Not a gun but still interesting. In 1938 my Father bought a 1936 Harley Knuck, he called it 61. It was used but almost no miles, price was $375. He traded a 28 flathead and was allowed $25.
Dad had decent job in a cotton mill and made a little over $700 a year, the bike was half a years pay any way you figure. He helped pay for the bike by buying a case of shine every week and peddling it out at the local road house on the weekend.
All I remember about the 70s was bad clothes, bad food, (KILL the guy who invented fondue!), and most of the music was bad, too.
You must have been a real hoot to hang out with.Originally Posted by armoredman
jd
It seems that people who do almost nothing, often complain loudly when it's time to do it.
My birth decade. I do remember K-Mart, TG&Y, Gibson's, etc.
My Dad has a shotgun from JCPenny's in that era.
The 70s were a great decade for me. I moved my family from NH to NW FL on Labor Day weekend 71. NH was stuck in a disintegrating economy due to imports replacing local manufactured goods, had high state taxes, plus a recession. NW FL was booming. The move was one of my best decisions. However, we, my family is from north FL and I was only in NH to go to college, got a job and stayed a while.
An old man once explained inflation to me, very succinctly; I would rather be broke with money in my pocket, than to be broke without a cent in my pocket.
“There is a remedy for all things, save death.“
Cervantes
“Never give up, never quit.”
Robert Rogers
Roger’s Rangers
There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
Will Rogers
I was 9 when JFK was killed. Five years later the 1968 Gun Control Act was put in place & it almost put my favorite wish book "P & S Sales" out of business. No more mail order military surplus rifles sold in the mail.
Back in the 50's and 60's until the infamous 68 gun control nonsense was put into place, there was an outfit in Chicago called Walt Cline's and you could buy guns, including pistols thru the mail and the mailman would deliver it right to your door and no records search or other hassle. james
Postman deliver mail to your door/post box? Whats that?
Mustang
"In the beginning... the patriot is a scarce man, and brave and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." - Mark Twain.
In the 80s, yes, when music was good!��You must have been a real hoot to hang out with.
Depends on what type of music you liked. I was not a disco person "my wife was" but I didn't listen to it. I listened to rock mostly. To me the 60s and 70s had the best rock music ever.
Fashion, cars, architecture of the '80's was bad. The music and post-apocalyptic movies were great! I inherited my wife's grandfathers Ted Williams .270. It's a Mauser 98 receiver made by FN, smooth bolt and is sweet to shoot. I also got his Savage 99 in .243.
70's were not all that great. Just a different time. Military during Jimmy Carter days sucked. It was the beginning of the end of company careers as huge layoffs took place. "Loyal" employees were given the boot and competition for mid-level jobs shot up. "Too old" or "overqualified" became common reasons to hot hire folks. There was even a push to start a union for the enlisted military.
There will always be inflation. In the future a gun might be worth $1M instead of $1000. Remember, a Colt SAA .45 back in the day was $17.50.
1975 a Pontiac TransAm with all the options was $4500. A Ferrari Dino was $11,000. Colt Python $375. And my take home pay was just over $600/month. Oil embargo and gas prices shot up to $0.50 and even $0.75 a gal (from 0.21/gal). And a room at a Holiday Inn was an outrageous $15 a night (Motel 6 really did mean $6 a night).
And for me, music hasn't changed. I still prefer classical.
Around 71 I dropped out of school and started working in a garage as a car mechanic. Every Friday evening I took some money to Green Dragon and went to Jack’s hardware tool stand and bought hand tools. Blew the rest on my muscle car. Car is long gone but still have almost every tool yet. Then I grew up and graduated from cars to guns and never looked back. I do miss all the small gun shops that abounded in the area. Got into reloading and then the money flew!
Look twice, shoot once.
Rather than the prices back then, I look at how much easier it was then to buy guns or ammo. Especially here in NYS, where we now have to have a colonoscopy to even buy ammo.
For me the 70’s was a good time. I didn’t follow the crowd with the silly clothes, no bell bottoms, shirts with big collars , name brand shoes or any of that stuff. I had a few girl friends but didn’t spend a lot of time or money chasing girls. My high school teacher who had a FFL and would order guns for me for free and being I was single, living at home with my dad and having a skilled trade job it allowed me to buy a lot of guns , hunting and fishing equipment , truck, car, boat with no debt ever. To this day I have never taken out a loan or barrowed money.
By 1978 I had a FFL and was able to buy most any guns I wanted , back then you could call your home a place of business and you still had to log in all sales but in the 8 years that I had it I was never audited.
Looking back there was a lot of changes going on in the 70’s but my memories are mostly all good ones.
Jedman
I noticed no one has mentioned shag carpeting or 'shaggin' wagons'. (Shudder)
I bought a New Nova in 1970 from the local Chevy dealer for a grand total of $2465.00. Great little car but had cooling problems that turned out to be sand left in the engine block. GM workmanship in the late 60's thru the 80's was not very good. The front wheel, hub and all, fell off my uncles new Citation while he was doing 45 mph on a road about a 1/4 mile from the dealership. He called the factory and told them he was going to leave the car right where the wheel fell off and put a great big side on it reading "Lemon from your local Chevy dealer". Within an hour after his call, they had picked up his car and called him with "sorry" about your problem and they did repair it and from then on, anytime he took his car into the shop for work, he went to the head of the line for repairs.
Remember my dad buying a brand new 1972 Pontiac LeMans Sport for $3500. I took it to college in 1977 and had it to triple digits on the NYS Thruway more than once.
The Citation was one of the biggest automotive brain farts of all time. Cheaply made front wheel drive econobox but with large car size and weight to kill your gas mileage.
Currently casting and loading: .32 Auto, .380 Auto, .38 Special, 9X19, .357 Magnum, .257 Roberts, 6.5 Creedmoor, .30 WCF, .308 WCF, .45-70.
GM, Ford, Chrysler and AMC all had plenty of failures in the 80s in particular. Remember those early diesel conversations GM sold? Huge ***. Ford had the fireball Pintos. Chrysler Imperials. AMC Pacers. And dishonorable mentions go to the Yugo. I could go on at length but no point.
Lost of junk on the roads back then.
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