UP NORTH: Larry R. Fay gives us the Alaska update on gasoline
prices, as of Sunday:
“Gas up here is $2.75, $2.85, and $2.95 (regular to premium).
Our state road tax is only .08 and we export oil to the state of
Washington (state road tax .22), yet their gas is significantly
cheaper.”
“During the late ’60s, while attending IUP in Indiana, Pa., I
noticed that Quaker State tanker truck drivers from Smethport
hauled gasoline from Farmers Valley to Indiana. The Quaker State
stations there sold gas for several cents less than those in the
Smethport area. Go figure!”
GET THIS: From the “My-How-Things-Change” file … In the Sept.
26, 1906, Era, this article ran about the finances of the State of
Pennsylvania:
“No state in the Union receives as large a tax from corporations
as Pennsylvania. In 1905, the amount received was $15,606,541, more
than 64 per cent of the gross revenue. For the same year, New York
collected from the same source, $5,974,610.
“The amount of tax paid by corporations has been steadily
increasing, so that the entire expense of the state government, the
amount appropriated for schools, highways, bridges and a part of
that used for charities is paid from this item.
“One of the statements shows approximately what each individual
pays to the state in the shape of tax. For 1905, it was about 11
cents. In return for this contribution, each individual’s share of
the money directly appropriated, returned or remitted to the local
communities was $4.06.
“This does not take into consideration the high license tax of
$3,500,000 remitted to the counties annually since 1877. From 1886
to 1905, the state has paid, returned or remitted to the counties
the enormous total of $708,306,153.”
ZIPPO, CASE: Paul Laing writes Tuesday: “The ‘Zippy the Pinhead’
comic in the Washington Post today has a reference to Zippo
lighters. I am especially aware of Zippo after visiting there while
I was in Bradford for my BHS 50th class reunion.”
Case got a little free publicity in a segment on CBS Sunday
Morning about World War II vets from North Carolina going to the
World War II memorial in Washington. A Case logo was clearly
visible on one veteran’s shirt.
Makes us wonder if, perhaps, this man’s roots go back to
Bradford. Maybe one of our e-readers will know.
