This past birthday I received one of those books that tells you all that was going on the year you were born. Today I finally decided to really take a look and yikes!! Look at the prices back then.
Hard to imagine a family living on $2800.00 a year even if gas was only 15 cents. I wonder if that income was with or without that Harvard Degree? And that new house for $6650? Was that bought with 20% down, 5% interest and seller contribution? Gee did it have a bathroom? Oh it must have cause I remember having one and my parents only paid $4500 for the house I grew up in. LOL
Of course life was way simpler back then. TV was the lastest and greatest in technology, we ate Moms cooking around a dinner table every night (convenience food had not even been invented) and that big heavy car with the roll up windows lasted forever because our highway system had not been created.
Looking back I think I still prefer todays craziness. There is just something magical about having the world as your backyard. But then again those dinners were priceless.
Makes me think about the first houses we built in 1981. 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1 car garage, 956 sq. ft., unfinished basement $34,500. Same house today sales for $105,000.
RE/MAX Destiny Real Estate Cambridge, MA - Cambridge, MA
Cambridge MA Realtor
Hi Martha,
That's a fun thing to post! I'm a lifelong packrat and was interested in real estate from the time I was a kid so saved old real estate magazines (my theory was "today's junk mail - tomorrow's treasures"!). You could laugh or cry when you look at the prices. I'm definitely a believer in the "good old days" myself but what are you gonna do?
Martha, when we look back we can think those were the good old days. Ten years from now we will be saying these were the good old days. I think I like today's craziness too.
Long and Foster REALTORS®, Gainesville, VA - Bristow, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA
Martha: If I could have one of those things back it would be the price of movie tickets. I can't tell you the last time I paid to go see a movie in the theater. The prices are outrageous.
Well, I'm guessing those prices must be around the 1950s. Postage was about 3 cents back then (yes, I remember it). You could also walk up to a Coke machine and get a bottle of soda for 5 cents, and when they wanted you to put an extra 1 cent in an adjacent box because they raised it to 6 cents, I was outraged. In 1964, when I gave birth to my son, the hospital cost $250.00 and the doctor was also $250.00. We had no health insurance, and had to sell the motorcycle to pay for him. What does having a baby cost today???
Interesting post. When I first came to this country at the end of 1985, my first job paid $3.65. The owner of the restaurant was very proud to tell me that if I did a good job he would give me a raise of $.010 cents.
