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Looking back

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Paul from MI

Well-known Member
I just got a copy of our local newspaper, Daily Globe, Shelby, OH, from Dec 6, 1940 that an old friend because there was an article in there about my grandmother. I noted corn was $.75/bu. and soybeans were $.90/bu. Combine those prices with the yields of that time and you can sure see why out forebears had to stretch a dollar, sure wasn't much cash coming in.
 
The beans @ $0.90/bu in 1940 equals $15.01/bu in todays dollars. Not too bad of a payout.

Corn @ $0.75/bu in 1940 equals $12.51/bu in todays dollars.
 
That $.90 would buy about as much as todays $12-15 dollars would. You could buy a new car or pickup for under $1000. More like $750 would get most common models.

The yields where less so that would offset some things but it was not as tight as you would think.
 
Good Will toward one another went a lotfurther,,in those days ,, money was short ,, but everyone was able to make a livin and pay their bills and occasionally buy sumthin BRANDSPANKIN NEW to pull behing their wired together tractor that they could easily repair without a gotdamconfuser cumputer
 
In 1965 I was working in a grocery store making about 60 cents an hour. I worked about a half hour to buy a gallon of gas for a car that got about 12MPG. A sacker today, working for the same grocery chain, works about 20 minutes for a gallon of gas. And it's likely that his car will get twice the mileage.

Seems like life was more fun back then...
 
My grandparents did not need all the toys that most have today either. So you could make it on a lot less money.

I can remember playing baseball in a lot with other kids. One kid brought a bat; one a ball; and a few had gloves. We each shared others gloves cause not every kid had one.

Try that today.
 
Both my parents worked, yet I remember taking a vacation almost every year. My wife and I both worked and the UP (Michigan) was about as far as we got. We took our son to Yellowstone after he graduated and to Washington D. C. but not many go-away-vacations. And times WERE MORE FUN in the 50s & 60s.

Larry
 
My dad said you could buy land right after WW II and pay for it in one year with a good crop of soybeans. Apparently there wasn't the big appetite for land in those days.
 
1953 working in a café bussing dishes, .50 cents and hour , bought 2 gallons of gas, or two hamburgers, and the 47 Ford got about 20 mpg. Or 40 miles per one hour of work?
 
I would think if your bought a new car equipped like a 40's model, you could get in that price range.

No radio, no A/C, 1 window wiper, and a few less other things.
 
Your dollar had a lot more buying power in those days. Even up until somewhere around the mid sixties. When they started rigging fuel prices is when everything went into the toilet.
I have told my kids and other younger people, as someone has already mentioned, yes, life was more fun then. People trusted people, people helped their neighbors. Times were simpler back then, even though we had to work our backsides off. I guess that's why we call them "the good old days".
 
After the war, farmers had it go for a couple of years but machinery was short. Then in the sixties, Nixon did away with the gold standard. About every 20-30 years we get a couple - three years of good times, then back to trading dollars. Usually when the general public is in the hurts, we prosper. Then they improve, like now and we go back to handling money.

It's the old golden rule, them who gots the gold makes the rules!!
 
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