"N2EY" wrote in message
...
In article , "Dee D.
Flint"
writes:

Just to put those numbers in perspective, I'll list some other things
that I
remember from 1973-1974. An engineer who had just graduated with a
Bachelor's degree from college was getting about $10,000 to $11,000 per
year. A nice 1200 sq ft house with full basement and decent sized yard
could be purchased in the suburbs around Seattle for under $30,000 and
the
monthly payment was under $300 per month.

I graduated EE school in 1976 and those numbers are right in line with my
experience (1976 numbers about 15% higher due to inflation).

Some other datapoints:

- New car prices ranged from $3000 to $5000
- Gasoline was about 60 cents a gallon
- A year's tuition at an Ivy League university was $4500
- Ham rig prices were somewhat less than today's prices Maybe 60-75%.
- Inflation was double digit and interest rates were not far behind

73 de Jim, N2EY

My first son was born in October 1974. The following year, 1975, I can't
remember the exact figure but my then-husband made right at or a little
under $3,000.00 and I think the only "assistance" (welfare) we were on then
was for Medicaid. I don't remember ever doing food stamps, cash, or
anything like that. But, I think I remember when I found out I was
pregnant, we immediately went to Social Services to see what we could do
about Health Insurance.

Anyway, so health issues aside (and other than pregnancy neither of us ever
went to the doctor), we, uh, well, subsisted on that income. Heh heh, we
sure didn't "live" on it, but we weren't in need; we had food on the table,
gas for the car to go to work, and rented an actual house. Granted, we went
without cooking gas all Summer (we cooked on a grill outside or ate a lot of
sandwiches), so we could save up for heating oil through the Winter. The
house rent, if I remember correctly, was $75.00/month. Two-story, 2-bdrm, 1
bath, kitchen, living and dining. Huge lot (I grew and froze all our
veggies in a 32' x 32' garden--with NO motorized tools mind ya), we had a
deer every Winter that I'd make stretch for meats (mostly ground to make it
last), and my husband ate fish (trout right out of the Battenkill River).
Yuk, I didn't like fish.

Gasoline for the auto, what was it? $0.28 or something near there? Gosh, I
can't remember all those prices. Baby food was, I think, $0.19 a jar
and--oh, disposable diapers were just coming onto the market and I sure as
all get-out didn't have money for them. LOL I went the cloth diaper route,
in fact I can't think of any of my friends using the disposable, except for
whatever ones they got in baby showers and, when those were gone, that was
it.

Anyway, life may have seemed simpler then, and maybe it was to some degree.
But, I'll take life today much quicker! I could not be shopping for a 2300
sq. ft. home back then!!

Kim W5TIT