I was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for a time, and I cannot forget the shock I had every time I bought gas. The price was nearly twice what it was on the mainland.

Then there was the time during a family vacation near Yellowstone National Park and gas was very expensive. I know the gas prices back in the SCV were 19 cents to 39 cents per gallon. Up in Yellowstone it was almost 59 cents per gallon.

At the time, we knew we were blessed to be living in California because we had plenty of oil and plenty of refineries to make that oil into gasoline. It was cheap, and you didn’t have to pump it yourself. Pull up to the pump and maybe two or three guys would rush out and pump it for you. They would also check your oil and tires and many other items on your vehicle.

Just about every teenage boy in the SCV worked in a station. I was at Jerry’s Chevron Service at the corner of Soledad and Bouquet Canyon. It was the only station there. There wasn’t a place named Valencia.

Hot summer days were boring at the station, but once in a while a customer would pull in and ask directions along with getting the car serviced. Like the day that a lady in a XKE convertible came in and we rushed out of the area where the fan blew hot air.

“Fill it up?” my friend and co-worker Mike asked. It was at that point the three of us who had responded to her arrival noticed she was driving without a blouse or anything else on above her waist. So we teenage boys rushed to make sure her windshield was washed and polished two or three times. She asked directions to get to Highway 126 and Santa Barbara.

Her XKE took “supreme” at 39 cents a gallon. Her total may have been $6.50. I’m not sure if we took her credit card or cash before she drove away. I don’t think Mike remembers, either.

So now we pump our own gasoline and pay more than anyplace in the United States, including Hawaii. Yes, you read that correctly. Gas is cheaper in Hawaii.

I don’t get it. In a state without any oil production and one refinery, the gas is cheaper, while here in California, a state that exports oil and with a lot of refinery capacity, gasoline is expensive.

We’ve all heard the reasons: refinery fire, summer blend, lack of oil imports, higher taxes, too much demand and too little demand. Are we tired of these explanations? Just what do they explain?

Why does gasoline produced in Los Angeles and near San Francisco cost less in Nevada and Arizona? Why does gasoline produced in Hawaii to the same “summer blend” requirements as we have here cost less?

I did find two places near Sacramento that had less expensive gas. One in that city for $2.99 a gallon and another for $3.11. But those were the only two I could find. The rest of the formerly great state’s gasoline prices went from $3.86 at Costco to $5.55 in Mendocino. Compare this with $2.49 in Kentucky (where all gasoline is barged into a distribution center in Paducah), $2.94 in Seattle, $2.69 in Phoenix, $2.99 in Lost Wages.

So what is the real answer? Are the oil companies gouging us? Is that wonderful “summer blend gasoline” the reason? What do all of you think?

There are a few other instances I’ve noticed that seem to affect the price of a gallon of gasoline. Is it just me, or do gas prices rise when there is a major holiday? Sure seems like it. More folks on the road, so increase the price – but don’t do so until everyone is committed to getting to an event they cannot miss. Like maybe Aunt Ella’s birthday party in Fresno.

Maybe that is too far-fetched of an example. Would any of you want to go to Fresno to see her when you could bring her to the SCV instead? Really – Fresno?

Sort of drifted off there, but I think maybe we all have. We need to find some way to tell our elected representatives, the oil companies, and each other that we have had enough.

But we’ll keep buying the gas. Why? Because I’m sure that being horseback or in a wagon pulled by horses won’t work in the drive-thru at your favorite fast-food place. Even saw a sign in one that said “motor vehicles only.”

Not a problem. There are few Amish around here, and they seem to be smart enough not to go to a fast-food joint.

But that doesn’t explain our gas price problem. We do have a governor who wants us to have a rail system just like Europe. Maybe he is working up a way to have gas prices go as high as they are in Europe, too. That way we would have to use his train.

I’ll avoid leaving the SCV before that would happen. Hate that train.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he serves as executive director of the SCV Historical Society. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived atDManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].