I Miss the 50's

[Snowbird]

[wmccall]

Yea, my memory of the 50s is fading, I was alive for 6 months of that decade.

[Spatech_tuo]

Yea, my memory of the 50s is fading, I was alive for 6 months of that decade.

Mine's fading too, they never show Happy Days reruns anymore!

[Chas]

Mine's fading too, they never show Happy Days reruns anymore!

Of course not! They jumped the stupid shark!

[Spatech_tuo]

Of course not! They jumped the stupid shark!

and that was truly the beginning of the end.

[Snowbird]

[size=16]Comments from 1955

"I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20."

"Have you seen the new cars coming out next year?  It won't be long before $2000 will only buy a used one."

"If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit.  A quarter a pack is ridiculous."

"Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?"

"If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store."

"When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon.  Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage."

"Kids today are impossible.  Those ducktail haircuts make it impossible to stay groomed.  Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls."

"I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more.  Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying 'damn' in 'Gone With The Wind,' it seems every new movie has either "hell" or "damn" in it.

"I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century  They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas."

"Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball?  It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the president."

"I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric.  They are even making electric typewriters now."

"It's too bad things are so tough nowadays.  I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet."

"It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work."

"Marriage doesn't mean a thing any more; those Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat."

"I'm just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business."

"Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes.  I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to congress."

"The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on."

"There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend.  It costs nearly $15 a night to stay in a hotel."

"No one can afford to be sick any more; $35 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood."

"If they think I'll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it."
[/size]

[Brewman]

It's fun to look back at what things cost back then, but it's also important to keep it in perspective.  
Wonder what the average family income was in 1955?
How many hours did the average Joe need to work to afford that $20 worth of groceries?  
(not sure what minimum wage was back then, but if it was less than $1/hour, you'd have to spend over half your pay on groceries.  I don't have to spend half my  pay on groceries)

[Bonibelle]

I can tell you that in 1956 the median household income ws $4,783.00. the minimum wage was $1.00, A postage stamp cost $.03, and a loaf of bread was $.18. A quart of milk cost $.24, a gallon of gas was $.30 and a new car averaged $2,637.00. Wondering how I happen to know all of these facts?..My sister gave me a surprise birthday party yesterday, and one of the gift bags was a collection of memorable information about the year I was born! Turning 50 was almost as depressing as my last electric bill  

[Spatech_tuo]

I can tell you that in 1956 the median household income ws $4,783.00. the minimum wage was $1.00, A postage stamp cost $.03, and a loaf of bread was $.18. A quart of milk cost $.24, a gallon of gas was $.30 and a new car averaged $2,637.00.

It looks like everything pretty much went up by a factor of 10. Everyone always complaims about the cost of gas but it's such a relative thing.

[Chas]

It looks like everything pretty much went up by a factor of 10. Everyone always complaims about the cost of gas but it's such a relative thing.

So true - look at those numbers again: one new car would cost you half a year's wages if you were earning the median income.

[Brewman]

It looks like everything pretty much went up by a factor of 10. Everyone always complaims about the cost of gas but it's such a relative thing.

Bingo.

I was going thru some of my parents financial papers, and I found the purchase agreement for their first house.  This was a 1000 square foot tract house, built new for them in the mid 1960's.  Pretty plain, nothing fancy, not even a garage or paved driveway.  
Total price?  About $16,000.  Payment was about $100 per month, according to my parents.  
Dad made OK money, probably about median, maybe a stich more, but not much more, and the said that $100 payment was pretty scary for them back then.
The electric, gas and phone bill's were in the single digit range per month.  But they had money worries, even with those cheap looking prices.  We got by just fine, always had what we needed.
But we had one car, mom didn't work, no cable, central air, one phone, one TV, no fancy stereos, or boats, or other toys.  

We had 4 kids in my family, and got by with a standard full sized Chevolet Impala or BelAir, for the 6 of us.  Went on vacations all over tha place in that thing.  
Nowdays, a couple has one kid and the HAVE to run out and get an 8 passenger SUV.  Or at least a mini-van.
Dont' get me wrong- you can drive anything you desire- but we seem to have really raised the standard of living bar since I grew up.  That Impala had no a/c, cruise control, am radio only, nothing special.  

[Bonibelle]

Spatech, Look at how the cost of many of those items are driven by the ever escalating cost of energy!
Oil prices are driving the entire economy and if we don't pay attention and just suck up these astronomical energy costs, we will never force the development of alternate energy sources.

My first car was our family's old "63 chevy Impala. I was still driving that as a spare car well into the '80's!
My Dad was in construction and he built our house for around  $13,000.00, complete with a two car garage. My father worked for DuPont and our house was constructed with steel beams like an industrial application. I still remember during the Cuban Missle Crisis, our house was a designated bomb shelter and the government sent rations and water that my parents had to store in our basement.  Most of you guys have never had an air raid drill, but as kids we had to learn what to do in the event of a bombing of our schools.
My parents never had a mortgage because they paid as they built. We had the first color TV of any of my parent's friends and I remember everyone crowding my living room to see football in color. My parents never had a credit card and didn't believe that you should borrow for anything. If you didn't have the cash, then you didn't have it. Life was so much simpler and as kids we had to depend on our imagination instead of PlayStation or Gameboy for amusement. I love technology and the wonderful advances in communication but I would love to be able to take my kids back for just one week to the real world that a grew up in!  Think I had too much coffee this morning#

[Chas]

And it was uphill both ways.