Fw: Happy Birthday on this Beautiful Mother's Day

Subject: Happy Birthday on this Beautiful Mother's Day


A most happy birthday, Dylan.
As they say, "Ah, to be 23 again and know then what I know today".
Of course they'd probably lock me up when I started babbling about my
Iphone, my laser burner, and my hybrid car with it's CD player. It would be
downhill from there.
But when I stop and recall the world as it was back in 1958, when I became
23, it is mind boggling.
In Seattle, you could still buy a 5 cent cup of coffee at the Kress Dime
Store. And yes, the five and ten stores did sell stuff for five and ten
cents. 19 cent hamburgers with 11 cent fries and a shake for 21 cents were
springing up all over the city.
A good steak dinner at the Kansas City Steak House cost $2.50 with all the
trimmings, and coffee tossed in for free.
All our musical entertainment was via records. Singles were on 33 RPM's,
the little record with the big hole in the middle. Tape recorders were used
by professionals, but were not available for the public to purchase. Color
TV was still in the experimental stages, and very expensive. I saw a
demonstration in 1956 at Edison Tech., and the colors ran all over the
screen. They were showing the World Series and the green of the field also
was the color of the players faces. The colors were so bright that it
actually hurt the eyes to look for long.
You could subscribe to the Seattle Times for $1.75 a month, and buy five
loaves of bread for one dollar.
But wage minimum had just been raised from $1.00 to $1.25 an hour. In 1958
I was earning $1.50 an hour working in the drapery factory. That was $60
per week, before overtime. Whoopee!
But I was taking home close to $100 because of the long overtime hours.
By the time your grandma Judy and I were married in 1960, I was taking home
less than $5,000 a year.
Still, we bought a house in 1962, the year your mom was born, for $8,750.
We paid a whopping $62 per month.
But back to 1958, the year I turned 23. I attended the university of
Washington for 50 dollars per quarter. 15 credit hours for only $50. And
my books cost between $2.50 and $3.50 each.
Bus fare was ten cents and you could get a transfer that would give you
enough time to go to town, shop and return for only that one dime.
Cigarettes cost me around 21 cents a pack, and I swore that if they went up
in price I would quit. I made that stupid promise many times before I
finally quit. By that time they were around $1.50 a pack.
Mad Magazine cost me 15 cents, cheap. And most magazines were from 15 cents
to 25 cents. You could still buy a good paper back novel for 25 cents.
They still called them "dime novels" because when my dad was a boy, that's
what they originally cost.
The 1950's were considered the Golden Years for Working Class men and women.
Women were beginning to enter the work force in growing numbers, and the
money they earned went to buy extras, like vacation property, pleasure
boats, brand new cars instead of second hand ones.
But the average family could still live comfortably on a single income.
All telephones were black and had dials on them. And in the center of each
dial the phone company, called Ma Bell, had put a tag with your phone number
on it.
If you were out and about, you carried a pocket full of change so you could
use one of the pay phones that were everywhere, and cost a dime per call.
There were no microwaves, and most refrigerators had only a small freezer
compartment. You had to buy a chest freezer if you needed more space. Most
grocery stores did not carry much in the way of frozen foods, or even in
prepared foods like you can now buy in the store's deli. Our neighborhood
still had a butcher shop, a bakery, a drug store, a barber shop, a beauty
shop, a laundry/dry cleaners, and a green grocer...where you bought your
vegetables and fruit, all in separate shops. But even then chain stores
like Safeway were beginning to take over.
Back then there were only about half the number of people in Washington
State as there are now. At night the city shut down and you could wander
the streets without seeing many people or cars. Sunday was still considered
a day of worship, or at least a family day, and most stores were closed.
Wash and wear close were still in the future, so a sturdy ironing board and
iron were in every home. Many homes still heated during the winter with
coal, wood or sawdust.
But as different as life is today, 1958 had one great advantage. I was 23
years old, with the world in front of me. Many slips, stumbles and wrong
turns later, at 78 I feel that it's safe to say, It's been a good life and
an exciting adventure. And I have such a fine grandson, too. And you're
pretty nice, too.
Just kidding.
I love you Dylan. Have a grand rest of your life.

Grandpa
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

*****

"We do not inherit the land from
our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."