HARNETT COUNTY, N.C. — More than four decades ago, Dianna Barefoot Jackson’s father was helping people endure two big crises.

Huge gas shortages hit the country in 1973 and 1979.

What You Need To Know

  • Two big gas shortages hit the U.S. in the 1970s

  • The first in 1973 and the second happened in 1979

  • Gas rationing was mandated and the maximum national speed limit was reduced to 55 mph

Earl Barefoot was the owner and operator of a filling station and auto repair shop in Erwin.

“We had long lines...I remember I was about 10 years old," Dianna Barefoot Jackson said. “I remember the lines being around the curve and daddy would give them $2 worth of gas. But gas was 50 cents a gallon.”

Gas rationing was enacted, and maximum speed limits were lowered nationally to 55 mph. Earl Barefoot, who ran his gas station for 45 years, would walk through those long gas lines to help people who were the most in need.

“Like there was this one lady, Miss Bass," Dianna Barefoot Jackson said. “Her husband was in Wake Med and she didn’t have the gas to get there, and he pulled her to the front of the line and he filled her up with gas so she could go back and forth because her husband was dying.”

Dianna Barefoot Jackson said that she feels the shortages of the 1970s were much worse than the shortage that’s happening now.