Looking back on my early years as an adult, I remember gas cost about 39¢ a gallon when I started driving. Hamburger was about 69¢/lb. Bread was 30¢ for a loaf. Butter was 69¢/lb. A dozen eggs were 75¢, and steak was 99¢/lb. The average price for a home was about $38,000.
While those prices were considerably lower than now, so were wages. The federal minimum wage was $1.60/hour.
I remember the first car I bought vividly. It was a used 1966 Chevrolet Biscayne; I paid $500 for it. I remember going to my insurance agent to get insurance on the car. At the time, it felt like I was going to have to pay a lot of money (my memory isn’t clear enough to tell you what that amount was – it was 52 years ago). I do remember being told that once I turned 25 years old, the cost for insurance for a car would be less because I would have matured. I looked forward to that day, but as we all know, things like insurance didn’t get less expensive. Mostly because nothing covered by insurance got less expensive either.
If you fast forward to our post-COVID era, you’ll have to wait for a good sale to get hamburger anywhere close to $4.00/lb. Steak is about $13.00/lb. Butter feels like a bargain at anything close to $5.00/lb. And gasoline is about $4.00/gallon.
I’m not sure I’ve lived through a year when taxes went down; that cost seems to rise every year – but then, so does the value of our home.
I remember when I was younger, I kept hoping for a break from things breaking down or needing to be replaced. It seemed that every time I felt like I might be getting ahead, something would need replacing or repairing – let me tell you, that doesn’t change a whole lot as you get older. The fact is, you can add your body breaking down to the list of things that need to be repaired.
As I get older, I also realize that I don’t need to look too far to find someone who isn’t as lucky as I am, and I’m thankful for what I do have.
Now I have to go shopping for plants to replace the ones that didn’t survive the cold weather this past winter. The nurseries here in Florida are having a good start to their year.
Have A Good Week!
