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A
few things happened in 1972 that were of no significance to anyone but
myself that year. But I thought I’d share them with you anyway. First
off in the early Summer of that year my Dad purchased the family’s
first color television set. In fact full network broadcast color TV
had been a seven or eight year going concern, before anyone in my
family could see NBC’s peacock, or The Wonderful World of Disney’s
“Tinkerbelle” in all their colorful glory!
The
Fall of 1972 had three things happening to me. First in September I
started my freshmen year at Grace Davis high school in Modesto, CA. In
October of that year I turned fifteen years old. And somewhere around
that birthday, CBS television aired the first broadcast of the now
classic Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter science fiction
movie “Planet of The Apes”.
I’ve
often thought back with more than a little fond reminiscence about
that chain of events. If one had to weight 6 or 8 years before
having access to a color TV set, just as long as he got it before
“Planet of The Apes” first aired, the timing couldn’t have
been more perfect! Of course you’d have to be the avid/rabid science
fiction and fantasy film fan that I am to understand where I’m coming
from. But if you’re not, mores the pity.
Also
sometime during 1972 this nation’s minimum wage
jumped from $1.65 to $1.70 per hour. Just out of curiosity I used my
favorite online inflation calculator to see how much of this nation’s
2008 currency it would take to buy what $1.70 could buy in 1972. And
this is the result of that conversion:
What cost $1.70 in 1972 would cost $8.66 in 2008.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2008 and 1972,
they would cost you $1.70 and $0.34 respectively.
And that’s using
2008’s currency to do the
calculations! This means that this nation isn’t only heading towards
that dreaded “Hyper-Inflation Spiral”, we are teetering on
the very edge of it’s “event horizon”!
On
an almost completely unrelated note, yesterday (Monday; 12/21/09: 4:35
PM) when I started to “revamp” this web page, I had just
finished watching for the third or fourth time, a TV-LAND rerun of the
ninth episode of the fifth season of “The Andy Griffith
Show”. This particular episode was entitled “Opie’s
Fortune”, and it first aired on November 16, 1964.
I’m
sure all of you who are as big a fan of TAGS as I am, will know this
episode’s plot forwards, backwards and sideways. On his way home from
school one day, Opie finds a man’s coin purse with fifty dollars
($50.00) cash inside it. Opie gives the lost coin purse to his
Paw to hold in the sheriff’s office for seven days.
The
week comes and passes, and Opie “finally” gets all of his
dough and promptly spends ten dollars of it on a new fishing rod and
reel. Then of course the old codger that originally lost the purse
shows up, Opie gets a refund on his fishing tackle and gives Andy
back the $50 to give to the old man.
It’s
the classic “Hollywood” “All’s Well That Ends
Well” ending. But it’s also one of the many facets of this TV
series that endears itself to the hearts of tens (if not hundreds) of
millions of fans from all around the world.
Then
I got to thinking, just how many 2008 dollars would it take to buy
what fifty 1964 bucks could buy way back when! And using the same
inflation calculator that I used above, this is the answer I got:
What
cost $50.00 in 1964 would cost $343.53 in 2008. Also,
if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2008 and 1964, they
would cost you $50.00 and $7.46 respectively.
It’d
almost be funny if it weren’t so goddamned pitiful! – Cary
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