The Good Old Days

Trapper John

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Display name:
Bill Burkett
My dad passed away recently, and we've been going through old files. He had a file from Goodrich Aviation, the FBO at AMW before Hap's took over.

Goodrich's rental rates for 1973:

C-172 $13.00/hr
C-177 $16.00/hr
C-177RG $20.00/hr

These were wet rental rates for new aircraft. Dual for checkouts was $7.00/hr.

There was also an apologetic letter in the file from Goodrich about how Texaco raised their wholesale avgas price by a penny a gallon and that they had to pass that cost along to their customers!


Trapper John
 
Let's assume that the 1973 172 rental rate is based upon a "wet" usage of 9 GPH and that avgas cost $0.40/gallon(Mogas averaged $0.35/gallon in 1973). So assumed avgas cost was $3.60/hr and the non-gas cost was $9.40/hour. Using this inflation calculator the 1973 cost of $9.40/hr would equal about $47 today. Add the $47 inflation adjusted non-avgas costs to today's avgas costs of $49.50/hr(9 gph * $5.50/gallon) and that same 172 rental would be $96.50/hour in 2008 dollars and gas costs.

According to this, Hap's will rent you a 172 for $80/hr.

http://www.hapsair.com/newrentals.htm



Eggman
 
Let's assume that the 1973 172 rental rate is based upon a "wet" usage of 9 GPH and that avgas cost $0.40/gallon(Mogas averaged $0.35/gallon in 1973). So assumed avgas cost was $3.60/hr and the non-gas cost was $9.40/hour. Using this inflation calculator the 1973 cost of $9.40/hr would equal about $47 today. Add the $47 inflation adjusted non-avgas costs to today's avgas costs of $49.50/hr(9 gph * $5.50/gallon) and that same 172 rental would be $96.50/hour in 2008 dollars and gas costs.

According to this, Hap's will rent you a 172 for $80/hr.

http://www.hapsair.com/newrentals.htm



Eggman

IIRC, that website is a bit out of date. I don't think they're $80 right now, but they are less than $100. Heck, their 182RG was $120/hr wet last week. Not sure if it's gone up this week yet - they go through a lot of fuel in their 'fleet', which means their fuel/rental rates are very dynamic with the market prices.
 
IIRC, that website is a bit out of date. I don't think they're $80 right now, but they are less than $100. Heck, their 182RG was $120/hr wet last week. Not sure if it's gone up this week yet - they go through a lot of fuel in their 'fleet', which means their fuel/rental rates are very dynamic with the market prices.

That site is definitely out of date. We made it my junior year of college, I think, and it hasn't been updated since. When I quit working there 99930 was at $96/hr wet, if memory serves.
 
Goodrich's rental rates for 1973:

C-172 $13.00/hr
C-177 $16.00/hr
C-177RG $20.00/hr

These were wet rental rates for new aircraft. Dual for checkouts was $7.00/hr.

Shoot! I was getting hosed paying $19 for a 172 IN 1973. Dual was less, though, at $5. Didn't last long, did it?

Dan
________
buy silversurfer vaporizer
 
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And how much were people making in wages at that time?
 
And how much were people making in wages at that time?
When I earned my first ticket in 1981 while in the Navy, it cost me $1600 in total. I made just over $550 a month as an Airman. The newer, 1981 152 was $18 per hour. The older 1956 150 was $16.

The manual flaps on that old bird made it fun to fly. I wish I had one now to help better teach how flaps work, particularly when retracting. You learned quick to hold on to that lever!
 
And how much were people making in wages at that time?

Well, the best entry-level jobs that a high-school grad could get were union jobs in the sawmills, at around $3.50 an hour. I wasn't making that much. It cost me around a day's pay for an hour's dual, at 20 years old. An hour's dual around Alberta these days is around $175 or better, unless, to compare oranges to oranges, the 172 is only six years old as was the one I flew in 1973, which will drive the price up to $190 or $200, I think. A day's pay of $200 is $25 an hour, easily earned in the oilpatch, but those jobs are not all that easy to get. $15 is more like it.
So, flying HAS become more expensive. Insurance against lawsuits, see?

Dan
________
Yamaha YZF-R1
 
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Trapper J; you made me think and I went back to my first log book first flight logged 8/76 Cherokee 140 out of KBVY was $35.00/hr including CFI...The good'ol days indeed!
 
Let's assume that the 1973 172 rental rate is based upon a "wet" usage of 9 GPH and that avgas cost $0.40/gallon(Mogas averaged $0.35/gallon in 1973). So assumed avgas cost was $3.60/hr and the non-gas cost was $9.40/hour. Using this inflation calculator the 1973 cost of $9.40/hr would equal about $47 today. Add the $47 inflation adjusted non-avgas costs to today's avgas costs of $49.50/hr(9 gph * $5.50/gallon) and that same 172 rental would be $96.50/hour in 2008 dollars and gas costs.

According to this, Hap's will rent you a 172 for $80/hr.

http://www.hapsair.com/newrentals.htm


Eggman

Thanks for the analysis and the link to the inflation calculator, interesting stuff.

Plugging in the $0.40/gal assumed 1973 avgas price translates to $1.96 today, so I guess that says something about the oil situation.

I suppose to make a truly apples-to-apples comparison, we'd have to look at what new 172s rent for now, since that's what Goodrich was renting back then. Then again, that may not be accurate in the sense of utility for the dollar, since the new 172s have much better avionics than the old ones. Back in '73, having dual nav-coms, and one with a GS receiver was about as good as it got.


Trapper John
 
IIRC, that website is a bit out of date. I don't think they're $80 right now, but they are less than $100. Heck, their 182RG was $120/hr wet last week. Not sure if it's gone up this week yet - they go through a lot of fuel in their 'fleet', which means their fuel/rental rates are very dynamic with the market prices.

Well, they've got to cover their costs and make some profit to stay viable, no problem there.

For me, I guess it's a psychological thing. Paying $100/hr for a 172 just seems way out there. Back in '98/99 I was paying $50/hr block time wet for an old (172F, I think) 172. It was VFR only, but in very nice shape. Maybe the guy I was renting from wasn't charging enough...


Trapper John
 
When I was a CFI at Long Beach CA in 1971-72 our school rented near-new Cherokee 140's for $16.50 wet and CFI time was $8/hr (of which we got $5).

But lest we compare apples and oranges ... those were good airplanes but avionics were prehistoric by today's standards. Even our "IFR trainer" had only one navcom and no DME or transponder. N95174 was the IFR trainer because its Mk12A had 360 com channels (the others had 90!) and a glideslope.

We really have come a long way.
 
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Well, they've got to cover their costs and make some profit to stay viable, no problem there.

For me, I guess it's a psychological thing. Paying $100/hr for a 172 just seems way out there. Back in '98/99 I was paying $50/hr block time wet for an old (172F, I think) 172. It was VFR only, but in very nice shape. Maybe the guy I was renting from wasn't charging enough...


Trapper John

Oh yeah.. I have no problem with their rates. I'm spoiled -- I get to fly the RV-7A for fuel costs + case of oil when needed + sweat equity. :) As far as renting goes, though, their 182RG is about the best value I've found in central IA. I just hope they don't put a GPS in it anytime soon and make it a more 'user friendly' XC machine. Rates will slide to what they 'should' be then. ;)

I think the market has adjusted drastically over the past few years. Heck, even when I was doing my initial training a whopping 8 years ago, I was renting a 152 for $35/hr wet. I could get a 172M for $53/hr wet. I did my Complex Endorsement in a 177RG that was going for a staggering $76/hr wet. Granted, that was in a club with 50+ members, but at the same time, Hap's 152 was renting for $53/hr wet. I would hate to see what shape an airplane would be in for it to rent for $53/hr wet these days. *shiver*
 
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Oh yeah.. I have no problem with their rates. I'm spoiled -- I get to fly the RV-7A for fuel costs + case of oil when needed + sweat equity. :) As far as renting goes, though, their 182RG is about the best value I've found in central IA. I just hope they don't put a GPS in it anytime soon and make it a more 'user friendly' XC machine. Rates will slide to what they 'should' be then. ;)

Yes, that does seem like a really good value.

I would hate to see what shape an airplane would be in for it to rent for $53/hr wet these days. *shiver*

"How come there are gray stains around all of the rivets?"
"Don't worry about, kid."

Although, there is something to be said for less than pristine trainers. I used to fly an old 150 that by rights should have been recycled into beer cans years earlier. It had a remarkably unpredictable electrical system that let us get real-world experience in a variety of failure modes. Dead reckoning at night was easier than I thought it would be, but landing on a dark runway was a little spooky...Plus the random bouts of valve sticking were an eye-opener, too! Still, I'm pretty fond of that old thing, since it was my first solo a/c...


Trapper John
 
But lest we compare apples and oranges ... those were good airplanes but avionics were prehistoric by today's standards. Even our "IFR trainer" had only one navcom and no DME or transponder. N95174 was the IFR trainer because its Mk12A had 360 com channels (the others had 90!) and a glideslope.

We really have come a long way.
Yeah. I bet that 1970 Cherokee 140 didn't cost a lot more than my GNS430W.
 
When I first started working at the airport I would answer many calls about rates. I was just learning to fly and I use to say. " If you bought a block of time for $50.00 in the Cub, Aeronca or T. Craft you got 5 hours of flight time with an instructor". Solo rates for the Cub, Aeronca or T. Craft were $8.00 and Duel was $12.00

If you needed a plane with a radio then you got the PA 12 with a 3 channel Super Homer for a two dollars more an hour. At least it had an electrical system with an electric Turn and Bank indicator.
I was earning .40 to .50 cents an hour washing planes but is was the best fun I had as a young teen.

I got to fly one hour if I worked 8 hours at the end of the day.

Yes it was the good old days and did not make much but we learned a lot and had fun learning

John J
 
But lest we compare apples and oranges ... those were good airplanes but avionics were prehistoric by today's standards.
That's what I was thinking too. I ran some numbers through the inflation calculator and figured out that in 1977:

C-150 $15/hour = $54.07/hr
CFI $8/hour = $28.84/hr
My wages $3/hr = $10.81/hr

I'm not sure what CFIs make these days but it seems like I've heard the $30/hour figure around here so I think that part is close. I don't know what entry-level jobs pay either but I think $10-$11/hr is close. I doubt if you could rent a C-150 for $50-60/hr, but these were club rates. We paid dues too but I can't remember how much. Also the airplanes had only one com, one nav, no ILS receiver, no ADF, no DME and no intercom. Students these days would probably consider them underequipped to the point of being unsafe and wouldn't rent them at any price. :dunno:
 
[thread creep]

In 1997, I could buy a 20 oz Mt. Dew for $0.76 at a local service station. According to the inflation calculator, it should be $1.00 now. Unfortunately, the real-world cost is somewhere near $1.40. Thank you ethanol! :)

[/creep]
 
Good Old Days? Not aviation-related, but follow it through.


'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.'
'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called ' at home,'' I explained. 'Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'
By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis , set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was gree n, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.
I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.
We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a 'machine.'
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them
If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.
Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something . I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about . Ratings at the bottom.

1 Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S& H greenstamps
16 Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you rem embered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.
Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends...

HR (I scored a "23.")
 
I can recall 21 items. Our number when we first moved out of St. Louis was YEllowstone 7-4531 and it was on a party line. I can recall "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" on my sister's record player, on a 45, no less.

Sometimes, I wish I could smell a mimeograph again. That was the perfect scent as a kid. After my mom shot pictures, I'd grab the used bulbs and press the bubbles created.

I wish I still had the cork gun. It would probably finance an airplane.

And, ya know? Those candy cigarettes sure smelled funny when you tried to light 'em. :)
 
Good Old Days? Not aviation-related, but follow it through.

Great stuff! Older than dirt, here.

A few more that I remember:

Cars with vacuum powered wipers - step on the gas and the wipers come to a near standstill.

Cars with 3-on-the-tree.

Cars with no seat belts.

When AC in a car was rare...

Bazooka bubble gum for a penny.

Trying to use the "Weller Method" to detect a tornado with a black and white TV.

The excitement of getting a 4th TV channel.

Going to the drugstore and getting vacuum tubes to fix the TV when the vertical hold knob wouldn't keep the picture still anymore.


Trapper John
 
Good Old Days?

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
What's this? They had HOME milk delivery? Must be a city slicker thing. :dunno:
All our milk was delivered from the cows in the barn to the back door of the house in pails! :D
 
What's this? They had HOME milk delivery? Must be a city slicker thing. :dunno:
All our milk was delivered from the cows in the barn to the back door of the house in pails! :D

Don't forget the milk shoot built into the side of the house. We had Home Juice also, Big City.

We always had four channels, we could pick up Canada.

How about that first Color TV. We had the first one on the block circa 1957. It had a monstrous 25 inch screen. There was Bonanza, the Wonderful World of Disney and .............
 
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis , set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was gree n, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.
I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.
We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a 'machine.'
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.


We lived in a lake...
 
Good Old Days? Not aviation-related, but follow it through.


'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.'
'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called ' at home,'' I explained. 'Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'
By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis , set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was gree n, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.
I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.
We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a 'machine.'
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them
If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.
Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something . I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about . Ratings at the bottom.

1 Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S& H greenstamps
16 Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you rem embered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.
Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends...

HR (I scored a "23.")


This is great. My dad had a 1940 Merc. Convertible (James Dean car) for over 16 years. he sold it to get a 55 Ford that he modified to get really great milage. our phone was when I was two years old was a Crank phone with a Mag to wake up the operator it was on of 5 party line. The rings were Two long one short and two long again then everone would jump up to answer the phone, My sister would beat everyone to the phone. The County I lived in was the last to get Dial in the East Coast.

The farmer next door who had lots of money got a Stude Golden Hawk with a Paxton Blower and yes it did scream. It was a 57 and fast. Another farmer had a 54 VW with a Cow Horn on it and you could hear it many miles before it got to you. he had a Crosley before that. I could not chew Black Jack, Mom said that would rot your teeth.

John J
 
I restored a 1951 International Harvester L-110 pickup. I drive it to work, year-round, when not riding my bicycle. It has:

Headlight dimmer switch on the floor
Ignition switch on the dashboard, right in the center, and a push-button starter switch on the left side, so the right hand can work the choke (what's a choke, Uncle Dan?)
Heater mounted on the inside of the fire wall
Vacuum powered wipers - step on the gas and the wipers come to a near standstill
3-on-the-tree (Mr. Thomas! What did you just do? Is that a gear shifter or something?)
The brake and clutch pedals are on curved rods that run straight into the floor, not on arms hung from pivots up under the dash.
I'm old enough to remember all of these things. The truck is only two years older than me.

It does have turn signals and seat belts, both of which I added. Got to be sensible at some point. The vacuum wipers will go one of these days, too. Hilarious in the meantime, though. The young ones can't figure out why they do that. Anyone who drives it can't get over the amount of work involved: turning the signals off manually (really old signal switch, sold in the '40s and '50s to add signals to vehicles without them), Armstrong steering, power nothing, choke (and the need to know what it does so you know whether to push or pull to get the engine running smoothly). These old vehicles weren't for people like we have now, who have grown up with vehicles that do everything for them.


Dan
________
BMW R1100GS
 
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And how much were people making in wages at that time?

In '73 I had what I considered a pretty good job that paid less than $10k/yr. I also bought my first new car, an Audi 100LS for a bit under $4k. Seems to me that this was about the time that gas hit $1/gallon for the first time.
 
If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you rem embered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.
Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends...

HR (I scored a "23.")


Sheesh, I must be older than old dirt. I got 24/25 and I probably just forgot the one I missed (what's "Butch Wax"?). And I don't mean I've just heard of the rest, I actually owned/used/experienced every one.
 
Don't forget the milk shoot built into the side of the house. We had Home Juice also, Big City.

We always had four channels, we could pick up Canada.

How about that first Color TV. We had the first one on the block circa 1957. It had a monstrous 25 inch screen. There was Bonanza, the Wonderful World of Disney and .............

Were you in the Detroit area? We got four channels including one in Windsor OT (CKLW?) too. But I could swear that Bonanza came out "In living color" in 1959. I don't think my family got a color TV until the next year but chances are it was partially because we wanted to see our favorite show in color.
 
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