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the good old days
varian
Member Posts: 2,258 ✭✭✭✭
do you remember when Nixon was president and he made a deal with the Russians to sell them wheat. the news media was all up in arms predicting bread was going to cost us a $1.00 a loaf. oh for the good ol days.
Comments
I remember working at the grocery store a kid and loafs of bread were 4 for a dollar and 5 for a dollar on sale more often than not cambles soup was about 20 cents a can. back then I knew the price of hundreds of items we sold in the store by memory as I stocked the shelfs and priced marked countless boxes and cans ( still have my old ink stamp price marker some where )
sadly being old we remember old prices .
but I also remember making 1.25 a hour and thought that was great ..
My mom used to dump us kids unsupervised at the movies with two quarters. 25 cents to get in, and 25 cents for popcorn and a soda.
She also used to buy those chicken pot pies at the base exchange, ten for a dollar. We ate a lot of those.
Chicken pot pies and Swanson TV dinners.......those were the days.
AND............for a few years after college!!!!!
I used to work for a local hatchery on an as needed basis. My pay was a whopping $.50 an hour I de-beaked chickens after rounding them all up and putting them in cages (in the dark). Sometimes I had the easy job of vaccinating the chickens, but most times I worked my butt off. Like the time we rode all the way to Cincinnati to load up a semi-trailer full of chickens. They were caged 4 to a cage and the cages were 5 high in a huge barn. Each cage was over the others so that the bottom row of chickens were the most disgusting covered in poop from all the chickens above them. We had to remove the chickens from the cages, hold as many as we could carry, and take them outside to the flatbed 40' semi-trailer loaded with cages, hand them up to the guy on cages, then go back for more.
I have a lot of good memories from the good old days, but there were enough bad ones to even them out. Like the time Dad packed up and moved out.
Joe
I remember those good old days too. Yep I quit school in my senior year, told Mom I didn't need no stinkin' schoolin' and went out in the world to seek my fortune. About a year and a half later I ask Mom if we could talk about that schooling thing again? As it turned out my hands just didn't fit a shovel handle very well and it's hot out there in the summer and it's cold in the winter. School wasn't so bad after all.
I remember that in about 1980 I was making about $30,000 a year and back then that was darn good money. Nice new cars/trucks were $3000 and CCI 22 ammo was about $7 a brick. Fast food lunches, (that I ate to many of) were around $2. Times sure have changed. Bob
I have no comment as I'm much younger than you guys😉
Would that be a second childhood?😁 Bob
Anyone else here who's first fishing pole was about 15' long and made of bamboo?
close mine was bamboo but only about 5' long I think dad cut them down to avoid getting hit while fishing.😁
I finely moved up in the world to a zebco 202 at some point in my child hood ,,dads old one its what my dad used for years but then my dad moved up to a zebco 33 😲 and I thought that was the best reel any one made .. all I seen as a kid were zebco fishing reels I remember him telling me about fish in a old mill pond where he grew up would strip the gears in the zebco reels as a little kid I could not image a fish that BIG LOL
My fishing poles were bamboo also. My first rod and reel was a Penn 209 on a solid fiberglass rod.Grandmother taught me how to cast and pick out the inevitable birds nest from spool over run. After a few lessons I was on my own
Grandpa grew bamboo and whenever we would visit, we would cut some bamboo and make a fishing pole.
I thought I was rich when I got an actual pole and reel for Christmas. Used to tie a tinker toy to the line and practice casting off the back porch. Everything from those days is gone now but I still have the fishing pole.
My first fishing pole was a willow branch with line wrapped around the top end. Fished trout streams and caught quite a few that way.
I caught hundreds of trout on a cane pole before I even knew how to use a rod and reel.
Used to fish the Anderson River/Creek back in those days. Must have been a large Indian settlement back in the old days. All the farmers had large piles of artifacts/arrowheads/tomahawk heads that they would pick up when working the fields.
The good ole days! My dad was a barber in the USN. Actually, he was a sailor who cut hair on the side. Soooo! I along with all of my many brothers, always sported a "Princeton" cut. Basically a Butch with a bit of hair dangling from the forehead. 🙂
I was a toe head (blonde) but didn't even know what color my hair was until I hit my rebel hippy teen years.
Reason I bring this up is because when I took my 4 sons to a trout fishing tournament many years ago when they were fairly young, an old VW van pulls up to the creek crossing and parked. Out comes the dad with several boys. All sporting Princeton hair cuts and willow branch fishing poles! 😲 I thought I was having a deja vue moment in the Twilight Zone!
First fishing pole was a 8 ft long CEDAR pole- no bamboo around here, but lots of skinny blue cedar. Clip the branches, peel the bark, add about 10 ft of braided nylon line strong enuff to tow a truck- add a bobber, hook, sinker and worm. "Playing" a fish meant heaving on the pole hard enuff that the fish left the water vertically, passed over your head and hit the bank behind you. With a surprised look on its face that clearly said "What the hell?"
Just guessing - mid 1960's.
In 1965 ... $1.25 would equal $11.26 today. - www.usinflationcalculator.com
My first job in 1968, the minimum wage was $1.75 per hour. It covered all my 13 year old expenses ! 😊
That was the worst foreign relations deal ever made. Russia was starving. Years of drought. There was no satellite imaging back then and of course the USSR did not reveal their motivations.
Dumb@$$ Nixon thought he was boosting relations between US and USSR. Gave them a sweet heart deal of 1/4 wheat production that year and a multi million dollar line of credit that couldn't be called for 3+ years. The Ruskies used it to rape the US grain market and cause severe inflation world wide.
Of course none of this was up front. It was all back channel.
THE GREAT GRAIN DEAL
I started in 1973 at the grocery store about two blocks from my house but min wage jumped to 1.65 not long after I started .
I lived a t home of course with mom and dad as I had just turned 16 , but even then in short time I bought my 1st car (a super nice 65 mustang 800.00 ) and 1st nice bicycle Nishiki ? I think how to spell it for about 125.00 my dad thought I was nuts over the bike cost I also started buying guns . at the time I felt rich 😁
then girls and going faster in my car( hot rodding parts) came along all of a sudden I was broke again 😲
but the memories from being young and care free and all was able to do on a few dollars a hour I will never forget 😥
It was a quick progression from bicycles & fishing to pool, poker & beer to cars and girls and finally firearms. A few dollars per hour, covered all my vices with a bit left for savings. There was always another gun gun that need a home ! Not in my entire adult life have I ever again felt as rich, as I dd then ! It wasn't all material things, either. The friends that you had back then were so much more important. Literally people you could depend on, no matter how hard it rained ! That element would be the hardest ting to replace, today. It was a grand time ... one that I will always cherish !
gesshots
I could not agree more you right on target
I am the last of my old group of buddys there was a core group we were more like brothers and about a dozen of real close friends male and female we all ran around together we shared so many great moments together they were the kind of friends no matter the time or the trouble they would be there .. I have days I get down felling sad over the loss of all of them and how short life is when you get a few years 😲 into it . the old memories are a blessing and glad I am still around to share the memories and stories
I worked at my old job 25 1/2 years left 8 years ago I know some of the retired fellows and gals, that I knew the the entire time worked with every day some of them still get together for a breakfast once a month about 15 miles from me . I do see one or two in passing in town over the years ( same with old class mates never went to a reunion ) . my wife keeps saying why don't you go meet up with your " friends " for breakfast I always say the same thing they were all co-workers we were tossed together by the job and made friends, I can say I did not dis like them but we were never "close friends" at least no where close to the bond my old buddy's and I had
Amen ... 😉😊
I remember at about 8 or 10 years old, I found a very old baitcasting reel on an equally old fiberglass rod in my grandmother's garage.
I went everywhere around Anadarko with that thing.
My biggest problem was having to tie knots every 10 feet or so.........in order to actually have enough line to cast.
Tough times??.......yeah......but what memories!!!!
My first old fishing reel was a hand-me-down Airex Model 3 half bail spinning reel and a Conolon rod. Took me a while to get my first Mitchell 300.
I still have and use my 1968 Mitchell 300 ! It has outlasted 4 rods and it just keeps going ! ... 😁
Can't complain about 52 years of service !
This all reminds me of as a kid living at home with your parents. You have no financial responsibilities. Any earnings you make, are all yours to do with as you please.
Something called RETIREMENT is getting to that place in life where you can do the same!
When I got paid from my first real job,I bought a Mitchell 300 and a Case pocket knife.
Lol
When I turned 15 I ask mom and dad for a Mitchel 301 a local place called Omart early version of Kmart or box store
It cost 14.00 if I remember dad said I was crazy wanting a fishing reel like that when his zebco 33 did just fine
It was the first open face reel I had seen at the time I knew nothing about them or the 01 was the right hand crank model they had the one
And it took me a while to save up and buy a rod for it lol
Still have it and a hand full of Mitchell reels I have bought thru out my life
I would also like to thank smitty for his post about them and restorations
I remember when I officially started working for a living............I was 11 yo in Amarillo, TX.....and got a neighborhood paper route a few blocks from my street. I had about 100 customers on a 6 block stretch. I would come home after school and there was a stack of papers at the end of my driveway. I would sit on the front porch and roll and rubber band them and then pack them in a double pouch canvas bag.........hang it on the handle bars, and off I would go.
At the first of the month, I had to go door to door for each customer and collect the monthly subscription fee..........I think it was around $5 a month or so for the afternoon paper and the Sunday morning edition.
I did that paper route thing for 6 years and eventually got the route on the street where I lived. My dad used to take me in the car on Sunday mornings and after we were done, we would go to Dunkin' Donuts and then home to clean up for church.
I remember making about $120/mo and I thought I was in hog heaven. My parents made me save most of it in a %7.0 interest bearing savings account (mid 70's). I used what spare money I had to buy coins at the local coin shop. My dad was a coin collector and I thought that was cool.
In the end.......when I turned 16 in 1985........I had enough money to buy my first car on my own.........1984 Mazda 626 with 40k on it for around $3500.
Those were the "golden years"........
Now all I am facing is Bidenflation.😪
You might say I'm a reel fan of the old Mitchell's. 😉
Speaking of the Mitchell 301's I've salvaged some of those that were in pretty bad shape and took parts and made a good one. I did some sandblasting and repainting and it turned out pretty nice. You won't find much plastic in any of these old Mitchel reels. The crank handle is the biggest piece and there's some of the spools made out of some type of plastic..
The 301 is for left handed people and people were always getting them mixed up because they're made to cast with your left hand and crank with your right hand. I could never get used to reeling with my right hand. Of course you could cast with your right hand but you have to switch it over to your left hand in order to reel it.
my first real fishing reel was a Mitchell 300 i got in the early 60's. i caught a lot of fish with that thing in WVa, mostly trout on the Cranberry river. after entering the service in 1969 i ended up in Biloxi , Ms. and used that Mitchell in the salty Gulf. soon found out it was not a saltwater reel. my dad used an Orvis 100 open face from the 60's until the 90's when he passed. that Orvis is as good as the day it was built. i still have that reel and this post has given me an idea. i think i will clean it up a little and give it to my son this Christmas. i think he will really appreciate it.
thanks Smitty
that turned out nice
when I got my 301 I had no idea they had all the variation's I still cast with my right hand and use my right hand to crank with so it was fate LOL
I have since bought a few 300's and at least one more 301 I found I think even a 400 ( ?) a few of the plastic boxes they came in also , I would run across them at swap meets or flea markets and buy them I still have some not even sure how many less then 10 any way total I had even found a few over the years with the original box and serial numbers matching the reel and on the box label but sold them as I was not a collector but was happy to make a couple dollars when I sold them .
as far as right or left hand even the newer reels I have bought but even that was 20+ years ago I would look for the ones I could switch the crank handle to the right side
in 1969 i ended up in Biloxi , Ms. and used that Mitchell in the salty Gulf. soon found out it was not a saltwater reel.
Even the ones called salt water reels have to be cleaned pretty good after using or they'll get corroded and look like crap in short order.
302 Salt Water
402 Salt Water
I put some sealed ceramic bearing in this 402 Salt Water.
If you ever come across a 302 or a 402 don't make the mistake of unscrewing the plastic drag wing nut on top of the spool in order to remove the spool or you'll open up a can of worms 'cause there's about 14 washers, springs and spacers under there. Don't ask me how i know. 😀 You need to just get a hold of the top of the spool and unscrew the whole thing from the reel counterclockwise.
smitty
I know I have pulled this thread way off course to the rest I apologize
to Smitty again thanks for the info you have provided over time on here and sharing your collection(s) a bit jealous of course but happy for you the neon signs you have also blew me away ..
now I will have dig out the Mitchel's reels and see what the larger one I had actual is . people like you and many others ( I could not list them all and not miss one so I do not want to hurt any ones feelings ) who share there abilities in so many areas but safe to say is what keeps me coming back here I did buy a few spare parts many years ago after seeing your restorations but there side tracked with many more projects I fear I will not get to
Here's how my dad did it, and how he taught me to do it too. At some point he moved up to an automatic fly reel and I kept getting his old manual ones.
i bought a brand new chevy monza fot $4,750- made $13,500 fresh out of college
In 1978. I was working construction union about 6 months in I think around 12.00+ a hour up from the 160 .00 a week salary at the grocery store I was making I bought a new mustang king cobra cost 6k and change a new trans-am was about the same cost that was early spring .
About a month later while crusing town I met and in a few weeks 5 or 6 and I lost my mind . I fell completely in love just about a year later June 1979 we got married . She has put up me and my hobbies ever since .
. 5 years later our first son came along then 3 years later our second son and last kid came along
Great family would not trade them for any thing
But omg I miss being young and free and how life was back then no PC bs no woke bs so much more common ground I guess you could say for me any way the police well all Leo and us kids all got along great but they did not have to fear getting shot like today
I wonder... how much of that carefree, happy-go-lucky, look on the bright side attitude came because we didn't have cell phones and social media? We weren't bombarded with hourly news cycles and our blood pressure wasn't through the roof all the time with what those @#$^&& liberals were up to, or what shenanigans the &%^*^&$ conservatives were trying to pull?
You looked your neighbor in the eye and you knew his name. You probably knew the names of 100 people in your circle. You helped each other out and got help when you needed it. The thing that mattered was people, not politics.
Since my long hospital stay I was completely cut off from never-ending politics and news cycles, and I am much, much, much happier because of it. I don't read that crap, I don't listen to it, I won't get sucked in again.
Join me. Please. You'll be glad you did. These are still the good old days.
We do tend to see with happiness filters, however. My old days came a bit before some of yours, and I remember a lot of the not-so-good things. Things like scarlet fever, rubella, mumps, and polio. iron lungs, leg braced kids, and headstones with dates far too close together. There were The Bomb and CONELRAD, Sputnik and the Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs and Russian nukes in Cuba.
Lurking behind all the happy faces was a lot of fear back then. All of it justified.