The Way Things Were

I came across some comments that were made back in 1957. That is a long time ago. And just in case you are wondering, NO, I was not born yet. It’s interesting to hear what some thoughts were back then. Now, these comments may have been made or someone has dreamt them up as a lark. Whatever the case, they do make some sense. Here is just a taste.

“If cigarettes keep going up in price I’m going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.”

Can you imagine? 25 cents a pack. I have not bought cigarettes for quite some time but last I heard they were around twelve dollars a pack. Twenty five in a pack. Works out to 48 cents per cigarette. People that smoke can only wish that it was 25 cents a pack. Heck. At 25 cents a pack I would smoke too. Wait a minute. There is also a health issue. Okay. I’ll leave that one alone.

“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 $20.00.”

If only. I stopped to pick up some groceries last night. $20.00 does not buy a whole lot. Some fruit, a jug of milk, some pop and the total bill was $65.00. Never mind when you check in the meat department. I won’t even begin to rant about prices farmers are getting for their commodities at the farm gate. Without going into details it is interesting to note the figures when the Keystone Agricultural Producers do their annual Farmer’s share study.

“Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just
to play ball? It wouldn’t surprise me if someday they will be making more than
the president.”

Wikipedia suggests that the American president has an annual salary of $400,000. I suspect that there are very few major league players in hockey, baseball or basketball whose salary would be that low. It defies logic when you start hearing about salaries that players get in this day and age. Anybody that follows golf will have been glued to the TV two weeks ago when there was a playoff between two golfers for a mind boggling $11,144,000. Based on this I need to seriously look at upping my hourly rate. Hmmmmm. Wonder who would hire me. I best get back to work so I can afford the groceries I bought last night. Especially if I want to smoke too.

“When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29
cents a gallon. Guess we’d be better off leaving the car in the garage.”

Okay. Let me do some quick math here. At today’s price of $1.109 per liter the per gallon price is in excess of $5.00. Not good. And to think I just bought a vehicle which, for all intents and purposes, would be considered a gas guzzler. I have actually slowed down to try to improve my gas mileage. Perhaps the garage would be a good place for it. But wait a minute. I need to drive to earn money to pay for the groceries. I can’t win.

“It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are
having to work to make ends meet.”

How things have changed. It is the norm, in 2011, for women to work. Someone once suggested that there should be a law requiring all farmers to have at least three wives to subsidize the farm. I am not touching that one. I facetiously made a comment to someone this week that my wife had more than one job to support my golfing. Truth be told. With incomes the way they are, with costs sky rocketing, families need the income from both parents just to survive.

There you have it. Things have changed and continue to change. I am curious what will be said in 50 years from now regarding changes that will happen. Whatever the case I cannot worry about that because I probably won’t be around to find out. I sometimes worry about what is in store for my kids and grandkids. But then again, my parents and grandparents probably worried about the same things. Oh well. Make it a good one.