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To be honest, we could copy and paste everything we wrote last year during the “great toilet paper shortage of 2020” and publish it in this space today. Without bringing up the exact wording, we’re sure we wrote that people should only purchase what they need and avoid panic buying so that their friends and neighbors could also get the supplies they need.

And before we all knew it, the shortage ended. The pandemic kept going, but at least we all had plenty of toilet paper.

Today, now in 2021, we’re writing the same thing, though we admit it’s too late. Gas stations in LaGrange were running out of fuel on Tuesday and Wednesday after people reacted to the Colonial Pipeline shutdown as if the end of the world was coming. Thankfully, the pipeline restarted on Wednesday afternoon, meaning this will all be over soon.

However, it’ll take a few days for things to get back to normal, meaning we’re still going to ask you to be smart about purchasing fuel. If you need to buy gas, by all means please go to the pump and get what you need. Buy what you’d normally buy. If you don’t need gas — or won’t need to refill for a few days — leave some for everyone else.

This reminds us a lot of times of when there’s a 1 percent chance of snow and grocery stores are out of bread and milk. We plead with you to avoid panicking in this situation — and to cover all bases, in wintry weather situations as well (though we don’t think that will be a problem for the next few months.)

Buy the fuel you need and move on. This will all be over shortly.