Were They Really the Good Old Days?

   / Were They Really the Good Old Days? #151  
As one who is approaching "golden age" (I'm sixty) I remember paying 32 cents average for a gallon of gas. I've seen gas wars where the price was 15 cents/gallon! And I remember being excited to earn $3.60 an hour with a summer government job in 1973! Before that I would cut lawns in the neighborhood for $2 to $3.50 depending on their size. I went to the local savings and loan as a 15 year old (around 1968) and wanted to buy a $1,000 CD; the teller was amazed that someone my age could afford a CD! For me, they were the good old days!!!

The discount station near our home was always 24.9 a gallon for regular around 70-71

I saved and saved to open a CD and the bank branch manager said he would be working for me someday... this was when I was riding a bike and before I was old enough for a Driver's license.

Got a motorcycle permit because it let me drive to school at age 15 1/2.

The last vestiges of that filling station were taken out last year... a trip to the bank has customers talking through plexiglas...

A nearby bank acutally puts customers through a holding cell to enter... you walk in and close the door and then someone inside has to buzz the next door open... this is a big bank... not some out of the way hole in the wall...

Then again, the post office is all plexi glass too.

No matter what anyone says... we did lose going forward.
 
   / Were They Really the Good Old Days? #152  
In my area of Northern NYS there is no plexiglass in banks, post office's or convenience store/gas stations. Over last two winters we traveled from NY to Texas(last year) and NY to Florida pan handle and may have seen plexigas at one service station-Indiana. We didn't spend much time in higher population density areas.

Two significant changes from 1973 to 2014
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?dsrcid=225439
US population has increased from about 214,000,000 to 320,000,000 - 50% increase.

World population 4 billion to 7 billion.

Earth..same size

Federal Minimum Wage Rates, 1955
Minimum wage corrected to 1996 dollar
1973 - $5.65
2013 - $4.87

Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2014
$3.60 per hour in 1973 would be $18.89 today. Not a bad Government wage for a 15 year old. Those were good days for you.

1973 oil crisis: When gas prices shot up to 55 cents | Photos from the Vault | SanLuisObispo.com
Stories about fuel economy and gas shortages became common in late 1973 and early 1974.

At that time, it was a shock when gas prices climbed to 55 cents per gallon. The new national speed limit would be 55 miles per hour. ---Gas lines, alternate days to be able to buy gas!!! Lots of unhappy people. Price increase of 200% to 300% in a short time.


In 1973 we had just purchased a very run down farm and worked 7 days a week to get our dairy farm going. I figured we were making near minimum wage ($1.60/hr). Wife and I were 24 years old and had 2 young children. Those were good years for us...lots of work, little money, good friends and good times and we were 40 years younger.

If I had to struggle like that now I would certainly feel they were the good old days.

Loren
 
   / Were They Really the Good Old Days? #153  
I think one thing that makes them the "Good 'ol days" for me is a nostalgia that I can never recapture. In 1949, I was 11 years old, my little Bud was 7. We lived in SW Missouri in a rented 2 story farm house that was at the top of a flint hill near Pierce City. We got snowed in for days at a time; we were lucky, we had electricity and running water, but no hot water. Baths were torture for me; I hate cold weather and a cold bath is almost intolerable.

We moved there in the Summer; wild blackberries were ripe everywhere along the right of way, so we had a family outing to pick blackberries. We were practically eaten alive by ticks and chiggers...what a welcoming committee.

There were no close neighbors, so my brother and I had to play together; we didn't always get along very well, sometimes but we had our BB guns and our imagination. One of my fondest memories is sleeping in the upstairs room. With no central heat, it was cold...the only heat came from downstairs through a floor vent, that is when there was any. Summer was different; it was comfy and cozy and we could sleep in.

I can still recall waking up early on a Saturday morning; it was always quiet, no TV and certainly no radio in the mornings. I could smell breakfast cooking and smell the coffee through the floor vent as it was perking in the kitchen down below, and we could hear Mom and Dad's muffled voices as they discussed what ever parents discussed before breakfast early in the mornings. I have played that over in my mind a million times...Mom, Dad and my little Bud are all gone now, and wish that I could...one more time...give them all a big hug and tell them that I love them.
 
   / Were They Really the Good Old Days? #154  
In my area of Northern NYS there is no plexiglass in banks, post office's or convenience store/gas stations. Over last two winters we traveled from NY to Texas(last year) and NY to Florida pan handle and may have seen plexigas at one service station-Indiana. We didn't spend much time in higher population density areas.

Two significant changes from 1973 to 2014
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?dsrcid=225439
US population has increased from about 214,000,000 to 320,000,000 - 50% increase.

World population 4 billion to 7 billion.

Earth..same size

Federal Minimum Wage Rates, 1955
Minimum wage corrected to 1996 dollar
1973 - $5.65
2013 - $4.87

Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2014
$3.60 per hour in 1973 would be $18.89 today. Not a bad Government wage for a 15 year old. Those were good days for you.

1973 oil crisis: When gas prices shot up to 55 cents | Photos from the Vault | SanLuisObispo.com
Stories about fuel economy and gas shortages became common in late 1973 and early 1974.

At that time, it was a shock when gas prices climbed to 55 cents per gallon. The new national speed limit would be 55 miles per hour. ---Gas lines, alternate days to be able to buy gas!!! Lots of unhappy people. Price increase of 200% to 300% in a short time.


In 1973 we had just purchased a very run down farm and worked 7 days a week to get our dairy farm going. I figured we were making near minimum wage ($1.60/hr). Wife and I were 24 years old and had 2 young children. Those were good years for us...lots of work, little money, good friends and good times and we were 40 years younger.

If I had to struggle like that now I would certainly feel they were the good old days.

Loren

The plexiglass security installs are common where I live in California.

24 hour large Grocery stores willing violate the fire code by chaining all but in entrance in the evenings. I've brought it to the attention of the fire marshall who said they have to do it for loss prevention.

My first job with withholding paid $50 a week for 6 days a weeks... this was in the early 70's and minimum wage was $1.65 with an exception for students with a work permit... which I had at age 12.
 

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