I miss back when. . .

[AMP]

For the younger folks that missed the fun times of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Gasoline is 25 times higher today than it was when I started. Based on that in the year 2053 it may be $95.00 per gallon. If minimum wage was 25 times higher than when I started it should be $31.25 per hour or $65,000 per year today to equal my buying power in the mid 1960s. I recall heading out to the lake in our large Pontiac Bonneville convertible taking the boat out and water skiing for 6+ hours all for around $10 in gas for the entire weekend. Cheeseburgers were 19 cents and a pop was a nickel.

A DAYS ENTERTAINMENT FOR A QUARTER

(The quarter dollar coin was worth 25 Cents Back in the Day- seems to of been replaced by the $5 bill in today's economy.) Of course the quarter I spent when I was younger seemed to of been made of nickel and it has been devalued by adding a copper center, even the old solid copper penny has been replaced with a micro thin plated piece of some alloy fake thing. Take your knfe and scrape off some of the plating to reveal the metal below. Since mid-1982, United States pennies are made of 97.5% Zink coated with 2.5% copper.

Not only is the price of fuel outrageous today, the service has disappeared along with competitive pricing. It is more than obvious the prices are fixed and come from a single source.


NOT ONLY DID THESE SERVICE STATION ATTENDANTS SERVICE YOUR CAR ON THE DRIVE FOR THE PRICE OF THE GAS PURCHASE ~ THEY ACTUALLY SPOKE ENGLISH AND HAD A CLUE OF WHO "FLOYD THE BARBER" FROM ANDY OF MAYBERRY IS. WHAT A CONCEPT !

When I first starting riding motorcycles gasoline was 16 cents a gallon and a bottle of pop was a nickel with the deposit or 3 cents if you drank it at the gas station. There were gas wars and you could buy gasoline for less just by riding a few miles to find a lower price station. And at 16 cents a gallon you could afford to drive around. My Honda 90 got 175 mpg at 30 mph & 112 mpg at 40 mph. Drive around for FUN, own a muscle car with Horse Power, Big V8 engine with high compression even a HEMI ! It was COOL, FUN and a GAS back then. For a quarter 25 cents I could fill the tank on my Honda, and buy a soda pop. We went to a movie and had change left to buy a pop and popcorn for a quarter. But today Gas has another meaning and it is not cool, it is EXPENSIVE.



YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR

Gas stations had free giveaways and live remote radio station broadcast promotions. When you pulled into the gas station one or more drive attendants asked if you wanted fuel and how much. They opened your fuel cap and added as much fuel as you required. The fuel then was much higher grade than that of today. Most contained addatives and was high octane. I remember buying 110 octane at 51st and Yale at the round shaped gas station. The attendents cleaned your windshield and mirrors, checked and adjusted your tire pressure, measured all the fluid levels in your engine compartment and topped off as required, they checked the belts on your engine and advised for replacement or adjustments. You never had to get out of your vehicle as they took cash and made change on the drive.

Most the owners and employees of those Gas Stations earned enough money to support a family of four, drive a fairly new vehicle and most owned and sponsored one or more Racecars that raced at the Tulsa Speedway Fairgrounds at 21st and Yale every Saturday night on the 3/8 mile dirt track.



THE FUN OUTRAN THE PRICE ~ YOU MEET THE NICEST PEOPLE ON A HONDA
The greedy people at Harley Davidson absoultly hated these Honda motorcycles.


A brand new Honda 90 street bike was $249. There was no required liability insurance, you were not required to wear a helmet and there was no state mandated safety inspection.

Driver's License was on a blue card-stock paper and they typed your name and address and other information. Didn't need a photo or other fancy overpriced equipment to make your driver's license. Got my first driver's license on my birthday, the day I turned 14 yrs-old. It was $1.25 for four years.

I worked 40 hours a week at the store in the summer plus played drums in a rock band on weekends and took home $90 a week. In less than 3 weeks I had earned enough cash to buy a brand new Honda 90 from Jandebeur's Honda, a full tank of gas, pair of Paulsen Bubble Goggles, two bungie cords and pay $1.25 for my drivers license. My tag was $8.50, and that was the same fee for a Honda 90 or a Harley 1200.



Paulsen Bubble Goggles were 39 cents a pair when I started

Clutch lever cost 89 cents, Titty Grips were $1.00 a pair, Snuff or Nots were $1.95 for a pair, NGK spark plugs were a quarter each.


http://www.honda305.com/cb77_800/cb77-818.htm
Snuff or Nots - Eliminated the muffler, but kept it quiet when required. No need for a fancy overpriced $500 exhaust system with these $1.95 babies.

Back then if you needed a loan, you were looked down on as someone that was in financial trouble. Borrowing money was a bad sign. Majority of people then had savings accounts and were able to pay themselves around 25% of the earnings each month. Most folks paid cash for everything they owned including houses. A brand new 3-bedroom home then was $10,000 in the new part of town in South Tulsa.

Not sure where we are headed with this current inflation and devaluation of our dollar and huge debt ratio, but it does not seem to be the right direction based on the way things were when I was growing up.

THE GREED FACTOR VRS THE FUN

Today the financial industry has set the tone to make people feel left out if they do not owe money, have more than one brand of credit card and a huge mortgage or more. I recall when the loan folks walked into our Kawasaki dealership the first time. Prior to their arrival, we sold motorcycles for CASH. A loan on a motorcycle was like borrowing money to buy a Lawnmower, just was unheard of. Bikes were under $900 at the time for the largest 750 or 900. The greedy people at Harley Davidson hired lobbists and created a tarriff fee against the importers of motorcycles and motorvehicles through and act of Congress. That was the beginning of the end of the Good Old Days in America as I recall.

The day the loan folks hit the scene the prices shot up overnight. The "Down Payment" became the cash portion of the purchase and the loan became the "Juice" or profit of the transaction. The loan folks worked with the manufactures, distributors, retailers and the buyers to inflate the prices and make them huge profits by charging fees and interest created by their invention of the Loan Deal.

They joined forces with their other Greedy friends in the Insurance industry and invented mandatory liability insurance requirements. Plus by inflating the price of the motorycles they created another requirement of compensatory insurance coverage to cover the loss the entire time the buyer has the bike financed. This outrageous insurance premium seems to remain the same each year for the life of the loan, regardless of the age and value of the bike or the amount still owed on the note.

THE GREED OUTRUNS THE FUN

That was the end of the growth and fun days of motorcycles. Over 4 Million motorcycles a year were sold for cash and no loans prior to the Loan Folks new deal. Last year 2007 a mere 800,000 motorcycles were sold in the U.S.

Gasoline sold at retail for less than $99 cents per gallon for over 105 years after it was first refined.

Oil sold for $23 a barrel on the day the U.S. invaded the Middle East after 911.

I am so glad I experienced growing up in the great days of the 60s in the Good OLD U.S.A.

WHO OWNS TODAY'S GAS STATIONS?

Most of today's gas stations do not have bays that service vehicles, they have no mechanics and handle very few products that pretain to motor vehicles on the shelves. Majority of folks working behind the counters don't appear to own the stores that sell motor fuel. So, who actually owns these outlets, and what do they spend their time and money on from the profits made from selling fuel? Anyone know someone that still owns a service station or stores that sell gasoline today?   More on this later...

SIDE NOTE: Coins may be minted that have fiat values lower than the value of their component metals, but this is never done intentionally and initially for circulation coins, and happens only in due course later in the history of coin production due to inflation, as market values for the metal overtake the fiat declared face value of the coin. Examples of this phenomenon include the pre-1965 US dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar, US nickel, and pre-1982 US penny.

[AMP]

A person I know who is a chemist at the refinery in Tulsa informed me that the refinery is the largest user of Natural Gas in the state of Oklahoma. Using more Natural Gas each year than the entire city of Tulsa.

In order to refine the gasoline product from Crude Oil, a process of distilling, that requires massive heat, is used which requires the boiling of the oil to break it down into fuels and other chemical compounds.

He estimated their mark up on a gallon of gasoline to be around 8 cents per gallon, which he said is about the same as it was 20 years ago. He said the retailers have around that or an even smaller profit margin per gallon of fuel sold at the pump.

He went on to say the folks that are producing the oil from the ground are the culprits making the huge profits. Other than exploration costs and initial drilling costs, the cost of pumping the product out of the ground is minimal. So, there's your problem.

Garry Baehler's dad Duane, owned the gas station at 36th and Harvard in Tulsa for years. They had motorcycles, race karts, race cars and were your typical Gear Head family. Sold gas when it was in the 15 to 50 cents per gallon days. Garry said his dad was bought out by the Oil Company, as they wanted to transform his full service station into one of the modern convienence store formats.

This weekend I am going to talk to two people I know that still own independent full service gas stations and get their side of the story.

[AMP]

In the late 1960's and early 1970's I had seven or eight pay checks sitting in the top of my tool box. Never needed to cash them. Had no loans, no credit cards, didn't need any. Cheeseburger was 19 cents at Griff's and a large pop was a nickle.

Can't say I have ever had as much cash saved up at one time, since those days.

Mazzio's Pizza Restaurant, Pine and Sheridan, that has been in business at the same location since 1971 closed last month. They took out all the equipment, cut the sign off the pole with a Gas Axe, and moved everything out over the past weekend. Another victim of the sluggish economy. That entire four mile area nearby looks like the great depression has hit. Entire shopping centers are standing vacant. I have a couple of friends that have small businesses located in the once giant Honda Motorcycle building in Tulsa. I recall the day I paid cash for my Honda 90 that sat on the parking lot at that building, which today is a shell of its former self. Sad deal for sure....

         
 

[AMP]

My 1964 Honda 90 got 174 miles per gallon. For 16 cents which was the price of a gallon of gas, I rode 174 miles. And the folks that owned the gas stations earned a decent living and had race cars they competed with on Saturday nights at Tulsa Speedway at 21st and Yale. Niether of the above independent gas stations where I knew the folks running them or the Tulsa Speedway racetrack are in operation today.

My Honda 90 that I bought brand new for $249 Cash in 1964 got 174 miles per gallon.

16 cents took me 174 miles.

It cost $13.79 cents to travel 15,000 miles then on the Honda 90.

So for less than two days work at minimum wage, one earned enough cash to buy gas for an entire year!

There was no required liability insurance, and the tag was just $8.50 for the year.

Today at 15 mpg it costs $4,000 to travel the same distance, or over 20 weeks of work at today's minimum wage.

Of course in the 1960s one could buy 46 bottles of ice cold pop at the gas station for the same price as one bottle of pop today. And any purchase less than 50 cents, there was no sales tax charged as the tax on a dollar was 2 cents. Therefore a 49 cent purchase required no tax collected. So if you bought 49 cents worth of pop twice you would not have to pay sales tax. Saving the two cents tax got you six pieces of double bubble or super bubble gum as they sold for 3 pieces for a penny.

Compare that with today's prices and try to pay for it all with minimum wage.

[AMP]

I don't recall anyone walking too far to school in the 50s and 60s. Most neighborhoods then still had elementary schools nearby. Today, many of those schools have been closed and torn down and replaced with giant schools that require the students to travel by bus or vehicle to and from them.

Then I rode my bicycle to school it was six blocks away, when the weather was nice, other days the domestic help took us to school. When I turned 14 I rode my Honda to Jr. High school which was about 2 miles away, until my mom died, then I became a border student at Cascia Hall, a private college preparatory school. I bought a new Honda CL-77 305 Scrambler when I turned 15, and a new Honda CB-750 when I was 18 and a new 1973 Z1 Kawasaki the first day they came in. I paid cash that I earned working at my family's store, the motorcycle shop and at the ½-mile racetrack for them all.

At the Junior High School I atteneded there were around 60 or 70 motorcycles parked in the island motorcycle only parking area in front of the school. Jr. High was 7th, 8th and 9th grade back then, similar to middle school today for folks born later. Started out they were Cushmans and Mustangs, but then the Hondas came along. Majority were Hondas, then Yamaha and then a few Suzukis.

It was the thing to own a motorcycle when you turned 13 or 14, you could apply and test for your license to legally ride on the street the day you were 14. If you did not own a motorcycle you could ride as a passenger on one at any age. Lots of kids rode double and that was a kewl thing then. No one wore a helmet as they were not required by any lame law, just bubble goggles. We all took the mufflers off of our Honda 90s and used the toe of our shoes to cover the end of the exhaust pipe when we passed a cop to make it quiter. It was rare to see a Honda 90 with a muffler attached. Didn't cost a dime to remove the muffler and it made more power and the bike was lighter with it removed. Today people spend upwards of $500 on a muffler and pipe, go figure. Most of the Jr. High and High School Year Books from the 50s and 60s covers show the bikes parked in front of the school, kids riding motorcycles to school and around town was a normal thing then.

Four of my friends bought Kawasaki MC1s the first day they hit the dealership in 1973, with cash also. We carried that much in our pockets. None of us needed a loan back then. The greedy folks in the financial and insurance industry and Harley Davidson had not artificially inflated the prices of the imports, yet.

Most folks TVs ran off the Free Air Antennas. Here there were 3 TV Stations ABC-CBS-NBC, and 3 Radio Stations that all broadcast on AM up until the early 70s when FM was introduced in this market.

ABC had a weekly program called "Wild World of Sports" that covered it all including motorsports. You could watch racing on television for just the cost of the electricity then, no outrageous Cable or Satellite bill was required. And we did not have to purchase a $50 convertor to watch Free Antenna Air TV then like folks are being forced to do today in the U.S.

Evel Knievel on ABC's Wide World of Sports
Date Place Jumped Result
11/10/1973 L.A. Coliseum 50 stacked cars Successful
02/17/1974 North Richmond Hill, Texas 11 Mack trucks Successful
08/31/1974 Canadian National Exposition 13 Mack trucks Successful
09/8/1974 Snake River Canyon, Idaho Canyon Crashed
05/31/1975 Wembley Stadium, London, England 13 Double-tiered buses Crashed
10/25/1975 King's Island, Ohio 14 Greyhound buses Successful
10/30/1976 The Kingdome, Seattle, Wash. 7 Greyhound buses Successful
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ild4QNer1w8


Tulsa based Funny Car - Tulsa Oiler owned by Dick Moritz

The Big Daddy Don Garlits & Jim Tice "National Challenge" AHRA Drag Races were the biggest event in town.  There were 32 qualified Top Fuel and Funny Cars in each division, not a match race between a single Funny Car and a single Top Fuel dragster like we have in Tulsa today. Mostly because the promoters could afford to advertise on the two rock radio stations KAKC and KELI and everyone in town knew about it in less than a day.


Tulsa based Steve Carbone with the Creitz & Donavan Top Fueler.

Tulsans Steve Carbone and Bob Creitz





There were not a ka-zillion different radio stations on four different frequency bands plus 500 television stations some on air, others on cable and others on satellite, playing the same re-runs at different times. In the 60s 8-Track tape players were just introduced and were in some vehicles, but those being very rare. Most folks listened to the 2 Rock Stations in the 50s and 60s.


Wayne Gapp and Jack Roush's Pinto square off
with Don Grotheer's Plymouth at Tulsa in 1973.


In addition to the glut of TV and Radio stations today, small business owners are also plagued with Four separate Yellow Page Phone Books that suck millions of dollars out of the local economy every month. Their cost of required ads in those four books increased their phone book advertising costs 3 times greater than when there were only one yellow page book, but that is another story....

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&resnum=0&q=cushman%20motorcycle&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
CUSHMAN MOTORCYCLES PHOTOS


MUSTANG MOTORCYCLE


ANOTHER MUSTANG MOTORCYCLE
         
 

[AMP]

Summer Time Blues ~ 1958
Eddie Cochran & Jerry Capehart

Lyrics:

I'm gonna raise a fuss, I'm gonna raise a holler

About a workin' all summer just to try to earn a dollar

Every time I call my baby, and try to get a date
My boss says, "No dice son, you gotta work late"
Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do
But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

Well my mom and pop told me, "Son you gotta make some money,

If you want to use the car to go ridin' next Sunday"

Well I didn't go to work, told the boss I was sick
"Well you can't use the car 'cause you didn't work a lick"
Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do
But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

I'm gonna take two weeks, gonna have a fine vacation

I'm gonna take my problem to the United Nations

Well I called my congressman and he said Quote:
"I'd like to help you son but you're too young to vote"
Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do
But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

*Note: Arlo Guthrie song witer of the famous "Motorcycle Pickle Song" helped to lower the minimum age for voting in the U.S. from 21 to 18. His song released in 1967 "Alice's Resturant" helped raise awarness of the problem regarding drafting kids 18, 19, 20 that were under 21 to be forced to fight a war while they were not allowed to vote. There were motorcycles featured in is 1969 film of Alice's Restaurant movie also.

The Twenty sixth Amendment (Amendment XXVI) of the United States Constitution, ratified on July 1, 1971, standardized the voting age to from 21 yrs-old to 18 yrs. old. It was passed in response to the Vietnam War and to partially overrule the Supreme Court's decision in Oregon v. Mitchell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm2Mdma2dXw
Summer Time Blues ~ 1958
Eddie Cochran & Jerry Capehart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5euZ3YWLXQ
The Who "Summer Time Blues" 1967



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfPUYE6TKRE&feature=related
The Who at Woodstock - "Summer Time Blues" - 1969 - The Summer of Love

This version features John Entwistle singing the vocal parts of the boss, the father, and the congressman in his trademark baritone growl, in addition to playing the bass guitar. The track features the original four-man Who lineup of Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, and Pete Townshend.

[AMP]

Red Daley said his first gas sation in California his first load of gasoline cost him 3 cents per gallon from the distributor and it sold to the customer for a nickle, making him 2 cents less his cost of operation and the electricity to pump it. He nearly doubled his cost on each gallon, doubt if the retailers are making that high of a margin today on a gallon of gasoline.



Today I stopped in one of the longest running full service gas stations near Admiral and Sheridan in Tulsa. Jim the owner opened this station in 1963 and he has owned and operated it since then. Main reason he is still open and an independent is due to the fact he is located near a dozen or more large distribution warehouses and the large trucks purchase fuel from him in large volumes.

He has a Sinclair franchise, he told me in the early days they gave him the gasoline on consignment and he paid them for what he sold when they returned to refill his tanks. He said that agreement changed and then he had to buy the gas in advance.

When he started he made around 3 cents per gallon mark up. Today he makes 2 to 3 cents per gallon mark up. Says the profit in the fuel has not increased or decreased since he opened. Volume is the only thing that has kept him operating since 1963.

When I asked about the full service, which he still provides for $3.99.9 today for unleaded gasoline, he replied that he can still handle that himself and with another person working there. But back in the day he had two full time mechanics and three people on the drive. He said the profits from the service bays, oil changes and lubes plus light mechanic work such as water pump replacements, belts, alternators, tune-ups and tires he had another profit center.

Times changed when the manufactures converted to front wheel drive vehicles and electronic fuel injection and ignitons. The cost of diagnostic and special factory computer tune up tools, plus the lack of the newer vehicles being standardised using similar batterys, bulbs, fuses, belts and tires drove his cost beyond reason. So he laid off his two mechanics and with the loss of that profit center it cost the two drive positions their jobs.

My regular 87 octane fuel today that I purchased at Jim's station ran me $3.85.9 per gallon, I got $10 worth. When I commented on the price, Jim explained that he sells 100% gasoline, not cut with ethanol. I was glad to do business with him and get 100% gasoline. He also reminded me that ethyl back in the day was 105 octane or higher.

[cks511]

quote:Originally posted by AMP


The Who at Woodstock - "Summer Time Blues" - 1969 - The Summer of Love

Was there in person.  Round trip from Arkansas took us about $20 in gas.  These days really suck ya know?

[cannon_fodder]

In the good old days, before catalytic converters,  when gas had real lead in it (as did the paint), and aerosol was real chlorofluorocarbon.   Asbestos was used for everything.  Smoking was encouraged.  Waste treatment meant waste dumping.  Mercury was both a planet and something to play with when you smashed a thermometer.  

Real wages were soaring in automobile manufacturing, aviation, steel production, and heavy manufacturing (read: industries that have since failed). Utilities were told how much and when to make electricity, planes were told were to fly, and being a "communist" was technically a crime. Men were working and women were at home.

Black people lived north of the tracks, nice white people south.  Mexicans were in Mexico.  Doctors were even American.  

Peace reigned supreme (except Africa, SE Asia, Central and South America, Afghanistan, and Korea).  Our military spending was far less in actual dollars (more in GDP, but who's counting).  We produced a new nuclear weapon every day.  We made lasting friends in Cuba, Iran, China, North Korea, Central America, Afghanistan and around the globe in foreign relations.

Gas was 25 cents as only a handful of countries had significant usage and readily toppled and installed governments to ensure a cheap supply.  We were building freeways and tearing out light rail as fast as we could.  Row houses and condo's came tumbling down as subdivisions and suburbs popped up.  Supermarkets, Sears and Montgomery Ward replaced the small and inefficient "mom and pop" stores.  New malls sprung up on the suburbs so people didn't have to go downtown anymore.
- - -

It wasn't all roses and the effects of many things in that era cause many of the problems we face today.  I'm not saying it was all bad either, nor that it's all better today, certainly 25 cent gas is something to envy.  There has been many shifts in work and the work force (entrance of women as full members as well as actual racial integration, not too mention from agrarian/industrial to a post industrial economy).  Attitudes, understandings, and beliefs have greatly changed.

Above all, nearly every chart has risen since then.  Real wages, life expectancy, happiness (per surveys), and standard of living.  Doom and gloom, the good old days, yet we keep marching on.

Didn't mean to lecture.

Sources (among others, sorry for the sloppy citing)
A History of the Standard of Living in the United States:
http://web.econ.ohio-state.edu/rsteckel/VITA/2002%20EH.Net%20Encyclopedia---2002.pdf

[FOTD]

"Didn't mean to lecture"? That's ripe.

I recall the days before computers and cell phones. We were more of a community......

[Conan71]

Another wis t ful "Tulsa's economy is crumbling" thread from AMP.

Thanks for the cheer.

[cannon_fodder]

quote:Originally posted by FOTD


I recall the days before computers and cell phones. We were more of a community......

Then go join the Amish.  No one forces (or encourages) you to post here nor have a cell phone.

People were much more of a community in the dark ages.  Communities were cut off from others and relied on themselves because roads crumbled, postal services ceased, and trade ground to a halt.  The good ole' days of community.

[waterboy]

Hey, no need to snipe at him. Those times had their plentiful negatives but they were bonanza times for the middle and lower classes. Starting with Eisenhower and the post war boom in productivity more Americans had a larger piece of the pie than now. You guys can probably pull the stats and argue the point but the feeling was real.

Thanks for the memories AMP, I am just a couple years younger but can vouch for everything you posted. It was a dangerous time but an affordable growth period filled with promise. It all seemed to end around 1980. Hmmm....

One thing came to mind immediately when you spoke of Honda 90's. Riding was dangerous then. One of our Wilson Jr. High teachers was crossing the street after school when an 8th grader's clutch stuck on his cycle with the throttle wide open. He panicked and hit the teacher causing a compound fracture of her leg and ending her career.

Gas stations were great back then. I married early (18) and our first set of dishes was an Anchor Hocking setting for four that we got from filling our tank up with Fina gasoline!

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

quote:Originally posted by FOTD


I recall the days before computers and cell phones. We were more of a community......

Then go join the Amish.  No one forces (or encourages) you to post here nor have a cell phone.

People were much more of a community in the dark ages.  Communities were cut off from others and relied on themselves because roads crumbled, postal services ceased, and trade ground to a halt.  The good ole' days of community.

Well said. Of course, we are all assuming that this moron FOTD, aox or whatever other screen name he operates under, would be a part of any community. BTW, did you know Bush was a moron? I would never have thought that if it wasn't for this dude.

[AMP]

While some audio buffs will argue the quality of digital recording is better than analog, and the storage is much eaiser for mobile use, however, if you were around in the 60's most will agree that the content, meaning and talent of the artists of the music being recorded on reel to reel tape then far outweighs that of today.