When I was a kid, gas fill-ups were just another ordinary errand, like buying groceries or refilling your parents' prescription or suffering at the dentist: they had to be done, but nobody ever giggled with anticipation or clapped their hands at the sight of those establishments. Sure, groceries got less tedious after WWII when the FDA legalized flavor, but nobody rational ever thought gas stations were fun...least of all during the 1970s energy crisis, when America's last hundred gallons had to be split 100 million ways. Getting gas was expensive and dispiriting and, worst of all, it was really boring.