Never, it would seem, has a cliché been so true.

Just a few months ago frustrated drivers scanned every filling station sign they passed for an opportunity to pick up some gasoline for less than four bucks a gallon.

People actually cut back on driving to save gas, combining errands into one trip to cut down on mileage and carpooling. Some even took up walking places!

Politicians seized on the dizzying upswing in oil and gasoline prices, offering different approaches as to how to come up with cheaper energy.

Drill here, drill now, said some.

Oh no, alternative energy sources are the answer, said others.

Conservation, coupled with teeny-weeny cars with hybrid engines were the solution put forth by still others.

Do all of the above, said many, unable to decide.

Folks started parking their giant SUVs on the street with For Sale signs on them, at prices that would have seemed great just months before.

Talking heads on the tube predicted oil at $200 a barrel, and gas at $10 a gallon.

We’ll never see gas under $3 again said everyone. The era of cheap energy is gone forever. We’d better adjust to it.

Then came the financial meltdown and oil prices plummeted recently to below $40 a barrel.

As I drove home one evening recently from the Goochland Gazette office, I saw sign after sign offering the precious petroleum for prices on the low side of two bucks.

Was I happy? Well yes, but not ecstatic, since I understood that the only reason gas was so cheap was that every other facet of the financial markets was in a state of, well, flux if you want to be charitable, chaos and apparent collapse if you want to be blunt.

We wished for cheaper gasoline and we got it, but at what price?

How many folks would vote to go back to four bucks a gallon if by doing so we could restore stability to the financial markets, I wonder?

Or could we maybe compromise at $3 a gallon with the stock market only 25 percent down? I could settle for that.

Meanwhile gas is cheap and getting cheaper. Some pundits say $1.50 a gallon is coming. Well, they sure were right on all their other predictions weren’t they?

What most folks wish for, I imagine, is a return to stability in the markets and the economy. And maybe a little reticence on the part of the media in pushing every outlandish prediction by the army of quotable talking heads, of which there seems to be a never-ending supply. Always eager to opine, no matter the amount of alarm they may spread.

So if you have some extra money to spend, drive around and spend it, for Pete’s sake. Maybe you’ll help some business owner decide not to lay off a worker, or even hire a new one.

It’s the patriotic, civic-minded thing to do.

Meanwhile, be careful what you wish for.