Education: Denver School Days

There are 29 tunnels on the highly scenic, two-hour Denver & Salt Lake run from Denver to Winter Park. Last weekend many young high-school couples from Denver enjoyed the tunnels on their way to the ski slopes. They were not using their jalopies, but the only reason was that their own particular black market in gas coupons had been almost wiped out.

The market had opened up weeks before when 17-year-old Bruce Wier, a high-school senior (whose parents are in Oregon), raided a ration board, swiped enough stamps for several thousand gallons. He peddled them at Skateland, got $3 to $5 for a strip of 24 three-gallon stamps. Some boys bought job lots and resold them. Babyfaced, nonchalant Wier was finally apprehended and removed to the Federal Correctional Institution in Arapahoe County. Said he proudly: “I blew probably more than $1,000 on wine, women and song, like they say in stories.”

Another attitude was taken by East High School’s Chuck Newton, student council president and high hurdler. Newton and friends read the riot act to students who used the black market and pooled gas illegally. Some students promised to stop. But Newton’s task was anything but easy. Said Chuck: “A lot of parents are sore at us for getting the kids to stop doing what parents do all the time.”

The number of jalopies parked outside East High gradually dropped from 120 to 40. The tightening black market got up as high as 40¢ for a single gas coupon. One student queried an OPAdministrator. He asked: “What’s the ceiling price?”