Are you this old?

riptides · Dec 30, 2021

2LaneCruzer said:
When I was in high school, regular gasoline was 25cents per gallon. I could buy a dollar's worth of gas, pick up my date, drive to Enid, go to the drive in (50 cents each; popcorn 15 cents each), have a hamburger and a Coke afterwards (35 cents and 15 cents) and have change left over from a '$5.00 bill.

I remember buying lifesavers candy rolls for 5 cents.

They worked pretty good too. I am still kicking!

Molalla1 · Dec 30, 2021

2LaneCruzer said:
When I was in high school, regular gasoline was 25cents per gallon. I could buy a dollar's worth of gas, pick up my date, drive to Enid, go to the drive in (50 cents each; popcorn 15 cents each), have a hamburger and a Coke afterwards (35 cents and 15 cents) and have change left over from a '$5.00 bill.

During the gas wars I think it got down to 17-19 cents a gallon.

Larry Caldwell · Dec 30, 2021

k0ua said:
It wasn't a good idea then, nor is it now. The reason for taping the penny on the tone arm was because your needle was worn out and would not track deep enough in the groove. You should have replaced the needle, but instead you taped a penny (or nickel) on the tone arm to try to force it to track. Of course it just wore the "heck" out of the record with the extra weight on the arm. Wouldn't you think if the tone arm needed extra weight to work correctly that the manufacture would have made the tone arm heavier to begin with?

it is just one of the dumb things that people do as a work around to a problem they either don't understand or don't have the money to cope with.

I was pretty adamant that the general public kept their greasy fingers off my record collection. For years I used a Grado cartridge that shipped with an oscilloscope trace showing its frequency response. I still have it, though I switched to a Pickering tracking at 1.25 grams to minimize record wear. After Philips invented the cassette tape I started taping new albums and putting them in storage in once-played condition.

Larry Caldwell · Dec 30, 2021

Molalla1 said:
During the gas wars I think it got down to 17-19 cents a gallon.

I saw 11 cents a gallon in Dayton in about '56. They wouldn't deliver for that price, so dad put 55 gallon barrels in the back of the pickup and we hand pumped a few hundred gallons of tractor gas into the farm tank.

Molalla1 · Dec 30, 2021

Larry Caldwell said:
I saw 11 cents a gallon in Dayton in about '56. They wouldn't deliver for that price, so dad put 55 gallon barrels in the back of the pickup and we hand pumped a few hundred gallons of tractor gas into the farm tank.

Yep, that was a little before I had a driver's license.

k0ua · Dec 30, 2021

I saw 15 cents per gallon in the 60's during one of the gas wars. The price was commonly 17 to 20 cents. When the prices started to climb near 25 cents per gallon for regular gas, Dad started to grumble and complain.

When I was out on my own in the late 70's and dating girls, I remember regular gas was less than 50 cents for a while but just continued to climb. By the time I was married it was time to trade off the 74 Thunderbird with the 460 4bbl carb and the wifes Pontiac Grand Am with the 400 4 bbl. (she was going to kill herself in that thing driving home from work at excessive speeds anyway) so we got a Ford Grenada. Talk about stepping on a plum when you floored the gas pedal. Man that was a very uninspiring car. But it got better fuel mileage. After a few years neither one of us could stand it. We got a Z28 Camaro with a 5 speed and a V8.

turnkey4099 · Dec 30, 2021

milkman636 said:
I’m younger than most on this thread, but my earliest gas station memories are of my dad pulling in to the local service station and telling one of the owner’s sons to give him $3 worth of gas. That was the usual amount he’d buy. They pumped the gas, checked the oil and tires, and washed the windshield for that $3. It was a big deal for me to be the one to say “$3 please”.

Pre WWII and some my have been in use after it, the gas station pumps were hand pumped into a glass tank on top of the pump cabinet. Ask for $1.oo and the attendant pumped the gas up to that mark on the tank. Gravity dispensed it.

turnkey4099 · Dec 30, 2021

Molalla1 said:
During the gas wars I think it got down to 17-19 cents a gallon.

Gas wars were the thing down in Texas where I was stationed back in late 50s, early 60s. I vaguely recall 11 cent gas but I'm not sure of that now.

Pixguy · Dec 30, 2021

PLUS you received Green Stamps!

Pixguy · Dec 30, 2021

Pixguy · Dec 30, 2021

$125 for the birth of a baby in '58. Times have changed a bit!

Oaktree · Dec 30, 2021

2LaneCruzer said:
When I was in high school, regular gasoline was 25cents per gallon. I could buy a dollar's worth of gas, pick up my date, drive to Enid, go to the drive in (50 cents each; popcorn 15 cents each), have a hamburger and a Coke afterwards (35 cents and 15 cents) and have change left over from a '$5.00 bill.

Then again, how much were you making at that p/t job you had in HS? 75¢, maybe $1/hr? Still an expensive night out.

Oaktree · Dec 30, 2021

k0ua said:
I saw 15 cents per gallon in the 60's during one of the gas wars. The price was commonly 17 to 20 cents. When the prices started to climb near 25 cents per gallon for regular gas, Dad started to grumble and complain.

I got my license in 1966, don't remember what gas was going for then, but I seem to think it was in the mid-ish 20s, and not really changing much for quite a few years. I do recall getting upset when it got into the high 30s when the Arab oil embargo hit in 1973.
I've heard of gas wars, but they didn't seem to be a thing around here. If they occurred, no one called them that.

milkman636 · Dec 30, 2021

Oaktree said:
Then again, how much were you making at that p/t job you had in HS? 75¢, maybe $1/hr? Still an expensive night out.

I remember my Dad telling me how he landed a good paying, union job after he graduated high school in 1949. He was hired into Chris Craft, the boat maker, as a saw operator and made $1.10 an hour. He worked there until he got drafted into the Army for the Korean war in 1951, and took quite a pay cut for the next two years.

Bird · Dec 30, 2021

turnkey4099 said:
Gas wars were the thing down in Texas where I was stationed back in late 50s, early 60s. I vaguely recall 11 cent gas but I'm not sure of that now.

That sounds about right. I can't remember for sure how low it went. I do know that we hoped to have our tanks low on gas when a gas war hit, so we could then fill up the tanks at the lower price and keep them full until prices went back up.

Bird · Dec 30, 2021

I don't remember all my pay scales from the past, but I do remember that I was a part time temporary mail carrier my last year in high school and went to a full time clerk position in Dallas when I was 19 and the pay was an even $2 an hour with a 20% night time differential for all hours worked at night (from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.). And I took a big pay cut to get out of the post office when I was 24 and became a Dallas Police Officer starting at $345 a month.

2LaneCruzer · Dec 30, 2021

Oaktree said:
Then again, how much were you making at that p/t job you had in HS? 75¢, maybe $1/hr? Still an expensive night out.

The farmers paid from 50cents to 75cents; I paid for my school pictures and class ring picking up sweet potatoes for 75 cents per hour. The pics and the ring, as I recall, were like $25 and $28 dollars.