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Dire Predictions & What We've Lost
When we start talking about the economy, it makes me think of this
list of dire predictions from the '50's and 60's. Funny
thing is, I actually remember these things being said!
(1) "I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are,
its going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for
$20.00."
(2) "Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be
long when $5,000 will only buy a used one."
(3) "If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A
quarter a pack is ridiculous."
(4) "Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime
just to mail a letter?"
(5) "If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to
hire outside help at the store."
(6) "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,"
(7) "Kids today are impossible. Those ducktail hair cuts make it
impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will
be wearing their hair as long as the girls,"
(8) "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."
(9) "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."
(10) "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 that they will be making more than the President."
(11) "I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances
would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters
now"
(12) "It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few
married women are having to work to make ends meet."
(13) "It won't be long before young couples are going to have to
hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work."
(15) "I'm just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door
to a whole lot of foreign business."
(16) "Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when t he
Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder
if we are electing the best people to Congress."
(17) "The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I
seriously doubt they will ever catch on."
(18) "I guess taking a vacation is out of the question now days. It
costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel."
(19) "No one can afford to be sick any more, $35.00 a day in the
hospital is too rich for my blood."
Some added comments from the group.
I remember my mom having a total heart attack because we had to pay
43 cents a gallon for gas in tourist trap. This was in
1971. We got a little cabin in the woods with a kitchenette at a
motel for $6.00 a night though.
I could fill my 20 gallon tank on my moms station wagon (which she
got only a year old for $2,000) for under $5.
When I started working in a grocery store in 1969 cigarettes were
.35 a pack and about $2.95 a carton. People were threatening to quit
smoking when they went to .50 a pack.
Those were the days when inflation was low, when people spent actual
cash received from the week's paycheck and from
savings... there were NO credit cards as we know them now. Then
started lay-aways. There were always little convenience
charge accounts (interest free I believe) at some stores and shops
and that started to grow/spread with the individual stores and
department stores (still interest free I believe) and then somehow
along the way came the bank-owned-and-run BIG charge cards charging
BIG interest... the day of 'plastic' and 'big-money-making-interest'
arrived. Rather then a convenience to customers, it became big
business in and of itself.
Remember stopping at the gas station and having the attendant put a
dollars worth in. He even cleaned your windshield,
would check ya oil and even check tire pressure and would put free
air in your tires. AND they were so very nice and
friendly and I do not believe they were tipped and absolutely I know
they did not appear to expect a tip. Yep... was their job
and most performed it so very nice and professionally.
I have bought a dollars worth of gas many times. Cokes were a nickel
and hamburgers a dime. Course wages were a dollar
or so an hour I had a blast in the 50s.
I remember when Motel-6 was called that because it was $6 a night.
I remember buying 2 frozen trout at the grocery for 50 cents
(total...not each). Was a great fairly cheap dinner...and I love
trout.
BUT do you remember the most important thing??? To a kid anyway. At
the local drug store, there was a soda fountain. You
could get an enormous dip of ice cream in a cone for a nickel! And
if you had a dime, you could get a cherry coke and a cone!
Boy oh boy... you just reminded me of how much we have 'lost'
and things I never thought I would look back-on as WONDERFUL
treasured memories.... Those were the days!
This came from a public eBay forum discussion, and I thought it
was worth repeating here.
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