yup - first job at the wreckin yard paid me $25 cash for 60 hours work, and i was never broke.
Cigarrettes were 39 cents a pack, gas was 32 cents a gallon, and beer was $4.99 a case, and returns were 2 cents, Mc Donalds Big mac fries and a pop gave you 15 cents change on a buck.
My first car was a 64 Beaumont Sport Deluxe 2dr ht - blue on blue , 283 auto, and I paid $25 for it cuz the guy couldnt get it runnin... needed points, plugs n wires but too cheap to have it done. I was 15.. drove it for two years before i bought a 67 Chevelle SS 327 4 spd for $700... shoulda kept the Beaumont.. lol
Man i miss those days... such a simpler easier slower time.
I hear ya,, Lots of memories,, i started working full time pumpin gas at age 15,, and a gallon of gas was 35 cents, and a pack of smokes was 35cents.-(I was making 65 cents per hour.)
When i turned 16 i needed my drivers license to drive garage cars around, (it was a GM dealership,) and the owner just happened to be the driving tester, So a trip around the block, paid $2.00, and i got a Chauffers license. (Which i have still after driving sensibly the past few decades) Lol, had it for 51 years now.
Remember,,,? -- Buy a beater for 50-60 bucks, again $2.00 to change the ownership? No safety required. ( And at times no insurance!! Lol-for a bit anyway!)
yeah I remember back when building a hot rod destroyed any value and you did it just for fun. I miss the days when car people actually cared more about the car than the money.
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I started cutting grass for my dad at age 10.....50 cents/hr...Got to drive this though
When I was 16, worked at the A&W slinging burgers and fries....Saved up $300 and bought this.
Gas was $0.49/gallon.....Life was good....I miss those days
well here some help .......... i have a smaller lawn tractor if you want to come and use it for cutting my lawn and i can t let you drive my 65 Galaxie ragtop ................it will be a trip down memory lane
yeah I remember back when building a hot rod destroyed any value and you did it just for fun. I miss the days when car people actually cared more about the car than the money.
well your welcome to come finish my hot rod since you care for free promess we won t talk money lollllllllllllllllll just like the old days
I have done lots of free work for friends hanging around the garage brain storming to get thing to work. That was part of the fun. Most of those friends are no longer with us or have become the money chasers with cars sitting in garages waiting for the right money as every one is to cheap to pay there price. I have one friend who has gotten down right rude because his car has been for sale for 5 years and no offers. He complains every time I see him about how he still has this car and how poor he is because every one else are to cheap.
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You young "Pups" won't remember this,, but years back before the cops had two way radios, The cop who was patroling his "Beat" would have to keep an eye on a red light bulb located up high on a utility pole every block. When the station dispatcher got a call, in order to get a message to the cop on the beat, (On foot,) the dispatcher would turn on that red light bulb, and seeing this, the beat cop, would have to hurry to that pole , which on there was located a "Locked" metal phone box , and call headquarters, to find out where the problem was , and go to that location.
Cops must have been very happy with the "New" technology, when the two way radios first came out.
Most would be just one bay with a pit, a small one cylinder compressor, no air tools, one hydraulic jack etc, and a tool chest with what would be considered today as a basic tool kit. Most but not all had an ancient oxy/accetylene set, a manual bead breaker tire stand, (a number where home/shop built,) and if they had a service/tow truck, it would be a 3/4-1 ton truck, with extra rear spring leafs, and the winch would quite often be a Homemade affair, hand cranked, or a what was hi-tech then an actual "Weaver-Auto Crane" bolted to the rear frame looking quite professional. That little one bay shop would be heated often by a corner woodstove, that also burned up the used oil, rags, junk, anything that would burn. Hanging up on the usually grimey wooden wall boards would be numerous fan belts , a few tire bars, and a few old "Pin ups" darkened from dust and grime . Along one wall , in a number of these old garages would be a 4-6ft length of eavestrough about chest height, hung on a slight slope loaded with the metal quart oil cans upside down draining the "Drippings" from the cans into usually a gallon can with the top cut off, the oil to be resold cheap as "Drippings" as they where called, to customers that wanted cheap oil. I remember this Drippings being refered to as 10W20 meaning 10 different grades, and 20 different brands!! (All mixed in together. Lol)
When you guys grew up gas was 50 cents/ gal and you were making 50 cents/ hour. Today gas is about 5 bucks/ gallon, and minimum wage is 10 bucks/ hour. So gas is half the price today.
A colour tv used to cost $1000. now it still costs the same at todays wages. 10 times less Cars used to cost about $2500, now they're about $25000 or about 10 times as much , but wages are 20 times higher ! Cars used to be pieces of ****(let's face it), today they are leaps and bounds better.
When you look at the big picture, things are much cheaper today. The problem is that now we have so many consumer goods available to us so cheaply, most of us have 2-3 cars, 4-5 TVs etc... Our parents never had as high standard of living as we do, but unfortunately I don't think our Kids will be saying the same
Where we pay more today is in taxes, but even so, I would NOT want to live in the old days!!!
We would be in way better shape today, as a society, if the borrowing rules of yester-generation still applied. There were no Lines of Credit, one couldnt borrow past thier earnings limits, so ones only debt was a mortgage and a single car loan cuz thats all they could get from a Bank, or afford to pay back.
We may have many "convienances" today in our too fast paced world, and i think the gist of this thread was - it was indeed a simpler time back when.
Would I trade to go back - no - but I sure would love for the world to slow down some!!
i don t know about the numbers down south .........but in 1973 my first good paying job i was making $3.07 and hour and when i retired 4 years ago my wage was $28 .70 ................that is less than 10% and real far from 20 % increase
i don t see to many people who make $10.00 bucks an hour driving a $25,000.00 dollar car and still have money left to put gas in it .........after paying for an apartment and all other living expenses and food
I was just using a hypothetical situation, and also using minimum wage as an example. I was just trying to make a point that things are much cheaper today. I guess the folks making minimum wage today could in fact buy a $12000 car which is available. I have been very fortunate to not get myself in debt, and have everything paid for. Too many people have hung themselves with easy credit and living beyond their means. I was also very fortunate to get a great paying job in my trade when I finished college, which allowed me to retire last year when I was 47.
I agree with seeker,, about things would be a bit better today if things would slow down some.
True, as posted, the Good ole Days were really NOT good in a lot of ways, many very good advances have been made in so many things today. Also agree with many things being cheaper today, tools for one item,, it almost appears at times there is a "Tool Price War" going on if you follow the catalogs/flyers.
I agree with seeker,, about things would be a bit better today if things would slow down some.
True, as posted, the Good ole Days were really NOT good in a lot of ways, many very good advances have been made in so many things today. Also agree with many things being cheaper today, tools for one item,, it almost appears at times there is a "Tool Price War" going on if you follow the catalogs/flyers.
I remember when I was 16, and got a loan out to buy an air compressor, but mainly to start building a good credit rating. It was a Craftsman 2hp portable compressor with a 30 gallon tank . I paid almost $900 for it !! That same compressor today can be had for 1/3 the price today!! Mind you, it will be made in China.
