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the good old days

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44 comments

  • Ditch-Runner

    I remember working at the grocery store a kid and loafs of bread were 4 for a dollar and 5 for a dollar on sale more often than not cambles soup was about 20 cents a can. back then I knew the price of hundreds of items we sold in the store by memory as I stocked the shelfs and priced marked countless boxes and cans ( still have my old ink stamp price marker some where )

    sadly being old we remember old prices .

    but I also remember making 1.25 a hour and thought that was great ..

    15
  • chris8X57

    My mom used to dump us kids unsupervised at the movies with two quarters. 25 cents to get in, and 25 cents for popcorn and a soda.

    She also used to buy those chicken pot pies at the base exchange, ten for a dollar. We ate a lot of those.

    3
  • 62vld2042

    Chicken pot pies and Swanson TV dinners.......those were the days.

    AND............for a few years after college!!!!!

    6
  • Bubba Jr.

    I used to work for a local hatchery on an as needed basis. My pay was a whopping $.50 an hour I de-beaked chickens after rounding them all up and putting them in cages (in the dark). Sometimes I had the easy job of vaccinating the chickens, but most times I worked my butt off. Like the time we rode all the way to Cincinnati to load up a semi-trailer full of chickens. They were caged 4 to a cage and the cages were 5 high in a huge barn. Each cage was over the others so that the bottom row of chickens were the most disgusting covered in poop from all the chickens above them. We had to remove the chickens from the cages, hold as many as we could carry, and take them outside to the flatbed 40' semi-trailer loaded with cages, hand them up to the guy on cages, then go back for more.

    I have a lot of good memories from the good old days, but there were enough bad ones to even them out. Like the time Dad packed up and moved out.

    Joe

    0
  • Smitty500mag

    I remember those good old days too. Yep I quit school in my senior year, told Mom I didn't need no stinkin' schoolin' and went out in the world to seek my fortune. About a year and a half later I ask Mom if we could talk about that schooling thing again? As it turned out my hands just didn't fit a shovel handle very well and it's hot out there in the summer and it's cold in the winter. School wasn't so bad after all.

    15
  • BobJudy

    I remember that in about 1980 I was making about $30,000 a year and back then that was darn good money. Nice new cars/trucks were $3000 and CCI 22 ammo was about $7 a brick. Fast food lunches, (that I ate to many of) were around $2. Times sure have changed. Bob

    3
  • asop

    I have no comment as I'm much younger than you guysπŸ˜‰

    3
  • BobJudy
    asop: 30484921598875/comments/30484956514331

    I have no comment as I'm much younger than you guysπŸ˜‰

    Would that be a second childhood?😁 Bob

    3
  • pingjockey

    Anyone else here who's first fishing pole was about 15' long and made of bamboo?

    3
  • Ditch-Runner
    pingjockey: 30484921598875/comments/30484914358427

    Anyone else here who's first fishing pole was about 15' long and made of bamboo?

    close mine was bamboo but only about 5' long I think dad cut them down to avoid getting hit while fishing.😁

    I finely moved up in the world to a zebco 202 at some point in my child hood ,,dads old one its what my dad used for years but then my dad moved up to a zebco 33 😲 and I thought that was the best reel any one made .. all I seen as a kid were zebco fishing reels I remember him telling me about fish in a old mill pond where he grew up would strip the gears in the zebco reels as a little kid I could not image a fish that BIG LOL

    0
  • pulsarnc

    My fishing poles were bamboo also. My first rod and reel was a Penn 209 on a solid fiberglass rod.Grandmother taught me how to cast and pick out the inevitable birds nest from spool over run. After a few lessons I was on my own

    0
  • ROY222
    pingjockey: 30484921598875/comments/30484914358427

    Anyone else here who's first fishing pole was about 15' long and made of bamboo?

    Grandpa grew bamboo and whenever we would visit, we would cut some bamboo and make a fishing pole.

    I thought I was rich when I got an actual pole and reel for Christmas. Used to tie a tinker toy to the line and practice casting off the back porch. Everything from those days is gone now but I still have the fishing pole.

    3
  • Brookwood

    My first fishing pole was a willow branch with line wrapped around the top end. Fished trout streams and caught quite a few that way.

    0
  • buddyb

    I caught hundreds of trout on a cane pole before I even knew how to use a rod and reel.

    0
  • ROY222

    Used to fish the Anderson River/Creek back in those days. Must have been a large Indian settlement back in the old days. All the farmers had large piles of artifacts/arrowheads/tomahawk heads that they would pick up when working the fields.

    0
  • Brookwood

    The good ole days! My dad was a barber in the USN. Actually, he was a sailor who cut hair on the side. Soooo! I along with all of my many brothers, always sported a "Princeton" cut. Basically a Butch with a bit of hair dangling from the forehead. πŸ™‚


    I was a toe head (blonde) but didn't even know what color my hair was until I hit my rebel hippy teen years.


    Reason I bring this up is because when I took my 4 sons to a trout fishing tournament many years ago when they were fairly young, an old VW van pulls up to the creek crossing and parked. Out comes the dad with several boys. All sporting Princeton hair cuts and willow branch fishing poles! 😲 I thought I was having a deja vue moment in the Twilight Zone!

    9
  • chme

    First fishing pole was a 8 ft long CEDAR pole- no bamboo around here, but lots of skinny blue cedar. Clip the branches, peel the bark, add about 10 ft of braided nylon line strong enuff to tow a truck- add a bobber, hook, sinker and worm. "Playing" a fish meant heaving on the pole hard enuff that the fish left the water vertically, passed over your head and hit the bank behind you. With a surprised look on its face that clearly said "What the hell?"

    6
  • gesshots
    Ditch-Runner: 30484921598875/comments/30484938966555

    I remember working at the grocery store a kid and loafs of bread were 4 for a dollar and 5 for a dollar on sale more often than not cambles soup was about 20 cents a can. back then I knew the price of hundreds of items we sold in the store by memory as I stocked the shelfs and priced marked countless boxes and cans ( still have my old ink stamp price marker some where )

    sadly being old we remember old prices .

    but I also remember making 1.25 a hour and thought that was great ..

    Just guessing - mid 1960's.

    In 1965 ... $1.25 would equal $11.26 today. - www.usinflationcalculator.com

    My first job in 1968, the minimum wage was $1.75 per hour. It covered all my 13 year old expenses ! 😊

    0
  • mohawk600
    @...: https://forums.gunbroker.com/discussion/1906302/the-good-old-days

    do you remember when Nixon was president and he made a deal with the Russians to sell them wheat. the news media was all up in arms predicting bread was going to cost us a $1.00 a loaf. oh for the good ol days.

    That was the worst foreign relations deal ever made. Russia was starving. Years of drought. There was no satellite imaging back then and of course the USSR did not reveal their motivations.

    Dumb@$$ Nixon thought he was boosting relations between US and USSR. Gave them a sweet heart deal of 1/4 wheat production that year and a multi million dollar line of credit that couldn't be called for 3+ years. The Ruskies used it to rape the US grain market and cause severe inflation world wide.

    Of course none of this was up front. It was all back channel.

    THE GREAT GRAIN DEAL

    0
  • Ditch-Runner
    gesshots: 30484921598875/comments/30484965454747

    https://forums.gunbroker.com/discussion/comment/11335474#Comment_11335474

    Just guessing - mid 1960's.

    In 1965 ... $1.25 would equal $11.26 today. - www.usinflationcalculator.com

    My first job in 1968, the minimum wage was $1.75 per hour. It covered all my 13 year old expenses ! 😊

    I started in 1973 at the grocery store about two blocks from my house but min wage jumped to 1.65 not long after I started .

    I lived a t home of course with mom and dad as I had just turned 16 , but even then in short time I bought my 1st car (a super nice 65 mustang 800.00 ) and 1st nice bicycle Nishiki ? I think how to spell it for about 125.00 my dad thought I was nuts over the bike cost I also started buying guns . at the time I felt rich 😁

    then girls and going faster in my car( hot rodding parts) came along all of a sudden I was broke again 😲

    but the memories from being young and care free and all was able to do on a few dollars a hour I will never forget πŸ˜₯

    9
  • gesshots

    It was a quick progression from bicycles & fishing to pool, poker & beer to cars and girls and finally firearms. A few dollars per hour, covered all my vices with a bit left for savings. There was always another gun gun that need a home ! Not in my entire adult life have I ever again felt as rich, as I dd then ! It wasn't all material things, either. The friends that you had back then were so much more important. Literally people you could depend on, no matter how hard it rained ! That element would be the hardest ting to replace, today. It was a grand time ... one that I will always cherish !

    9
  • Ditch-Runner

    gesshots

    I could not agree more you right on target

    I am the last of my old group of buddys there was a core group we were more like brothers and about a dozen of real close friends male and female we all ran around together we shared so many great moments together they were the kind of friends no matter the time or the trouble they would be there .. I have days I get down felling sad over the loss of all of them and how short life is when you get a few years 😲 into it . the old memories are a blessing and glad I am still around to share the memories and stories


    I worked at my old job 25 1/2 years left 8 years ago I know some of the retired fellows and gals, that I knew the the entire time worked with every day some of them still get together for a breakfast once a month about 15 miles from me . I do see one or two in passing in town over the years ( same with old class mates never went to a reunion ) . my wife keeps saying why don't you go meet up with your " friends " for breakfast I always say the same thing they were all co-workers we were tossed together by the job and made friends, I can say I did not dis like them but we were never "close friends" at least no where close to the bond my old buddy's and I had

    6
  • gesshots

    Amen ... πŸ˜‰πŸ˜Š


    6
  • 62vld2042

    I remember at about 8 or 10 years old, I found a very old baitcasting reel on an equally old fiberglass rod in my grandmother's garage.

    I went everywhere around Anadarko with that thing.

    My biggest problem was having to tie knots every 10 feet or so.........in order to actually have enough line to cast.

    Tough times??.......yeah......but what memories!!!!

    6
  • Smitty500mag

    My first old fishing reel was a hand-me-down Airex Model 3 half bail spinning reel and a Conolon rod. Took me a while to get my first Mitchell 300.



    9
  • gesshots
    Smitty500mag: 30484921598875/comments/30484958630299

    My first old fishing reel was a hand-me-down Airex Model 3 half bail spinning reel and a Conolon rod. Took me a while to get my first Mitchell 300.

    https://us.v-cdn.net/6031683/uploads/E4FEOJGHIP64/scn-0026-zpsqawzplnx.jpg

    I still have and use my 1968 Mitchell 300 ! It has outlasted 4 rods and it just keeps going ! ... 😁

    Can't complain about 52 years of service !

    0
  • Brookwood

    This all reminds me of as a kid living at home with your parents. You have no financial responsibilities. Any earnings you make, are all yours to do with as you please.


    Something called RETIREMENT is getting to that place in life where you can do the same!

    0
  • buddyb

    When I got paid from my first real job,I bought a Mitchell 300 and a Case pocket knife.

    0
  • Ditch-Runner

    Lol

    When I turned 15 I ask mom and dad for a Mitchel 301 a local place called Omart early version of Kmart or box store

    It cost 14.00 if I remember dad said I was crazy wanting a fishing reel like that when his zebco 33 did just fine

    It was the first open face reel I had seen at the time I knew nothing about them or the 01 was the right hand crank model they had the one

    And it took me a while to save up and buy a rod for it lol

    Still have it and a hand full of Mitchell reels I have bought thru out my life

    I would also like to thank smitty for his post about them and restorations

    0
  • mohawk600

    I remember when I officially started working for a living............I was 11 yo in Amarillo, TX.....and got a neighborhood paper route a few blocks from my street. I had about 100 customers on a 6 block stretch. I would come home after school and there was a stack of papers at the end of my driveway. I would sit on the front porch and roll and rubber band them and then pack them in a double pouch canvas bag.........hang it on the handle bars, and off I would go.

    At the first of the month, I had to go door to door for each customer and collect the monthly subscription fee..........I think it was around $5 a month or so for the afternoon paper and the Sunday morning edition.

    I did that paper route thing for 6 years and eventually got the route on the street where I lived. My dad used to take me in the car on Sunday mornings and after we were done, we would go to Dunkin' Donuts and then home to clean up for church.

    I remember making about $120/mo and I thought I was in hog heaven. My parents made me save most of it in a %7.0 interest bearing savings account (mid 70's). I used what spare money I had to buy coins at the local coin shop. My dad was a coin collector and I thought that was cool.

    In the end.......when I turned 16 in 1985........I had enough money to buy my first car on my own.........1984 Mazda 626 with 40k on it for around $3500.

    Those were the "golden years"........

    Now all I am facing is Bidenflation.πŸ˜ͺ

    6

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