High cost of gasoline

C

Charles E

curmudgeon
We keep hearing about how the high cost of gas is killing attendance at matches. I started buying gas for the car ('53 Ford flathead V-8) in 1962. Here are the average 1962 prices for a few things:

Hershey bar $0.05
New York Times $0.05
First class postage $0.04
Gasoline (gallon) $0.31
Hamburger (McDonald's double) $0.28
Chevrolet (full size) $2,529.00
Refrigerator freezer $470.00

It' s clear to me we need to take a good look at freezers . . .
 
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Charles E said:
We keep hearing about how the high cost of gas is killing attendance at matches. I started buying gas for the car ('53 Ford flathead V-8) in 1962. Here are the average 1962 prices for a few things:

Hershey bar $0.05
New York Times $0.05
First class postage $0.04
Gasoline (gallon) $0.31
Hamburger (McDonald's double) $0.28
Chevrolet (full size) $2,529.00
Refrigerator freezer $470.00

It' s clear to me we need to take a good look at freezers . . .
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The cost of lead,copper,powder,primers is one thing,but also,the equip race has helped kill benchrest shooting.
 
Equipment race ?

Isn't benchrest, by it's very nature, always going to be an equipment race ?? It is just about designed to be just that ..... the pursuit of improved accuracy etc etc .........


Charles, how does a Big Mac compare to a gallon of gas now ?? You are right, freezers must have been a hell of a price back then, how would they compare to a car today on a percentage basis !!! :)
 
Westcoast Is Worse

Charles it takes a tank and a quarter for us to practice at 600 and 1,000 yards out here in California.My tank cost is right around $85 so we spend $110+ each day we practice just for gas at longrange.
Right now the cheapest gas is $3.59 a gallon.Been thinking about switching over to Propane as its $2.80 a gallon delivered.
Lynn
 
Lynn said:
Charles it takes a tank and a quarter for us to practice at 600 and 1,000 yards out here in California.My tank cost is right around $85 so we spend $110+ each day we practice just for gas at longrange.
Right now the cheapest gas is $3.59 a gallon.Been thinking about switching over to Propane as its $2.80 a gallon delivered.
Lynn
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What kind of vehicle are you driving?
 
Walker Texas Ranger

Walker I drive a 4x4 truck because it can carry all of my gear.The bed has been carpeted and my 75 pound heavyguns ride on built in rails.
Lynn
 
Just take a look

at your Social Security wage statement if you aren't allready collecting and see how much you made in 1962 and subsiquent years.

I have the feeling that the late 60's and early seventies was the best era in my lifetime in terms of how far one's money went and how much we still had available in natural resources at out disposal. I graduated from high school in 1962 and was pumping gas some for spending cash and remember how much gas cost. I also remember only getting $1. per hour for pumping it.
 
Be happy not to live in Belgium where premium unleaded costs an equivalent of $ 9.2 per gallon...

Eddy
 
Charles E said:
We keep hearing about how the high cost of gas is killing attendance at matches. I started buying gas for the car ('53 Ford flathead V-8) in 1962. Here are the average 1962 prices for a few things:

. . .
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Charles E, I had a 1953 Ford, 2-door, baby blue, hood and deck shaved, fender skirts, lowering blocks, Olds Fiesta tail lights and Fiesta hub caps. This was in 1956. Gas was 29.9 till the big gas war, then it was 19.9, 5 gallons for a dollar!!

I was working summers though for VDOT highway surveying, made $1.50/hour.

In 1997 I made some calculations as to how many minutes I had to work to buy a gallon of gas and a loaf of bread. In 1997 gas and bread was cheaper than it was in 1956.

Now I gotta' pay $3.24/gal to get to the Hickory Groundhog and Egg shoot Saturday to just fire 10 shots. It's a B****!!
 
Jerry, in 1956 my dad bought our first house. It cost $17,500, and was 1200 square feet, which sounds small today, but was average then. He was 46 years old. We had a mortgage; it was the first and only time he bought anything on credit.

I waited until I could pay cash for our first house. The only thing I absolutely had to have so badly I'd go into debt was my first benchrest rifle.

Most things today are cheaper then they were then. Things that seem expensive today are about the same -- just multiply by 10.
 
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Priorities

We bought our first house in 1972, it had 850 square feet. We fixed it up a little, and a few yeaer later, sold it for a modest profit, which we put into the house we live in now. That was 1976. Our house is "only" about 1950 square feet, but that is all we ever needed.
I have multitudes of friends who had to keep "stepping up" through the years, untill they finally got into a house that eats up so much of their income that they have little left over for lifes enjoyments.
I have watched my neiborhood change through the decades, no body that was there when we moved in is still around. I guess "white flight" scared everybody into the outer reaches, so they can sit in traffic 2 hours each day just to get to and from work.
To me, a house is just a place to live. You want something nice, but 95 percent of Americans are paying for something that they not only do not need, but drains them finacially.
It's about 6:30 AM, I am down in Corpus Christi on another job. I better get to the shipyard.
I have to make enough cash to buy diesel to get to Denton this week end:D......jackie
 
Charles E said:
Jerry, in 1956 my dad bought our first house. It cost $17,500, and was 1200 square feet, which sounds small today, but was average then. He was 46 years old. We had a mortgage; it was the first and only time he bought anything on credit.

just multiply by 10.
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Credit, easy credit, is the problem. Borrowing is encouraged and savings is penalized, by low interest rates and tax on the measly earnings.

My dad bought a car on credit one time. A 1963 1/2 Ford hardtop. Made 2 payments and then payed it off. He didn't want to fool with a payment each month. That was when bankers made sure you didn't borrow too much. Now these greedy jerks beg you to borrow.

The first new Cessna I sold, $17,000 to a local ophthalmologist. My banker, ask what if Dr. Mason just flew off!!

When Cessna quit making single engine airplanes about 1985 (??) their average cost for product liability insurance per aircraft was about $78,000. Lawyers, too many?? Yep.

Wish I had that old Cessna to fly to Vale this weekend for the egg shoot! Wonder if Larry would let me land in that hayfield to the North?? Avgas?? About $4.50/gal.
 
I'm with Jackie, I made up my mind years ago that I could'nt afford to follow the "whitefolk" headin westward. I have never had a 2 income household and never made more than 16.oo an hr. :eek: except when I was a "scab" at Winchester which paid 24.00 hr. but wages like that don't last for long ,not for me anyway. I bought my 1st and only home 1000sq. in 84 I'm still in it, seems bigger though since it's just me, no full time woman, no kid's and no dog's, nice not to have to watchout for those "brown" squishy organic landmines when I walk my yard :D

Shootin benchrest was fun but the equipt., race was too much for me,since I love shootin I decided to bail cuz it was more work than fun. Drag racing and their new rules regarding saftey equipt.,was cost prohibitive so financially I was squeezed out, bummer, but when a door closes new ones open, thankfully. :)

I only drive aro.,5,000mi., a year for the last 10yrs., nice thing about living "modestly" a lower income guy like myself can still enjoy the company of a "hottie" every now and then :D Livin in the "hood" has it's good points and bad , but IMO it's no worse than living any where else. :rolleyes:
 
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Cessna later went back to building single engine piston aircraft. I just looked on the Cessna site, that Cessna Skyhawk I sold in 1967 for $17,000 is now $234,500. Air conditioning is a $28,100 option. Boy, I sure wish I had that old Skyhawk back...I could make a profit on for sure!!! How many barrels and bullets would that buy?
 
I bought my first

Cessna in 1973 for $7k. It was a "Hanger Queen" and needed a paint job real bad but I never did paint it. I don't remember exactly but insurance for it wasn't but a few hundred dollars and Av gas wasn't much more expensive than auto gas, as I recall. I got bored with it and sold it for a couple thou profit. I then bought a Citabria; another Hanger Queen for the same $7k and spent some of the profit on a lovely Decathelon paint job. Now, that one wasn't boring ! It ended up killing me; why I say it wasn't boring. :eek:

The truism I heard from the presenter at a sales seminar I once attended still is true."Affordability is a concept. People will afford what they want".
 
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Pete Wass said:
Cessna in 1973 for $7k. It was a "Hanger Queen" and needed a paint job real bad but I never did paint it. I don't remember exactly but insurance for it wasn't but a few hundred dollars and Av gas wasn't much more expensive than auto gas, as I recall. I got bored with it and sold it for a couple thou profit. I then bought a Citabria; another Hanger Queen for the same $7k and spent some of the profit on a lovely Decathelon paint job. Now, that one wasn't boring ! It ended up killing me; why I say it wasn't boring. :eek:

The truism I heard from the presenter at a sales seminar I once attended still is true."Affordability is a concept. People will afford what they want".
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Pete, what was the 1973 Cessna, a tail dragger? A restored Cessna 195 now is about half a mil. The Citabria a Champ??
 
The Cessna

Was an older tri gear 172 with a Continental engine in it. It was a DOG to fly in the summer months. The Citabria was made by Champion. It was a fully airobatic but lacked power and flaps. They made models that had both flaps and bigger engines. I use to do loops and snap rolls in it once in awhile, if you can call them SNAP!

I loved to fly STOL stuff. I always wanted a Maule but didn't buy one when they were affordable. I flew a Super Cub one summer spotting fish for a company and it was fun; albeit small inside. Later, after seeing the movie Never Cry Wolf my want list now includes a Helio Stalion with a turbo prop in it.

I am at the age where I probably can still fly ok but @ 63 I don't have the nads I use to. I have thought from time to time that Crop Dusting might be fun to do. I know it is WORK but having watched them, I am sure I would have liked doing it.
 
Pete Wass said:
at your Social Security wage statement if you aren't allready collecting and see how much you made in 1962 and subsiquent years.

I have the feeling that the late 60's and early seventies was the best era in my lifetime in terms of how far one's money went and how much we still had available in natural resources at out disposal. I graduated from high school in 1962 and was pumping gas some for spending cash and remember how much gas cost. I also remember only getting $1. per hour for pumping it.
Click to expand...

Wow,i went to work in 1964 at a gas station(pure) for $35 per week,that was 7 days per week ,from 06:00 to 07:00
drove a 1949 chevy,gas was 29.9 and a quart of quaker state was .055
box of 22 bullets was .055
Yes,we have it made today,but the young guys getting into benchrest is tough.
most dads can't afford to buy the equip for a son or daughter to start shooting benchrest.
Now if i could build a shotgun ,i could do better in shotgun sports,but i can put my rifles together and make my bullets,but this year ,i'm pinching pennys as everything has gone way up and i only got a $30 raise in SS.
 
JerrySharrett said:
Pete, what was the 1973 Cessna, a tail dragger? A restored Cessna 195 now is about half a mil. The Citabria a Champ??
Click to expand...

Jerryy,back in 1966,i could buy a Cherokee 140 at $350,000 or a 200 Arrow at $510,000 or the 180 at $485,000
my have they gone out of sight.
Flying at Peidmont airlines was $15.00 per hour,wonder what it is now.
 
Gentlemen ...

Just to be fair to those who have been admonished in the past, shouldn't this discussion be more appropriately presented in the General Discussions forum ??? Don't mean to spoil the party. Art
 
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