Friday, May 26, 2006   The first time I ever saw a Honda Civic
was probably back in the mid-nineteen-seventies, after the Yom
Kippur war and the Saudi highjacking of the world oil markets.
My friends and I expressed puzzled ridicule of the tiny little
car, so different from the behemoth Chrysler station wagons that
crowded the driveways in our "development."  Ironically, as
young teens we were still heavily dependent on our Raleigh and
Schwinn ten-speeds, but we saw the lines at the gas stations and
the odd/even license-plate number assignment of gas-purchasing
privileges.  Our lives were rocked by inflation. Many of us
continued to bicycle long after we attained driving age as car
affordability was out of reach for many of us in working-class
families, some with parents that lost jobs during this time.
The Prudhoe and North Sea oil fields relieved this situation for
awhile, but then along came the toppling of the despicable old
Shah of Iran and another oil "shock" diverted our economy into
the stagflation t