My wife and I went to the movies at our local 2 screen recently restored theater and had a wonderful time. (2 tickets 2 larger drinks 2 hot dogs for only $22 but thats another story)

Now I live in a small south TX town of about 7500 people and we just could not believe our eyes when we left the movies at 9:30p.m. The streets of our local town were full. We decided to go over to the DQ and grab an ice cream before we head home. Now the local DQ is an old folks hang out and is usually dead at 8:00 but not this time. It was full and we had to wait in line. After DQ we drove across town to catch the raod home and noticed the Whataburger, Sonic, and the adjacent car wash are hopping with activity.

Now the remarkable thing about all of this is Town has never been this active in my life time. Our town is about 30 minutes from two pretty good size towns and only an hour away from Austin or San Antonio and as a High school kid we never stayed in town very often.

Could this be a side effect of high gas prices? If so it would seem to be a shot in the arm of the local economy don't you think.

Could this be a side effect of high gas prices? If so it would seem to be a shot in the arm of the local economy don't you think.
Ray, I think that's a pretty fair assessment.

For the last 15 or so years, my wife and I would travel to Cape May, NJ. Sometimes to spend the day, sometimes just for breakfast, but mostly just for dinner. Cape May is about a two hour drive of about 110 miles each way. When gas was cheaper we would do this 15 to 20 times a year.

Before the Malibu, I would use about 10 gallons of fuel for the round trip. At today's prices your spending $40 and haven't ordered an appetizer yet! :eek:

I work at a sports shop up in northern Jersey (Sussex County) and we sell fishing and hunting supplies well april was a great month for business and then as soon as we had that one spike in gas prices here in the begaining of may its just been dead. Today I'm working and seriously I've only seen like 25 costumers actually come in and buy something. Its sad becuase this type of business relies on tourists for the NYC and south jersey to get us throught the summer but this year is going to be very bad becuase not as many people as going to travel this year. I've also spoken to other business owners that come into the shop and they are reporting the same dig in business. I would hate to see what happens this winter with home heating oils skyrocketing through the roof.