# The year was 1955



## Ken N Tx (Oct 7, 2015)

*The year was 1955                   and what fun times !!*


Did you hear the post                  office is thinking 
about charging 7                  cents just to mail a                  letter?

If they raise the                  minimum wage to                  
$1.00, nobody will be able                  to hire                  
outside help at the store.

When I first started                  driving, who would                  
have thought gas would someday                  
cost 25 cents a gallon? Guess                  
we'd be better off                  leaving the                  
car in the garage.

Did you see where some                  baseball player                  
just signed a contract for$50,000a year                  
just to play                  ball?It                  wouldn't surprise me 
if                  someday they'll be                  making more than 
the                  President. 

I never thought I'd see                  the day our                  kitchen 
appliances would be                  electric.They’re                  even 
making electric                  typewriters now.

It's too bad things are                  so tough now a days. 
I                  see where a few married women are
having                  to work to make ends                  meet.It won't be long before                  young couples are                   going to have to                  hire someone to watch                  their                  kids so they can both                  work.


I'm afraid the                  Volkswagen car is                   going to open the door                  to a whole 
lot of foreign                  business. 

The fast food restaurant                  is convenient                  
for a quick                  meal, but I seriously doubt 
they will                  ever catch on.

There is no sense going                  on short trips 
any more for a weekend.                  It costs                  nearly 
$2.00 a night to                  stay in a                  hotel.


No one can afford to be                  sick anymore.
At $15.00 a day                  in the                  hospital, it's too 
rich for my                  blood. 

If they think I'll pay                  30 cents
for a haircut, forget                  it.


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## hollydolly (Oct 7, 2015)

LOL Ken.....(the year I was born)


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## Ameriscot (Oct 7, 2015)

I was 3.


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## SeaBreeze (Oct 7, 2015)

Ahhh, the good ol' days, I was 2 at the time.


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## Son_of_Perdition (Oct 7, 2015)

I was 10, our parents took us to Calif to visit distant relatives, Disneyland was soon scheduled to open.  My dad let me read the map and guide.  I routed him over 20 of dips in SE Calif. desert we were all car sick at the end.  Movies were $.20, a candy bar was $.05 (Mars bar was the first $.10 bar) you could watch 2 Sat afternoon movies along with either a Buck Rogers or Jungle Jim serial and a cartoon.  We walked a block to the 'Lil' store to get Wonder bread (building strong bodies 12 ways), Kool-Aid and baloney.   We played army, cops and robbers, cowboys and indians and baseball.  Roy Rogers, Sky King and Superman were our heros.  We had 3 channels on our TV and after school viewing included Howdy Doody and Gabby Hays presents, then it was outside until dark.


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## Ken N Tx (Oct 8, 2015)

Son_of_Perdition said:


> I was 10, our parents took us to Calif to visit distant relatives, Disneyland was soon scheduled to open.  My dad let me read the map and guide.  I routed him over 20 of dips in SE Calif. desert we were all car sick at the end.  Movies were $.20, a candy bar was $.05 (Mars bar was the first $.10 bar) you could watch 2 Sat afternoon movies along with either a Buck Rogers or Jungle Jim serial and a cartoon.  We walked a block to the 'Lil' store to get Wonder bread (building strong bodies 12 ways), Kool-Aid and baloney.   We played army, cops and robbers, cowboys and indians and baseball.  Roy Rogers, Sky King and Superman were our heros.  We had 3 channels on our TV and after school viewing included Howdy Doody and Gabby Hays presents, *then it was outside until dark*.



We had to be indoors when the street lights came on !!!


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## jujube (Oct 8, 2015)

I was eight. 

We had a tiny black-and-white TV that got three channels, all fuzzy.  

Nobody's mom worked, so you had a neighborhood full of mothers who dedicated their entire being to making sure that you didn't set fire to anything or drown.   

Grandparents were old people who patted you on the head, gave you nice presents on your birthday, but didn't take up skydiving or go disco-dancing. 

You went to church every Sunday.  If you didn't want to go to church, you went to church.  It wasn't a democracy and your parents had no intentions of "being your friend".  The girls wore pretty dresses with scratchy crinolines and the boys wore bow ties with their white starched shirts, shirts that your mother STOOD OVER A HOT IRONING BOARD GETTING JUST RIGHT AND SHE.BETTER.NOT.SEE.A.SMUDGE.ON.THAT.SHIRT.BUSTER! 

If you had a sadistic teacher, no use in complaining at home (especially if you were taught by nuns).  The teacher was always right.  

Dads seldom changed diapers or burped babies.  Their job was to bring home the bacon....unless you were Jewish and then they brought home the pastrami.


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## RadishRose (Oct 8, 2015)

This was later, but I remember in the early 60's when I started fooling around with cigarettes, they went from  50 cents to 55 cents a pack. We worried they might reach a whole dollar someday!

Little did I know then, that just before I quit, I was paying almost $9.00 a pack!


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## Linda (Oct 8, 2015)

I was 6 so don't remember much about the price of anything, except my dad saying "We aren't rich, we can't afford it!"  That was his answer to everything.


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## Butterfly (Oct 8, 2015)

My parents bought this house in 1954.  Nowdays a basic car costs more than twice what they paid for this house!


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## Sassycakes (Oct 10, 2015)

jujube said:


> I was eight.
> 
> We had a tiny black-and-white TV that got three channels, all fuzzy.
> 
> ...




I was 10 yrs old in 1955 and you explained my life perfectly,right down to being taught by Nuns.:nightmare:


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## Sunny (Oct 10, 2015)

It's always amusing to compare prices with the old days, but we have to remember the salaries people were earning in those days also. I suspect the ratio of the cost of living to earnings remained about the same.


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## Pappy (Oct 10, 2015)

Just turned 18 in 1955. Thought I had the world by the b---s. My own car, a nice job and having a ball. The saying goes: Young, dumb and full of ...:getit:


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## SenseiPapa (Oct 14, 2015)

I was 9.  I remember my brothers being excited about getting a nickle raise to $1.50 an hour.  We got one TV channel (CBS).  Cigarettes out of the machine were 30 cents a pack, except for Camels.  They were 28 cents, so there were always 2 pennies inside the cellophane.  I know this because my brother smoked Camels, and would give me the two pennies.  For Christmas I would save my money and buy him a carton of Camels for $2.50!  Can you imagine giving someone a carton of cigs for Christmas today!


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## jujube (Oct 14, 2015)

SenseiPapa said:


> I was 9.  I remember my brothers being excited about getting a nickle raise to $1.50 an hour.  We got one TV channel (CBS).  Cigarettes out of the machine were 30 cents a pack, except for Camels. * They were 28 cents, so there were always 2 pennies inside the cellophane*.  I know this because my brother smoked Camels, and would give me the two pennies.  For Christmas I would save my money and buy him a carton of Camels for $2.50!  Can you imagine giving someone a carton of cigs for Christmas today!



My dad always gave me the two shiny pennies out of the pack.  I had forgotten that.  He also rolled his own cigarettes when finances got tough; he had some kind of weird little doo-dad that rolled the cigarettes.


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## Linda (Oct 14, 2015)

jujube said:


> My dad always gave me the two shiny pennies out of the pack.  I had forgotten that.  He also rolled his own cigarettes when finances got tough; he had some kind of weird little doo-dad that rolled the cigarettes.


My parents also had that little roll your own machine.  I don't think about that aspect of it much, but my older brother (6 years older than I am) is quite bitter because, no matter, what the folks had cigarettes and coffee. This is before the days of government commodities or food stamps.  People were really hungry sometimes.


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## Ken N Tx (Oct 15, 2015)




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## Pappy (Oct 15, 2015)

I remember the two pennies in the pack and you always got a free pack of matches. I rolled my grandfathers cigs on a big old machine. He used Bugler tobacco and had a tin to hold them in. No filters back then.


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