changes we,ve seen

[MossRoad]

Perhaps the biggest change I've seen in my lifetime is the fact that I can remember when $1.50 an hour was a pretty good wage, and anyone who made $10k a year was quite wealthy. Our first house cost $12,250 and a $106 a month payment, including taxes and insurance was a strain on the budget.

I just went through a bunch of my dad's papers last month. He went to Notre Dame University. After high school, he worked for a year to earn the $600.00 tuition for the first year. Then he quit for a year to earn another year's tuition. He went back and joined the ROTC program, went into WWII as a lieutenant, fought the Japanese for 4 years, came back and used his G.I. money to finish the last two years of N.D. So it took him about 8-9 years to get through college for about $2500.00, which today costs about 100K. He bought his first house in 1949 for about 5K. He was making about 5K per year as an architect, and that was a good wage.

In 1985 we bought our first house for 20k. We had 2K down payment, and had to borrow 18K. We paid 3 points to get the mortgage down to 12.5% :shocked: Had we paid that house off in 30 years we would have paid 92K for an 18K loan! I, for one, don't want to go back to those "good old days"! :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Perhaps the biggest change I've seen in my lifetime is the fact that I can remember when $1.50 an hour was a pretty good wage, and anyone who made $10k a year was quite wealthy. Our first house cost $12,250 and a $106 a month payment, including taxes and insurance was a strain on the budget.

Oh, yeah... my first job was working at Dairy Queen in 1976. I made $1.65 an hour, which was below minimum wage, which was $2.30, I believe. I was 15. They closed for the winter. I started again in the spring, worked for couple months then got fired for not showing up for work. Turns out a kid that didn't like me erased my name from the schedule when I checked it, then put it back after I left. Owner found out later and apologized and offered me the job back, but I had already gotten a summer job with the city as a lifeguard at the beach on a lake in our back yard with a guaranteed $875.00 for 3 month's work! :laughing:

There were two good things about working at D.Q.
1. Free ice cream and pop on your breaks and a free meat sandwich on your lunch or dinner.

2. I met a very nice girl that worked there with me. That guy that erased my name from the schedule was jealous that she liked me. We'll be married 25 years this fall! :thumbsup: :laughing:

 

[mjarrels]

Remember points, plugs and condenser every 12,000 miles... If tires lasted 12,000 miles you considered yourself lucky... left foot operated the dimer switch!

mark

 

[Bird]

Remember points, plugs and condenser every 12,000 miles... If tires lasted 12,000 miles you considered yourself lucky... left foot operated the dimer switch!

mark

Yep, Mark, I remember those all too well.:laughing: And I have a 1915-16 publication with auto advertisements that include tires guaranteed for 5,000 miles. And we chainged oil every 1,000 miles and it was a fine car indeed that could go that thousand miles without adding a quart or two.

 

[tallyho8]

Remember points, plugs and condenser every 12,000 miles... If tires lasted 12,000 miles you considered yourself lucky... left foot operated the dimer switch!

mark

And the left foot operated the windshield washers too. Football players kicked with their left leg which was always stronger from holding down the clutch pedal. The add-on air conditioner took up too much space to put an adult in the middle of the front seat and you always heard about people being killed or injured when the bumper jack fell.

You had your carburetor rebuilt every 25000 miles. You had a place to carry change for that emergency phone call. The seat covers wore through in a couple of years but you could then restyle your interior with covers from Seat Cover King or to save money order them through J C Whitney.

Stock hubcaps looked terrible and new custom ones didn't last long because "Fonzie" wanted them for his rod. Oh, and many people's antenna was damaged when they ripped off your coon tail.

Your am radio signal was only good for about 15 miles from downtown. The non-spin-on oil filters were a bit*h to change. Tires with tubes went flat FAST. If you drove through a water puddle, you didn't have brakes for the next couple of miles.

Everyone's trunk had a spare tire or two, a set of jumper cables, a tow chain, a gallon of water and a can of brake fluid. ( It think mine still does)

At least people couldn't get away real quick when they backed into your car in a parking lot because the bumpers would usually lock up.

 

[Bird]

the left foot operated the windshield washers too.

Windshield washers?? I went through several cars before I owned one with that accessory.

The add-on air conditioner took up too much space to put an adult in the middle of the front seat

And that add-on air-conditioner usually caused the engine to overheat.

The seat covers wore through in a couple of years but you could then restyle your interior with covers from Seat Cover King or to save money order them through J C Whitney.

Unless you had a high quality automobile. My 1955 Cadillac Coupe deVille was 5 years old when I bought it and ordered new seat covers from J.C. Whitney.:laughing:

If you drove through a water puddle, you didn't have brakes for the next couple of miles.

And then it pulled hard to one side or the other when one front brake started catching before the other one. So you had to be alert, especially since you didn't have power steering. And that was the situation even with the 1964-67 police sedans I drove. We got our first power disc brakes and air-conditioners in 1968. Didn't get automatic transmissions and power steering until 1969.

Everyone's trunk had a spare tire or two, a set of jumper cables, a tow chain, a gallon of water and a can of brake fluid.

And even though I carried two spares, I still got stranded one night in my 1946 Chevy when I blew too many tires.:laughing:

One day this past week, I saw a motorcycle rider using hand signals; hadn't seen that in a long time. I've even installed after market turn signals on some cars myself.

 

[Bird]

For another change, how about lawnmowers and string trimmers. We used to have to mow with a reel type, human powered lawnmower and of course if the grass was too tall, it wouldn't cut it at all, so you have to use a yo-yo (weed knife) to cut it down first.

 

[2manyrocks]

The 1930's through 1945 were probably not the good old days and there have been periods since then that weren't so good, either, but not to the degree of that period in particular. Nor was the great flu epidemic following WWI or any of the cholera epidemics that preceded having public sanitary water and sewer treatment.

 

[crusty 1]

You guy,s have been busy,good to see people talking about these sort of things.Yes many changes and yet some things just don,t seem to ever change.I,v had the pleasure of having the grand kids this weekend and as always a great time but leaves me pooped!I have a little story I hope you find amussing,I nearly chocked!So grandma tells Grant to get is boots on to go outside,he appears afew minutes later and grandma sees the difficult time he has walking and say,s you have your boots on the wrong feet.He promptly replies, "grandma these are the only feet I have".:laughingave have a good evening all I,ll be in the recliner checking the inside of my eye lids!