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Old September 13th 03, 01:36 AM
Bruce Remick
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"Dr. Richard L. Hall" wrote:

Aw, C'mon Grampa, yer makin' that up. They never did that. Hey everybody,
Grampa is going nuts again.. I bet next yer gonna tell us that story about
how you could buy a brand new full-sized car for $3000.00


I bought my brand new 1970 Ford Maverick for $2100 in 1969 about Christmas
time.


Bought a nice 1950 Chevy for $50 in 1962 at a used car dealer. My 1966
Corvette cost me $4600 new. Gas was .15-.19/gallon during the gas wars
then.


and gas was 30
cents a gallon,


I think it was $0.24 cents a gallon back then but if you watched the price
wars and didn't mind waiting in line, you sometimes could get it for $.10 to
$.15 a gallon

and you walked to school, barefoot, in the snow, uphill,
both ways..


Now I did walk to school. every day. But I had shoes and it was kind of
flat. of course, in the Northern NY winters there was a lot of snow. The
only time I ever remember school being cancelled was during the blizzard of
1966 when Syracuse got 72" of new snow in 3 days. And I went to the same
Catholic School for 13 years grades K through 12. And when we went to
basketball games, we often walked to the opposing schools. none of this
namby pamby school bus rides. We didn't even know what a school bus was.


I walked to grammar school both ways as well as home for lunch. No SWAT
teams keeping us from coming or going on the property.


now tell us that story about how you used to leave your car in
the driveway with the windows down and the keys in the ignition.. that one
makes us laugh too.. ..


Nah. I didn't leave the keys in the car but I did leave it unlocked. And,
unfortunately, I did leave my brand new 1970 Ford Maverick parked on the
street and had some regular A$$ ... er, idiot, run a stop sign and take out
the whole back end of the car ... $400 worth of damages. And the odometer
only read 240 miles at the time. Some high school kid showing off for his
girl friend.


Always left our new Impala parked unlocked when we lived in Alaska,
where a locked car would often stay that way in the winter. Noplace
much a thief could go with it anyway without being conspicuous.


Reflecting back, car damages besides, I remember why we called those days
the GOD (Good Old Days) Man, we had fun back then. When you talk about
drive-ins today, people think of drive-thorughs at McDonalds. And when we
talk about watching submarine races, people think of the cold war. Of
course, a poll back in the GOD asked what people's favorite number was. It
was 69, of course. A few years ago, people were asked the same question,
"What's your favorite number?" And the answer was .... 401(k). Times
sure have changed!


I think one big difference between growing up in the 40's and 50's and
today is how independent kids were back then in how they entertained
themselves. No parents driving us to organized activities. We walked
or biked (no freeways, turnpikes, or heavy traffic to worry about) for
miles through city or suburbs. We played pickup baseball on local
fields just about every day in the summer. Today, kids don't seem to
play any traditional "vacant lot" sports unless they're on teams with
uniforms and bleachers. Of course most taxpayer-funded athletic fields
are reserved for league play nowadays and there are few vacant lots left
for kids who do want to just mess around with a bat & ball.

Bruce
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