YESTERDAY'S MEMORIES of a Bygone Time

Sunday, June 22, 2008

A Tank of Gas

My hubby tells stories of him pooling his change with his buddies on Friday and Saturday nights to put a dollar's worth of gas in his friend Johnny's old car, so they could drive around and hang out together. They would go to Sky Castle's and one of them would order a coke while they sat and talked, and when the waitress would be about to shoo them out, another one of them would order something. It was all like a scene out of Happy Days! That was way back in the 50's, before we met and started dating.

I was reminded of his stories when I saw this in the newspaper the other day:

When I was in high school in the 60's, I could fill up my car with $2 worth of gas. Interestingly, I couldn't afford a tank full of gas back then, either.

So, is gas really all that high even now? I'm not so sure. Our first apartment was $52.50 a month. Our first home cost us $101 a month, and it was all we could do to qualify for the payment. My first teaching job paid a whopping $265 a month, after paying for college to get it. When you put the prices of everything else from way back then in perspective with what those things cost today, gasoline probably is right about where it should be. Not that I like paying $4.00 a gallon, mind you. But considering how much money everything else costs, I think our reaction to gas prices may be more emotional than intellectual.

Any thoughts???

Labels: 1950's, first home, gasoline prices, High School Memories, home buying, inflation, mortgage, nostalgia, teaching

posted by Dirty Butter 5:36 AM

Comments:

I think you are so right. My children love to talk about how low prices were when I was there age, but they don't seem to grasp how low salaries were too.

Gasoline prices hurt though because the cost of everything else depends on those.

# posted by

jan : June 22, 2008 2:15 PM

You are right about the spiraling effect of higher gas prices, for sure, Jan. Add in the horrible devastation over the last month or so in the nation's bread basket, and we can expect to see some outrageously high food prices later this year.

But, I remember the 70's, when we couldn't get gas for any price, and we survived that.

Once the election is over the Democrats won't have a reason to continually harp on the economy, assuming they win, so things should ease a bit then. People can talk their way into a recession if they are not careful. It's kind of like a run on a bank.

# posted by

Dirty Butter : June 23, 2008 7:34 AM

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