More "What things cost!"

[oldgeezershooter]

We remodeled an old ranch house a few years back and found some papers inside a wall. There was a letter explaining that the owner was building the house himself, and a flyer with prices of reloading supplies and a couple of newspapers.
It was dated Nov. 20 1948. Here are some examples. (There were about 5 pages.)
New empty cases-.218 Bee-$4.30 per 100
.220 Swift $7.10 per 100
.30-40 Krag-.257Roberts $7.10 per 100
Primers-Western #6 1/2& 8 1/2 N.M.& N.C. rifle primers $6.00 per thousand.
Western # 1 1/2 & #7 pistol primers $6.50 per thousand
Smokeless powder-DuPont 4227,4198,3031,4320,4064&4350-$1.95 per #.
#6 pistol, MX shotgun $1.30 per #.
Hercules-2400,& HiVel #2 $1.85 per #
Lyman powder measure $10.50 ppd. Belding and Mull $13.00, Smiley tools cut-off and trimmer $14.50
Lyman new model 45 lubr-sizer $13.00 ppd. Potter electric furnace Model-C $16.35 ppd.
Ideal dipper $.95, Sierra gas checks-$1.75 per 1000,Speer bullets-.257 $3.75 per 100, .270 $4.00 per 100
Fadco-.224 48gr. pointd soft points-$2.65, Remington bullets-$3.75-$4.40.
Scopes-Weaver K2-5 w/crosshairs or post$37.50, K-6 w/crosshairs-$48.50, Unertl 4X or 6X $34.00
Free leather scope covers. New Rifles-Win.model 52 target Lyman 48 rear and17A front $95.00.
Win. model61 pump-$44.50.
There was a bunch more but this is a good example.

[starmac]

LOL What was top wages in 1948 though.

[BruceB]

100 new .220 Swift cases @ $7.10 per hundred in 1948 = $66.80 in 2012 dollars.

Still think those prices were "cheap"?

[elk hunter]

In the mid 70's I was paying $5.90 a thousand for primers and $39.00 for 25 lbs of H-335 and making my own jacketed bullets for the 223 out of empty 22 LR brass. It doesn't seem quite so cheap when I remember how much I was earning, $695.00 a month.

[rattletrap1970]

The numbers are bigger but the ratio between earned income and expenses are pretty darn close still. Avearge mean income in 1968 was roughly $7700.00 /year. And a home was roughly $20000 Now, $77000 /year home $200,000. Now of course those numbers are all over the place, but, if you just look at raw numbers the disparity LOOKS a lot bigger than it IS. I remember fixing the floor at my parents house and under the lineoleum there was newspaper (oddly enough, on my birthday May 2nd, but 1945) I was born in 1970 so I thought it was just cool to find that. I looked at prices there for a washing machine. If you took the average months salary back then and figured the cost of that washing machine, the percentage was pretty darn close to today. I thought that interesting.

[gbrown]

I've noticed things along thru the years like several have posted here. I can remember when gasoline was 15 cents a gallon, but then minimum wage was $1.25/hr. Back in '47 my dad was a journeyman ironworker making about $1.50 an hour, if I'm not mistaken. Just as rattletrap1970 points out, it all averages out, as far as income vs cost percentages. Gasoline has gone up a little more, but that is also because there is a greater demand, worldwide, than 50 years ago. China, India, and Africa were not using as much gasoline back then as compared to today.

[KCSO]

The difference here is what you thought you had to have in 1948 vrs 2013. For example: \No cell phone or cell phone bill and probably no home phone, no medical insurance, no cable TV, in fact no tv at all! There was very little car mieage as everything you did was close to home and familys for the most part were either closer together or they communicated by letter. Especially in rural midwest there were few changes in lifestyle from 1880 to 1950 or so. Schools were close to the communities and kids walked to school until they could afford a $50 car. Even clothing was less of an expense as most folks didn't have a closet ful of clothes. My Grandfather on the farm had 3 pair of overalls and one good suit outfit for church and that was the extent of his wardrobe. The kids wore hand me downs till there were wore to rags and then the rags were mae into qults or rugs. Money went a darn sight farther in 1948.

[oldgeezershooter]

My granddad told me the first house he built cost $600.00 for the material, and the guy at the lumberyard threw in the nails.

[unclogum bill]

In 1968 at the tender age of 17 I bought my first car a 58 volkswagon for 2 hundred fifty five bucks, no gas gage,you stuck a stick down the tank. Armed with a five dollar bill I dressed up in my best . Put 2 dollars of it in the gas tank (>39 cents a gallon) and went on my first real date. Took her to Tropic frost where you could buy four hotdogs and an orange drink for a dollar and we went to look at the stars with change still in my pocket. Point being 5 dollars made you a king...

[smokeywolf]

In 1968 at the tender age of 17 I bought my first car a 58 volkswagon for 2 hundred fifty five bucks, no gas gage,you stuck a stick down the tank. Armed with a five dollar bill I dressed up in my best . Put 2 dollars of it in the gas tank (>39 cents a gallon) and went on my first real date. Took her to Tropic frost where you could buy four hotdogs and an orange drink for a dollar and we went to look at the stars with change still in my pocket. Point being 5 dollars made you a king...

Bill, where the heck were you in '68 that gas was over 39 cents per gallon? Hawaii?

smokeywolf

[unclogum bill]

Bill, where the heck were you in '68 that gas was over 39 cents per gallon?
Hawaii?
Yonkers NY , and that was the cheapest station in town , Gas-Mat, Tuckahoe rd.

[Kull]

When I bought the house I currently live in I found a stack of owners manuals for the appliances in the house. Some had receipts.

98' Whirlpool Oven, $729.38 installed.
97' Whirlpool Washer, $459.99.
97' Whirlpool Dryer, $339.99.
87' Montgomery Wards Fridge, $559.99.
97' Monitor Heater, $1699.00.
97' Kerosene for the Monitor, 240 gal for $240.00.

The last one most of all makes me angry if and when I think about it.

[starmac]

Up until 73 I was getting gas at normal prices 24.9, during a gas war it would get as low as 19.9. This was in the houston area.

[unclogum bill]

At age 12 in 1963 I gathered up my worldly fortune from running a paper route and want on my first shopping spree. I ironed every dollar bill I had and placed them in a homemade wallet my grandmother gave me for Christmas . Armed with two hardboiled eggs and A coke bottle filled with water and corked I walked to the Cross County Center. I had never had a new pair of pants and a set of jeans set me back 7 bucks. Bought a selfwind Timex watch with a metal flex band and glowing hands for 17 bucks and last a clock radio for 13 dollars. Every thing a boy becoming a man needed. To say life was tough would be a lie. It was great. Was able to time my walk home. Took just over two hours. That watch run 5 years and then I sent it in for a new crystal and rebuild. That cost 11 dollars. When dollars are tight , you remember them.

[gunnerasch0]

I remember mid to late 60s gun prices. Pistols were still allowed to be listed in classified ads in Seattle area. I saw a "Red 9 broomhandle"
that the owner wanted $45 for. I wanted it but just didn't have the money.
Gas and cigarettes were about 30 cents back then (gallon/pack). Primers were $6 a thousand, Local gun club group purchase got them down to $4. I shot at the Kenmore range, highpower matches were like $2 and another $2 got you 3 20 round boxes of 30-06 ball ammo. Most shooters just through the cases away as the crimped primer pockets were a hassle. I and my friends kept our cases and anybody else's unwanted cases (We used to joke about the signs at Scottish golf courses: "Members will refrain from picking up lost golf balls until after the third bounce"!) I was too young to have had age nor money for those DCM sales of 1911s and carbines.

OTOH I have survived some health issues that were quite often fatal back in the 50s and 60s.
I can communicate here with a laptop that couldn't be replaced by any 50s computer nor have the internet to do it,

[MT Gianni]

In the mid-early 60's the only people I knew who had flown commercial were very well off. My wifes G-Grandparents went to Greece and went by train and boat. At the time he owned three restaurants flat out. My parents only called long distance of someone died. Dad made $1.40 per hour as a Union Carpenter in 64 and I remember him telling me long distance was $.50 a minute.

[smokeywolf]

In '73 I was working in a truck stop. Gas pumps in the front and diesel in the back. We were one of 2 stations open 24/7 in the small city. This was during the first so-called "gas shortage". At 1/10 of 1 U.S. cent (does that denomination actually exist?) under 40 cents per gal. we were the highest price gas in the city. One tenth of one cent less than 30 cents per gallon was available at at least 2 other stations in the city. If I remember right, diesel was 24 to 26 cents per gal.
I made $2.50 per hr. working 5:00 PM to midnight pumping gas and diesel, washing windows (still did that then) and busting truck tires. We used to compete to see who could patch an inner dual the fastest; I got it down to 20 minutes flat. We didn't have a cage. Had to use breaker bars to contain a ring popping off.
Also went out on the occasional tow call. Tow truck was a 2 ton with a 2 speed Spicer rear end.

Drove Petes, KWs, Freightliners, Macks and Diamond Reos with an assortment of transmissions from 13 speed Roadrangers to Spicer 5 and 4s (5 speed w/4 in the brownies) while working there.

I also had my own thriving produce business going. Started by polishing the wheels on a guy's truck while he was having dinner in the Truck Stop Cafe. He was hauling potatoes bound for Frito Lay. He gave me an 80 lb. sack of potatoes for my efforts.
Next truck came in was hauling tomatoes. I traded the driver 20 lbs. of potatoes for 40 lbs of tomatoes. Next truck was hauling lettuce. Got a flat of lettuce (29 heads) for 5 lbs of tomatoes and 10 of potatoes.
Used to get strawberries by the 5 gal. bucket that were on their way to Smuckers. Avocados, Broccoli and various peppers, garlic coming from Gilroy.

My mother bought very little in the way of produce for a couple of years.

smokeywolf

[unclogum bill]

My Grandfather was an old railroad man and got to ride for free. As I remember in 1963 NY to Alabama taking the trains we could, was about a 3 day affair. At times they hooked up a dining car and we got to eat. Everything was outrageously priced and we always got scrambled eggs and toast. Once asked him if I could order something else. He said "Boy you can order anything you want, long as its scrambled eggs and toast.. Believe that was 3 bucks a plate,.

[starmac]

600 miles is as far that I remember traveling to see relatives when I was growing up, once in the back of an old grain truck. In them days we always took a cooler with lunch meat and all the fixins to eat, I can never remember stopping at any eating joint except if we were going through Brady Tx in the daytime. I think it was some kind of law to stop and get some barbque goat. lol The only time I remember riding any type of public transportation was when we had a wreck, and had to ride a bus home.

It was pretty often in those days for our family to meet somewhere in the middle on a lake or river bank for the weekend of fishing and getting together.

[shooter93]

Go price the materials you used in the remodle a few years ago if you want sticker shock. I can't remember a time in my 50 years building that they have jumped as much as they have the last few years. Pricing jobs of any size for most people now leaves their jaws dropping. Through your life there are different times when wages take time to catch up to increases....but this time...I think catch up is a very long way aways.

[oldgeezershooter]

When I was a kid , we would drive from Clovis N.M. to L.A. to visit relatives and my dad would take some Longhorn cheese and saltine crackers for the trip. He only stopped for gas and restroom breaks.
One canvas water bag hanging on the rearview and one on a bumper guard('48 Pontiac.) I can still tell you what the water tasted like!

[unclogum bill]

On my great train adventure in "63" "l remember a train transfer in Chicago. He had developed a case of the trots and the restroom stalls required a dime which neither of us had. Crawl under there and open it from the inside he commanded . So on a floor that has been last cleaned when plgs flew I did. I still remember his deep voice saying "To late, boy, to late.

[10x]

1968 I was earning $8.00 for a ten hour day at a sawmill. The guys I was working with earned the same and were raising families, buying cars, and homes, and saving a bit of money every month. My trapline could bring in up to $15.00 to 50.00 a week for 6 weeks depending on how many weasel, squirrel, coyote, and fisher I could get.
A savage 340 in 30-30 (complete with scope) was $79.95.

[Frank46]

Back in 19 and 67 you could get lake city ball for $10 bucks a hundred in NYC, gas was about a quarter a gallon and I drove a fire engine red dodge coronet that I bought off my brother for $200. Stolen about a year later. Heater didn't work very well and had the windshield pump on the floor, you pumped it with your foot. Frank

[DRNurse1]

I just loaded my last 1000 LPP purchased in the late 80's or early 90's <19-- not 18-- Bad Waer Bill!> with $14.65 on the box. Next batch will use the 'expensive' primers from the early 'oughts.

[10x]

Back in 19 and 67 you could get lake city ball for $10 bucks a hundred in NYC, gas was about a quarter a gallon and I drove a fire engine red dodge coronet that I bought off my brother for $200. Stolen about a year later. Heater didn't work very well and had the windshield pump on the floor, you pumped it with your foot. Frank

Back in 19 and 67 I was earning $8.00 for a ten hour day. $10.00 was over a days wages.

[shdwlkr]

In 1967 I got my first job after high school working for a state government $2995 for the year and I had worked for 7 years before on a farm my dad thought I needed the exercise.
I got my first car and old Vw don't remember the year but I could fill the tank for $3.00 and drive for a whole week. Now have another vw almost 50 years later and I can fill the tank for a little over $50 and drive almost 700 miles or close to two weeks. Yes it is a diesel and yes I like it a lot. That reminds me I remember the first diesel tractor the boss bought he paid like $10,000 for it and we got diesel delivered to our farm tank for $0.18 a gallon we also got more time on a tank then the gas engined tractors.

I used to smoke cigarettes but quit when they went to $0.25 or $0.30 a pack as that was to expensive and went to pipe and cigar and that ended thank goodness over 35 years ago. Hate to think what my lungs would look like if I hadn't stopped, most likely I would not be here now.

[TenTea]

lawd have mercy!



Youse guys have me daydreaming about my Bannerman's Catalog circa 19 and 25...

http://www.cornellpubs.com/Images4/Bannerman%201925%20cover.jpg