Some T&D Region residents are planning to have their Thanksgiving meal at home this year because the economy has taken a bite out of their wallets.

"We are so broke," Mary Jo Johns said as she was filling up the tank on her Chevy truck Monday afternoon with one hand. She was holding a doctor's prescription in the other.

"We've got doctor bills and so we are not going anywhere," she said.

Johns said she is planning a relatively quiet Thanksgiving with her 91-year-old grandmother and 89-year-old aunt.

"The family is just going to get together," she said.

Although she thinks gasoline prices are still too high, "They are a lot better, though."

Gasoline prices are the lowest seen in Orangeburg since early March 2005. Even so, others say they're also staying home this holiday.

AAA Carolinas estimates 8,000 fewer South Carolina motorists are going to hit the road this weekend. It would be the first downtown in travel since 2002.

"Gas prices are still a little bit too high, so we are going to stay home," Evelyn Jefferson said. But she feels fortunate that most of her family lives within shouting distance.

Despite the low gas prices, Jefferson said she and her husband, Charles, haven't gone on any significant trips recently.

"We have stayed right here," she said. "We have a lot of places we want to travel -- we want to go to New York and Ohio, but right now it ain't working."

Regular unleaded gasoline was averaging about $1.779 a gallon on Monday, according to a T&D survey of area gas stations.

The least expensive self-serve regular unleaded sold for $1.719 a gallon at the Horizon E-Z Shop on St. Matthews Road.

Prices at the pump have fallen significantly since the second week of September, when they spiked amid fears that Hurricane Ike would overwhelm Gulf Coast refineries. At that time, regular unleaded was averaging $3.949.

Orangeburg gasoline prices are about $1.20 lower this Thanksgiving Day than a year ago. And prices are about 55 cents to 60 cents lower than three weeks ago.

Statewide, gasoline is averaging $1.741 a gallon, down from $3.079 a gallon last year. Nationally, gasoline prices are averaging $1.891.

Prices at the pump have been falling along with the price of crude oil, the main ingredient in all petroleum fuels. Crude investors have been concerned that as the global economy slows, demand for fuel will fade worldwide.

Oil prices have fallen more than 60 percent since mid-July. Oil continues to fall, closing lower than $50 this past week. Prices peaked at about $147 a barrel in July.

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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