may be misremembering).
My sister makes cranberry sauce from scratch every year. It’s far better than the canned stuff.
My wife make cranberry relish in a food processor. One bag of fresh cranberries, one whole orange cut up, peel and all, and one cup of sugar. Pulse it in the food processor until it is finely chopped into a relish consistency. Surprisingly easy and delicious.
Definitely better to decline to hire someone and thus risk a lawsuit, than to hire a bad employee and maybe have him hurt or kill somebody.
Never ran out of gas, but got very low once while driving to see my sweetie in rural Vermont. It was late and I couldn’t find a gas station that was open for a worryingly long time.
And I’m all about the pie for Thanksgiving these days.
I already mentioned the time I did run out of gas, but that reminded me of the time I came the closest to empty without actually running out.
About 2 years ago someone ran into my car in a parking lot, and bashed the driver’s door hard enough that it wouldn’t open. Entirely the other guy’s fault and his insurance covered all the repairs. So I dropped my car off at a body shop that worked with that insurance company. When I dropped it off I had maybe an eighth of a tank left, the point where I usually fill up, but I figured the shop wouldn’t need to drive it that much, so I’d just fill up after it’s repaired. Except they actually needed to ship it to another shop to have the convertible top removed. And then back to them, and then back to the other shop to have it reinstalled, and then back again. I assume they did all that shipping on a flatbed, but there was enough moving the car around that when the repairs were finally done and I went to pick up the car, the “miles to empty” readout read “0”. That was a nervewracking drive about a mile up the road to the nearest gas station, but I didn’t actually run out of gas. I guess that miles to empty estimate has a bit of a cushion.
I think it was about a decade ago that I last used a pay phone; but I’m not sure exactly. Might have been longer.
I’m not entirely sure when I last saw a pay phone, either.
I’ve had cell phones since around 1998, but didn’t have a large number of minutes per month until maybe 2005 or so. Up until then, I’d use pay phones when I traveled for work (to call into my voicemail for messages, to phone home, etc.), using a corporate “calling card” to bill the calls rather than putting coins into the phone.
Given that, I’m sure that it’s been more than a decade since I’ve used a pay phone, and probably closer to 20 years.
I haven’t used a pay phone in ages. But I did see one just a few days ago, in a train station.
We can’t get scratch here in the UK, so we have to use cranberries.
I was with my band in France when our van ran out of fuel ( faulty fuel gauge.)
Fortunately we took up 2 vans so the other was able to bring some back in a can.
I thought i’d run out once in the middle of nowhere … but i discovered that some
golf clubs i’d left in the trunk had knocked the wire off the fuel gauge and i wasn’t
actually out of fuel !
I ran out of gas on a boat once.
It was a rental. The gauge read that I had a quarter tank left. In a wicked storm that came out of nowhere. Lightning - the sky-to-the-ground kind - in every direction. On a metal pontoon boat.
The marina worker who came to rescue us was pissed, asked if I knew how to read a gas gauge.
Fun times.
mmm
I’ve carried a cell phone for more than a decade, but there wasn’t cell service at my local train station until recently, and i sometimes used the past phone there. I’m guessing that was within a decade, but I’m not certain. Time flies when you’re having a pandemic.
My favorite Thanksgiving dish is cranberry jelly, from the can. I mean, i like all the other stuff. (Well, most of the other stuff). And i love the abundance of the feast. But on the plate, my absolute favorite? Cranberry jelly.
(We eat it with chicken year round.)
I also voted for turkey and for my cranberry apple pie.
When I was 21 I ran out of gas in my MG Midget in downtown Pittsburgh a half block from a gas station. I easily pushed my car to the pump, getting a good head start for the mild ramp from the road.
I ran out of gas driving home from the local commuter rail station. That was before i carried a cell phone, so i rang a doorbell to ask to make a phone call. The guy who answered gave me some gas from a can he kept for his lawnmower. The gas must have been very old, because my car knocked for at least a month after that.
Well, I kinda had to click on the option that has my name on it.
But actually, that’s a question to which I do have a clear answer. No, I haven’t gone anywhere wearing all black in the last month. Or, I think, ever. Some black, yes; all black, no.
I no longer have black sneakers, but since I was working crew, I wore all black two Fridays ago.