The Year Was 1955...

[RKP5637]

Remember these??? Many interesting things!!!

https://www.insidethegate.com/2013/04/the-year-was-1955/

The year was 1955. What were people talking about way back then? If you’re a Baby Boomer, you know!

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 $10.00

[Arkansas Granny]

1. In 1955 one of our neighbors bought a brand new Mercury, red and white, and I thought

it was the most beautiful car I had ever seen.

[RKP5637]

2. WOW!!!!! That is beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Submariner]

3. Gasoline for 17 cents a gallon during neighborhood gas wars

As a little kid, I remember gas wars between competing gas stations across the street from each other were common place. Usually, one station would lower the price by a penny or two per gallon to get the edge on the gas station across the road, who in turn would lower their price.

Sometimes the station owners would lower gas prices by a nickel or more per gallon (the gas war day) and that's when everyone would come out to fill up their tanks. Then some politicians changed the law and the gas wars ended, so the dog and I lost another opportunity to be out with Dad in the car.

[RKP5637]

4. Yep, it was cheap! I also recall kerosene was almost nothing. My father used to keep a 5 gallon can

of it for lamps if an emergency. I still have one of his lamps. The price today is incredible.

[bobbieinok]

5. And every station full service. They rush out to fill tank, wash windows, ck tires, etc

[LAS14]

6. My favorite singer...

... on Your Hit Parade is Giselle MacKenzie, but Mom's is Snooky Lanson and Dad's is Dorothy Collins.

[Fla Dem]

7. Television shows were becoming really good............

The Honeymooers,
I love Lucy
Ed Sullivan
Gunsmoke
Walt Disney's Disneyland
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Mickey Mouse Club

[RKP5637]

9. Yep!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[Stuart G]

8. Let's say gas was 25 cents a gallon..OK....maybe..just maybe..

think about this. You could buy a house (somewhere) for $25,000.00

That same house today would go for $225,000 to $250,000 (give or take some)..so things are ten times more expensive...(.just a guess )

Therefore, the 25 cent gasoline, would be about ..$2.50. today....if that idea holds true. ...And guess what??
....Gasoline where I live (suburb of Chicago) is about $2.25...to $2.50 cents a gallon. (it varies of course)..

So the bottom line, in relation to the whole show, things relate the same. Yes, gas is much more expensive, but minimum wage is much higher as are wages as a whole. People earn so much more than before.

Here is another one to think about. In a movie called, "It's a Wonderful Life." there is an important scene somewhat late in the movie where ...$8,000 is stolen...
...Now that movie was made in 1946. ..What was $8,000 worth then? How does it relate to today?..Someone could watch that film, and think what is all this about..$8,000 is not much....What a stupid thing to put in the movie....
..........Here is the key thought. That $8,000 in 1946 is worth about 20 times more then. Yes, 20 times..maybe 25 times...how do you figure? After the war, shortage of products, country recovering..etc. etc. etc..

..So the $8,000 stolen in that film, is worth maybe?? $150,000 to $200,000..in today's money. This inflation and comparison stuff is not easy. When I was a kid ,many years ago, it cost a kid, 25 cents to go to a movie theater and watch the show. Now, today, what does it cost a kid under the age of 12 to see a movie in a movie theater?

[DFW]

10. I was three years old

Whatever people were talking about, I sure don't remember much. I know my family moved that fall out of the tiny house we lived in (Alexandria, VA) and moved into a strange place way out in the middle of nowhere with dirt roads to get there (outside of the teeming metropolis of Falls Church, VA). I have a vague recollection of a large white house with things to eat and drink being served outside one year later. My sister had just been born, and my parents told me years later that it had been a campaign rally for Adlai Stevenson.

My dad's parents lived in New York City. His South-Carolina-born dad was now deputy mayor. She bought modern art supporting living artists for sometimes as much as a few hundreds of dollars each. A fortune!! When she died in 1966, the grandchildren were allowed to pick a piece from her art collection they liked, and if it wasn't assessed at too much, it would stay with that branch of the family. My favorite was an abstract painting of blue and purple squares and rectangles by an American painter named Ad Reinhardt. He was still alive at the time, so my parents only had to fork over $300 to keep it for me. That was still a lot of money to them, but they did it for me anyway. My poor cousin had better--and therefore unaffordable--taste. He wanted a bronze bust by a Swiss sculptor who had died the year before, and therefore his work was shooting up in price. His name was Alberto Giacometti. The piece my cousin wanted was assessed at $16,000. He was one of five kids, so his parents couldn't afford to fork over $8000 in inheritance taxes just for him. Too bad. That same piece, with a listed provenance back to my grandmother's collection, was auctioned off in 2007 in New York for FOUR MILLION dollars.

[benld74]

11. I wasn't around until Labor day 1956

but I do recall ALOT of these postings growing up. Neither of my folks went to college. Dad worked in a refinery 35 miles from home and car pooled. The home they bought was for 10K. Nothing much to look at but it was home. My sister is 9 years older then me. I figure I was a Christmas party after the fact oopsie. Mom always called me her miracle kid, because the doctor told her she couldn't have anymore.
I recall watching Captain Kangaroo, cartoon on Saturday mornings(NOT 24x365), rotary phones, home milk delivery, coal furnace, getting all house air conditioning when I was in high school, plenty of friends to run around with,
Working at the local IGA store in HS. I won a raffle in '73 guessing the total $$$ of groceries inside of a new Chevy stationwagon, seats, back end, floor boards.
$77.83 ! Prize was a $150 gift certificate to various local stores in the area. Gave it to mom. Just about knocked her over.