I was around when min wage was $1 per hr. and the avg middle class made $700-$800 per month. A New car was about $1000, A 3 bed 1800 Sq ft House cost just $4000 or about $80-90 per month. Utilities for the same approximately, $20-$25 per month. Gasoline 17 to 20 cents per gallon. A loaf of bread 5 cents, average grocery bill was $25 a week. Price of a postage stamp just 3 cents. A visit to the family Doctor $10, and Emergency Room visit about $20. Full delivery for a baby was a measly $300 for full term Ob/Gyns and about $500 hospital 2 overnight stay in a private room. Minimum wage was instituted to protect children from being exploited. Adults rarely worked for minimum wage…
I remember a penny buying a sack of candy. Coffee was brewed in a percolator. Gold was $40 dollars n ounce. 25 cent movies. 50 cent a pound coffee. 20 cents for a pack of cigarettes. $1 pro baseball tickets. I remember many things…
I remember making $10 an hour to short line assemble combines and when I welded axles for those combines, I made $15 an hour. I remember being so damn rich that I would hold on to three or four paychecks before I deposited them in the bank…
I remember Edmond and bought everything through them to satisfy my mad scientist desires. I remember selling seeds and earning my first BB Gun, a Daisy Red Ryder Carbine. Oh those where the days…
I remember the bobby sock era. I remember dynamite as a normal item. I remember paper money backed by gold and silver. I remember S&H green stamps. Brownie cameras. Sinclare Dinosaurs if you filled up with gasoline…
I remember a whole different world than what we have now…
Could you imaging what we would remember if we lived to be a thousand years old?
Maybe it is better that we don’t live that long, for I still want to buy all those neat things found in comic book ads, such as x-ray glasses and I even remember cars with no turn signals. What do you think your arm was for?
What else?
Jeans were called dungarees. No dial on the phone, had to talk to the operator. Beating on your TV to get any type of picture and standing during sports events with the antenna at the window. TV was off the air by at least midnight. I remember way too much…
But it was fun and most of all I remember toys that used your brain and not batteries…
Guess I am too old…
WtR