Here in Hartwell, the Golden Pantry laid the golden gas egg on Monday night. If any other operations had fuel, it wasn’t apparent from the all the folks, with “EMPTY” warning lights lit up, who converged on the convenience store.

Folks likely were not there for the advertised sale on Golden Valley Milk.

Nosiree. Folks were there for northeast Georgia’s most sought-after commodity: good ole gas. Cars and trucks lined up at the pumps and trailed out into the main road like a long jump rope left on the playground.

“My gas light’s been on for about 25 miles,” said a young man in a Stanza XE, rolling his eyes and riding on fumes.

Another fellow was on his way to Carnesville, Ga., pulling a red trailer holding six cows behind his big truck. The bovines were bellowing and a lady, who was about to fill up her car, looked around when she heard the noise.

“What was that?” she wanted to know.

That, my dear, is the sound of life in the gas line these days. Come one, come all, including cows.

Inside the Pantry, a man at the check-out counter sized up the situation: “I think we’d have to come down several levels of order to achieve the status of madhouse.”

So much for Madhouse Monday.

On Tuesday, the filling station at Ingles was the place to be.

A tanker truck loaded with gas had arrived in the night to replenish the pumps and put Ingles back on the gas map.

And unlike other places, like Atlanta, where gas-line rage is all the rage, and people are being reminded of “gas-line etiquette” by way of articles in the local newspaper, folks around here are staying in line, so to speak.

Local law enforcement authorities have reported no incidents of gas-line rage as of this writing.

One lady did suggest that someone should come up with a Top Ten List of Things to Do While Waiting in the Gas Line.

“Cleaning out your pocketbook or the glove compartment should be Number One,” she said.

Another lady said her car broke down in the gas line — not because she ran out of gas, but because of a bad battery.

“I waited in line a half hour,” Doris Kelly said. “Then my car quit on me once I got my gas. I had to go to each person in line behind me and tell them to find another pump. All this and I haven’t had my second cup of coffee yet. Whew!”

Kelly said the co-manager of Ingles, Jake Stowers, helped push her car away from the pump, then got jumper cables to get her car started.

“He needs to be acknowledged for all his help and not getting ill,” Kelly said.

So here’s to you, Jake! May your customers continue to pump in peace and harmony. And may your gas supply be plentiful.

Salley M. McInerney can be reached by emailing salley@hartcom.net.