There are things in the world where how we react to an event is all out of proportion to its relevance.

For example, there is “doorbell panic,” which occurs when someone rings your doorbell unexpectedly, causing you to immediately fly out the back door like it’s a visit from ICE and your name is Martinez.

Likewise, let a single housefly get in the house and for the next 45 minutes you stop whatever it was you were doing and stalk it like you’re on safari.

Gas prices evoke that sort of reaction, too. Psychologists say a 10-cent per gallon increase triggers anxiety even though it would only mean an extra $1.50 for a tank in most cars.

The price of a gallon of milk could fluctuate that much and go unnoticed. In fact, a 10-cent increase on virtually everything else sold per gallon provokes little reaction.

But sometimes the reaction to a rise in gas prices isn’t an overreaction.

Ten cents is one thing, maybe a little amusing. But there have been times when gas prices created something close to panic.

Do you remember when gas was sold by the half-gallon? Mention that to someone younger than 40 and they’ll look at you as if you are crazy.

Here is what happened. In the late 70s gas prices, which were stable for decades, began to creep up and up and up, until in late 1979, an unexpected problem emerged: Gas hit the $1-per-gallon mark. The idea that gasoline would ever cost that much was a possibility gas pump manufacturers had not accounted for. So when gas hit, say $1.02 per gallon, the pumps were a digit short.

What to do? Station operators calibrated the pumps to record the cost of a half-gallon, then doubled that amount to determine what the customer owed at the end. Example: If gas was $1.02 per gallon, the display was set at 51 cents. You paid double the amount of whatever was on the pump when you finished.

Nobody told us there would be math.

The real increase was about 14 cents per gallon, but the day that gas hit $1 a gallon was alarming.

The next milestone came when gas hit $2 per gallon in 2005. In Phoenix, that day arrived in the summer of 2003.The Kinder-Morgan pipeline that supplied most of the Southwest U.S. ruptured, causing an immediate shortage. Supplies declined and gas had to be brought in by trucks.

One June morning, the sign at the corner gas station advertised gas at $2.03 per gallon. People took photos of the gas pumps and signs. Newspapers wrote stories about it. The actual increase was 41 cents — nothing to sneer at – but it was the $2 threshold that caused folks to freak out. By the time the pipeline was restored, $2 gas was everywhere.

This week, the national average for a gallon of gas hit $3.79 per gallon. It hasn’t reached $4 per gallon…yet. The national average has increased by 91 cents per gallon in a single month. (The average price in Mississippi, which has one of the lowest gas taxes in the nation, is currently a buck cheaper at $2.79). It’s only a matter of time before folks are pumping $4 gasoline.

When gas is that expensive, you begin to see it in the other necessities of life, especially food. Put simply: Anything that travels by truck is going to be more expensive.

Poor and middle-income people are going to feel the pain. Some tough choices are just beyond the horizon.

What is especially aggravating is that this spike, unlike previous ones, could have been easily avoided. It’s not complicated; Trump declared war on Iran, stopping much of the Middle East oil production. Now, the Strait of Hormuz, which 25% of the world’s oil supply travels through, is closed.

Don’t kid yourself. History shows us that wars are hard to win and hard to end.

We don’t know what the human cost of the war will be. Nor do we know what the financial cost will be, although we do know we’ve spent $12 billion ($750 million per day) so far.

There is also the significant cost to American drivers that isn’t reflected in those war cost numbers.

Soon, gasoline providers will switch to the summer blends, adding another 10 to 15 cents per gallon to the price.

War is hell at the gas pump.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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