Things said in 1955!!! Funny reading

JD Seller

Well-known Member


Comments made in the year 1955!


'I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $10.00.


'Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $1,000.00 will only buy a used one.

'If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. 20 cents a pack is ridiculous.

'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.

'I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it seems every new movie has either HELL or DAMN in it.

'I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down inTexas.

'Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $50,000 a 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 all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even makingelectric typewriters now.

'It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. 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.

'Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. Isometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to government.

'The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.

'There is no sense going on short trips anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $2.00 a night to stayin 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 hair cut, forget it.'
 
JD,
About the car price sentence: In 1954 my uncle bought the cheapest Chevy car (no chrome trim) and he paid $1800.00.

About the baseball players getting $50,000; Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams were in the $100,000 category by then, I believe.

I can"t prove it right now, but I think some of that data is in error.

But it makes for great reading, if not all factual.
LA in WI
 
I had my first off-the-farm job in the summer of '56 during school vacation, started out at $.75hr. Boss called me into his office one day and said, "You're doing pretty good work, so I am going to raise your pay to $1.00hr. But you have to really try hard to keep improving." To a 17 year old farm boy that was great! I knew nothing about "minimum wage", which did change in 1955 to $1.00hr. Someone must have brought it to his attention!
 
I had a 1955 Ford car; it was the worst car that I ever had. Came with a whole array of problems - and most of them were still in the car when I sold that pile of junk cheap. Replaced it with a 1962 Chrysler with a push-button transmission that was much better than the Ford. Wonder when they'll bring back push-button transmissions as "a new idea"?
 
I can remember my grandfather pulling into a gas station. Just as they changed the sign to 21 cents. He left because it was 20 cents across the street.
 
I can remember the Gas Wars back in the early 1970's, & I can remember paying just 17 cents for a gallon of "Premium" gas. I started filling up every 55 gallon drum that I could lay my hands on.
 
I bought a new Red Ford Conv with auto tranny . Price was 2465.00 Also worked in a gas station gas was 29.9 in 56 and was paid 1.00 hr.
 
In the 60"s sureway stations sold gas for 12.9 for reg and 15.9 for hitest on a regular basis. Once a month he had customer appreciation day--10.9 for regular. Dade county Ga. Rodney
 
I was discharged from the Army in April 1955 and our daughter was one year old. I was furloughed
for the draft when I was working for the US Government and was rehired as a returning vet. We bought a 1954 Plymouth in 1953 for about 2 grand. I bought it in Delaware where there was no sales tax. The salesman tagged it in DE. Hal
PS: Here's a pic of us in 1956.
a94329.jpg
 
Push button starters are back in alot of brands.

For some reason I think the push button tranny is back ? I don't know if I heard something mentioned about it on motor week ?
 
Back in the day, I owned a '57 Mercury with a pushbutton transmission.

In 150,000 miles, that's the only thing on the car that gave me serious grief. And it only acted up once, but that was when I was on a trip, driving through Indianapolis in a snow storm. I had managed to get it into "Drive" back down the road a ways, and I pulled into the Lincoln Mercury dealer in Indianapolis at noon on a Saturday. All I could see was all the service people walking out for the weekend.

All I could do was get a motel room. They replaced the pushbutton unit on Monday and I was back on the road Tuesday morning.
 
I recall my father telling about when his uncle bought a brand new 1915 Model T Ford. It was hand crank, as were all cars at the time.

In a bull session with some other men, my father's uncle commented, "The day will come when you just push a button and your engine will start".

The other guys laughed at him.
 
my first job in 62 was at 65 cents an hour, a few months later i ask for a raise and almost got fired. concerning push buttons; i do think they need to reconsider the floor mounted dimmer switch.
 
I was only four years old in 1955 so I don't remember anything about what things cost then, but it does take me down memory lane. I do remember postage going from .03 to .04 but I don't remember when it was. It was after 1955. Don't think I remember the penny postcard.

I went with my mother grocery shopping sometime in the early sixties and we had a completely full cart. The bill was $20.00. Mom had a fit and claimed she wouldn't shop at that high priced store again. I don't remember why we even had a full cart because we grew all of our food then. A bag of sugar and flour, a can of coffee and maybe a few spices was about all mom bought at the store. There was no soda pop, period!

When I took typing in the mid-sixties we learned basic typing on old Royal manual typewriters. When the school bought IBM Selectrics with that revolving ball we thought we'd died and gone to heaven. Everyone was pounding on the Selectric's keys when all that was required was a light touch. When our clumsy fingers hit two keys at once, nothing happened. On the old manuals we'd jamb two keys together if we hit two at the same time. Then we'd have to reach up and pull the keys apart without getting ink on our fingers.

We went on a trip to Yellowstone in the mid-sixties and dad paid $2.00 for a room at the Bassett hotel in Bassett Nebraska. The one restroom for the upstairs was down the hall. Dad bought most of his feeder calves at the sale barn in bassett. I could go on-and-on. Jim
 
I saw your handle on a post further up, and wondered if you were thinking of this guy, or it was just a coincidence. LOL
 
AHH the good old days..Remember my dad giving the station owner a good tongue lashing when gas went to 25 cents a gallon,he was convinced the guy was ripping everyone off. I paid cash for both my living kids hospital bills when they were born.first cost $200 and the wife stayed in the hospital four days. second one five years later she had problems and she stayed 2 weeks cost $2000. i like to have had a fit.now i get a bill and a doctors office visit costs more than that.
 
some where around here ive got some of the old farm ledger books, dont recall it all but one thing my wife and i still laugh about. entry in there for groceries,$5 for the month. New dress (with a note that it was bought with egg money) fifty cents. bought my wife first wedding rings working for a dollar a day. had so much time invested in her before the wedding i had to keep her.
 
Our daughter was born at the Ft Bragg hospital in 1954 when I was with the 82nd Airborne. Cost for was $5.25. Hal
 
still think the best car i ever owned was a 57 ford 2 door hardtop. and i still think it was one of the best looking fords ever made.mine had the old 6 banger in it and that thing just kept on going. drove it until it just rusted apart. I dont recall doing one thing major to it,but there wasnt a whole lot on them to tear up back then either.LOL
 
Joined army in 1955, got married three months later. First job after release in 1958 $220 a month 54 hour week. One week vacation, no health ins, no unemployment ins. Worked for him 33 years, IH dealer. Gas wars in town got as low as 11 cents for a few days. Normal was about 20. One hr work would buy almost 5 gals.
 
Was a middle child of 6 in the mid 50"s.. No job but plenty of hand-me-downs. Only spending money came from collecting soda bottles and turning them in. 2 cents for the little ones; 5 cents for the big ones. Spent most of it on penny candy at the drug store.
 
Phone went from 8 party line to a DIAL phone.
I was mopping the floor at Virginias Grill for $10.00 a week and one hamburger a day!
 
I remember being at an Esso service station in Danville, VA with my father when the price of a Coke had just increased from 5 to 6 cents. It was a real topic of conversation. I remember the station owner telling the men that he remembered when he lived in Roanoke, Cokes were 7 cents. Almost in unison, the guys all said "No way, no body would ever pay 7 cents for a Coke!!" That was about 1955.
 
I had 2- 57 Ford 2-door hard tops. The first one was Gun Metal gray, and rusted pretty bad, and fixed pretty bad. This was in 63. Then got another one It was black, Cruiser fender skirts, flipper hubcaps. Seek and find radio. Red pleated interior. 312 4 barrel with dual glass packs. The engine had chrome air cleaner and valve covers. Also had a chrome nut cover on every bolt. A real head turner. The way I got my wife! :) Vic
 

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