Rememberr when?

[280fan]

I remember in '65 buying a brand new SS Chevelle with a special order 350 HP engine for $2,929, putting .25 high test gas in it and riding around smoking .23 Marlboros and drinking .99 Blue Ribbon. Also remember paying about .50 for .22lr, less than $2 for 12 ga field loads and $2 for my hunting license. I was 19 yrs old, worked at a DuPont plant for $4.20 and hour and I was freaking RICH!!

 

[tnshootist]

Did things change that fast or maybe I have been asleep under a tree for a few years.

 

[6mm06]

Originally Posted By: tnshootistDid things change that fast or maybe I have been asleep under a tree for a few years.

Things changed. Back then, even though wages were not as much as today, it seems that I had more gas money then than I do now.
Gas back then didn't seem to bother me as much as filling up now. I haven't done the math on it, but I just remember the days.
It seems that gas and other things are priced so much higher today and getting further out of reach of a lot of people.
Just look at auto prices these days, with $45,000 or more needed to purchase a new 4x4 truck. In 1974 I purchased a new Chevy truck
(2-wheel drive) for $3,200. In 1983 I could purchase a new Chevy 4x4, basic model for around $7,000. Maybe things are proportional,
given salaries and inflation, but it just seems today that some things, like automobiles, are being priced out of reach of a good portion of the public. Salaries aren't keeping up.

 

[OldTurtle]

Quote:but it just seems today that some things, like automobiles, are being priced out of reach of a good portion of the public. Salaries aren't keeping up.....Between Union Contracts, Non-Sustainable Retirements, NSTB Safety standards, and EPA regulations requiring environmental upgrades, as well as high business taxes, the cost of living has been steadily out pacing the income for the average working person...

Mandated Ethanol use in gasoline has driven up the price of Corn to the point that the Mexicans are complaining abuut not being able to afford to make tortillas...

 

[pdhunter]

I have a 50 ct . Red box Remington .22lr that I bought before I went to Viet Nam that at Carls Liquor and guns marked .17 cents in black grease pencil . that was in'67

 

[tnshootist]

Winchester Wildcat.22 was .99 at Wal-Mart in 2000.

 

[Coyotehunter_]

I'm almost 65 now and remember back in the days when I would go out and find empty coke bottles and take them to the small corner store to get the refund. I'd make enough money to by some of those candy cigarettes or a chocolate bar or some sweet tarts. That was back in the mid 1950's when coke bottles cost real money and were not made to be disposable. They had a return fee added to each bottle sold.

And I can also remember going to the gun shop to buy a box of 22 ammo for under a dollar. A box of 22LR would last me a life time as I only used them to hunt squirrels and didn't really do much target shooting except on a few occasions.

I remember walking back a gravel road into the woods to visit a friend. He lived in a log cabin at the back of the lane in the woods near a big lake. We would shoot our single shot 22 rifles and put a pole out on the dock to catch some small catfish. Every so often we would stop shooting and go check the fishing poles and pull in a small fiddler catfish. Then we would go back to shooting. I remember my friends dad showing us how to adjust the rear sights on the 22 single shot Marlin Rifle so that we would better hit the target. We were shooting at the target that was only about 30 ft away using iron sights. It was many years later when I was in High School that I finally got a 4X weaver scope for my rifle.

When I was in college I bought my Ruger 10/22 with a good scope and was in seventh heaven. I had a trail bike that was the Honda XL which was part street bike and part trail bike. I use to ride it over to this big woods and run the hills in trail bike mode. And some times I'd take the rifle alone and go squirrel hunting in the woods. The local University purchased all that land and now the field between the road and the woods is a baseball and soccer athletic complex with several ball diamond and two or three full sized soccer fields. And there is a public walking trail that meanders though that woods for several miles now. It's paved and there are emergency telephones ever 1/4 mile along the trail. Wild deer and other critters still roam those woods along with all the students and the public who walk the trail and also ride bikes on the trail. The University Security has electric or gas golf cart type vehicles that patrol the trail too. All my good hunting areas have been paved over with concrete and houses are not sitting where it was once open fields. They call them subdivision these days.

I remember when I was in college and I got my first well paying job working in a sheet metal factory. We made metal panels that were made into giant baking ovens for the automobile industry. I worked nights (2nd shift) and during the mornings I'd go swimming at the lake during the summer months. I made $4.00/hr and bought my first car. I still lived at home and saved up my money to buy that car. When I finally graduated from college I got a poor paying job and it's been that way ever since. I doubled my pay scale but inflation made everything 4 or 5 times higher. And it continues today.

I'd say yes, the good old days are gone now. Sad but true.

Oh How I still long for the good old days.

 

[crocket]

Coyote hunter, that makes me wanna go back, excellent story, even though I'm not your age, I still yearn for a more simple life of those days you describe. I live back in the woods with my family and livestock where life is simple and blessed by God, unfortunately I still have to work to keep food on the table,it is getting harder to do with oil prices being what they are and the government influence on everything else trying to kill the working man. I'm prepared to hunker down and live off the land that the good Lord gave me, when the power is out and fuel is hard to obtain, hopefully not I'm my time. God bless

 

[Rubenator]

Whats REALLY sad is most kids these days wont have anything to reflect on thanks to the electronic gadgets.

 

[Varminterror]

Originally Posted By: OldTurtleMandated Ethanol use in gasoline has driven up the price of Corn to the point that the Mexicans are complaining abuut not being able to afford to make tortillas...

 

[hydehunter]

I guess I'm getting old.I used to buy RWS Target 22 ammo for 24.00 a brick and still have some and Federal target was 12.00 per brick, and when you bought a gun you received your first box of ammo from the dealer for free, boy have times changed (what a [beeep])

 

[sandy hicks]

Rws at academy was 14.00 for 50. Wont be buying any of that.

 

[hm1996]

1956, when a pre-64 Mod. 70 Win. (there weren't any post 64's

) sold for $120.00 or you could get a National Match for $175.00.

Regards,
hm

 

[millerjq]

22LR ammo? What's that? I thought that was a myth?
Oh, this is an older thread. No 22 ammo then, none now.
I don't know what gives, but it really grinds my gears when the only 22 ammo I can find is at a pawn shop at $7 for a 50 round box once in a great while. I got us each a 50 round box and he questioned even shooting it for fun since it's so hard to find...

I mean seriously?

How do these guys price gouging and keeping supply limited even sleep at night?
I visited my dad earlier this year and we though, "lets go shoot the old 22s for fun." Not one store within 50-60 miles or so had any.
Don't know if the disappointment on my fathers face or the thought of the A holes that do this to fellow shooters and fellow Americans was worse.

Don't believe in Karma, but if it's out there, I hope it hammers these kind of people. Some call it marketing, I call them corrupt.