All the talk about the funds for the clunkers program made me think of my first car. Young man, things have certainly altered and not just concerning buying autos.
My father made a deal when camping that he would match whichever I could come up with to buy this first car. From this period, I earned the initial nickel I was saving. My allowance, back in days gone by, was two bits (twenty-five cents) a week.
My spouse and I grew up on a ranch next to a small, no more town known as Ventura. Ventura is about 30 miles south of Santa Claus Barbara and sixty kilometers north of Los Perspectives on the California coast. In those times, the area was mostly farming. Today all that beautiful, wealthy soil has been paved to sprout houses. The environment was and still is as perfect as you could get, and it appears people prefer melanomas to melons.
I earned a little of my money picking one crop or another. The plant-picking memory that stays in my head involved walnuts. When I was about 10, a school chum offered us a “get rich quick” system, or so I thought. Her family members owned walnut orchards also. It was harvest time. The girl told me we could earn 5 dollars for every bag associated with walnuts we picked. Within the early sixties, five dollars was big money. I thought I ought to be able to get a minimum of a couple of bags in a day. Ten or fifteen dollars for any day’s wages; that was simply too good to be correct. Of course, I knew nothing about picking walnuts; my family was at citrus and avocadoes.
We certainly learned about picking walnuts that day. The walnuts were shaken from the woods onto the ground, so they needed to be picked up. A good number of the nut products hadn’t shed their external shell, so those needed to be shucked. Something in all those outer skins staining your hands a ghastly yellow-colored. And, those bags had been really big. By the end of our backbreaking day, my friend and I also had managed to fill one bag between us. Our fingers looked like we had already been smokers for at least a hundred years! Not surprisingly, that was my first and last stint as a walnut picker.
At 60, my grandmother passed away. The girl left me 100 shares associated with AT&T. Unlike today, in those times, companies paid dividends, and management answered them. These days shareholders take all the danger, and the executives pay their lavish salaries instead of returns. One hundred shares of share don’t seem like much right now, but back then, those give paid me $240 per annum in dividends. That was enormous for a kid in my era. Unlike today, back then, investors were rewarded. I had never listened to the word compounding,” but the element I did. It just seemed like typically the smart thing to do.
By the time I was seventeen, I had saved up $1 300 dollars and recognized exactly what I wanted. From the period I was a very little girl, My spouse and I loved horses and ended up riding one as soon as I used to be allowed. Originally, I thought I Required a pickup to bring my tack in. However, I discovered the Chevrolet Este Camino. It was love instantly. The best of both sides was a car with a mattress. Perfect! Now that was a mattress for hauling equipment however, you get the wrong idea.
I think my dad was somewhat dismayed once I announced I had saved up $1 300 and was prepared to buy my new vehicle. Now, he had to shell out his share. You probably believe $1 300 is no big deal, but you would be wrong. In the current dollars, it’s probably a lot more like $10 000.
I’ll always remember the evening my father stated, “Let’s go see with that car.” I was so thrilled. We headed straight down Telegraph Road to Fillmore and William L. “Chappy” Morris Chevrolet. The car dealership still exists today. However, Chappy is no longer with us.
Strolling into the lit-up display room was exciting in itself. However, to be there to pick out the new car, well, was beyond the beyond. When I state, “pick out,” I avoid mean wandering around a massive lot looking for a needle within a haystack. I mean looking at the catalog and choosing the color, seat covers, carpet, engine, transmission, and other options. Common Motors took that purchase and made that car only for me, just the way I needed it, and it cost simply $2 600.
When you hear people talking about how our standard of living has gone down a lot in the last forty years, I think this story illustrates how they are talking about it. For $2, six hundred GM promised me the actual moon, and they delivered. We don’t think there is an equivalent available today. But if there were a similar car/truck, you’d most likely pay ten times as much and have to consider what was on the lot.
My dad could have easily just granted me the car, but they always insisted that the children work for what they acquired. This was not a bad thing. My spouse and I learned self-reliance. Self-reliance is the same as freedom. As a general rule, I never assumed I had to depend on men for my survival; women of my age did. It simply never struck me that I couldn’t provide for myself. Most women were trained to consider they had to have a provider. Seeing that I think about it, I need to always thank my father for being this “jerk.”
In the sixties, men and women saved to buy what they wished. We didn’t take issues for granted and treasured what we got. Due to Madison Avenue, people have gone berserk using credit in the last two decades. They had bought every little thing they wanted when they wished for it without having earned the idea. General Motors is usually bankrupt, and people have become captive to their creditors. It truly is tough to believe this has happened. A wonderful time in America slipped away only to be remembered by old fogies like me. Read also: https://thenewestdeal.org/category/automobile/
