Posted on 01/24/2008 2:03:41 PM PST by o_zarkman44
I remember buying gas for .25 a gallon regularly when I started driving in 70 or 71. Least I paid was .19.
I thought the same thing when I read it.
But I just posted it for a little lighter discussion instead of the political debate etc.
We should always look ahead to the future, but never forget where we came from.
I thought if I made $10,000 per year, I’d be on easy street. Public enemy #1 - inflation.
I am a child of the 50’s, born during the second Truman administration. I miss the simplicity but I still wouldn’t give up my cell phone, my computer or my HD TV with 250 channels and probably dozens of other things I now take for granted.
I remember being terrified as a kid when the government started opening up the fallout shelters.
The cold war was a definite cloud over what were otherwise less complicated, family oriented period of history.
Alternate travel. NYC fare 5 cents, today $2.00.
No offense to anyone, but
R etards
A ttempting
P oetry
Ain’t music.
Nor would I want to give up my cell phone, my pc, the 200 or so TV channels, the big screen, or any of these cool toys. But, we didn’t use them in place of our participation in the lives of our kids as they were growing up; unlike a lot of parents, it seems.
I do wax nostalgic some evenings, sitting out here on the hill, cold beer in hand, watching the sunset back the valley. We’ve been blessed to have been able to keep the simplicity, to a great degree, in our lives. Just us and the critters out here.
Seven astronauts were named about 1960-61.
Cigarettes were 25 cents before 1955.
Cokes came in a bottle and cost 5 cents, pack of gum was a nickle, and
Penny candy cost a penny!--now 10 or 15 cents!
Well to be fair, your average Civil War contemporary would be a bit put out by your average 1920's flapper.
Somehow we always survive "today being as bad as its ever been"
"No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital it's too rich for my blood."
Me too. I was pouring over some family records recently and found the hospital bill from when I was born (my parents were SERIOUS packrats) and it came to something like $200. Considering I was in an incubator for a couple days, pretty outrageous, I must say (LOL)
Yep, we had our nightmares, just like the kids since those times.
I can remember the nuclear bomb drills in gradeschool, climbing under the desks. But I also remember watching in awe as the Mercury program put a US astronaut into space. I had access to a magazine called “Space”...and I read every issue from cover to cover, over and over.
We were amazed when TV showed up; my grandfather couldn’t understand why anyone would want to look at a little round window on a box, just to see the face of the news guy. Got all the news he needed from the radio. That was plenty of technology for him.
Yep, the Cold War was frightening, but we didn’t let it stand in the way of running barefoot through the wildflowers, or building snow forts, or waving a little American flag at the annual Labor Day Parade.
Penny post cards,
“Stop where you are, buy a Brach’s Candy Bar. It is a dandy bar. A nickel is all you pay.”
“Twice as much for a nickel too, Pepsi Cola is the drink for you.”
Ice cream cone five cents one scoop, a silver dime for two scoops.
Candy bars five cents except Almond Joy and Mounds which were a dime.
Gas was .29 per gallon at the good stations in the late fifties, .32 for regular leaded. Ethyl cost a couple cents more.
Shakes were .20 and malts were 25. Some burgers were .19.
All comic books were a dime and classics, great for book reports, were .15.
These prices lasted quite a while, too.
In 1956 the thought of making $20,000.00 per year was mind boggling..
So I went in the Navy for $70.00 per month.
But I always seemed to have money. Of course the only expenses were for cigarettes and such...so it was really walking around money...
... and as I recall the only Fed you saw was the postman — and he came around twice a day! If memory serves, they even delivered mail on Christmas Day. (Maybe it varied from town to town, I don’t know.)
I was born in 1956. Some things are better, some things are worse. That’s humanity for you.
Every generation appears to think that their youth was a golden age and their passage into death indicates the coming of the Armaggedon.
Someday my 9-year-old son will lament the passing of the computer keyboard and that truck Daddy used to own with the internal combustion engine lacking any computer components at all. He’ll remember when cartoons were crudely drawn and funny, and computer games were simple and easy, and he had to use his imagination a lot more than kids these days when he played on his XBox, and his dreams had the kind of crystalline light which seemed to carry him to the clouds. He’ll wonder what happened to television.
I don’t know about the future. All I know is that if I wait long enough, I’ll be there.
Bump!
I remember when we only had one and it was a lot more entertaining than 250 today or maybe we were easier to entertain.
I remember having too much to do to have time to watch the one channel.
I was growing up in a small town and we were busy running around, being with our friends and going to the drug store after school and drive-in at night.
Our parents didn't have to worry about us because there weren't a lot of crazies on the streets, and if were doing something we shouldn't, some adult would call our parents and we were in trouble when we got home.
In the summer we had swimming pools but our favorite place to swim was the "swimmin hole" at the creek--and the water was clean. We rode horses and caught butterflies, flew kites in the spring and went barefooted.
During the school year most activities centered around school. Everybody in town went to high school football, basketball, and baseball games. We had Jr. & Sr. plays and the auditorium was full--both nights.
In the summer months we went on family vacations--Carlsbad Caverns and Eureka Springs were my favorites. I rode an elephant at the zoo in San Antonio and went to the Alamo. I remember the Alamo!
I loved my childhood and everybody I still know who was there agrees. We talk about how good it was and we are glad we grew up when and where we did.
We are going to enjoy it again when we get to the point of reliving our childhood. LOL!
I remember 1955 quite well. We were told in school we had 20 years of oil left and the kids in class were amazed that we wouldn’t be driving cars anymore so soon.
The most boring person I know plans her life around the TV programming. I bet she hasn't read a book in years! Stays home in front of the tube day in, day out!
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