230728 Dollars and Sense

I purposely used the word sense instead of cents in my title for this post.

I don’t mean to be whining about my situation in this post. It is what it is and what it is, struck me this morning while paying my bills. I will make it through this and overcome whatever befalls me. The worst thing that ever happened to me was 23 months ago and I have survived it.

I was raised in the fifties and sixties. Times back then were totally different than they are today. I could buy a Coca Cola for 5 cents. A milkshake was 20 cents. A pack of cigarettes was also 20 cents. A comic book was less than a quarter and a used one was a dime.

I worked two different jobs from 1961 until 1963 the pay was a dollar an hour and no overtime and no pay raise. Things got worse when I enlisted in the navy in September of 1963. My pay went from a dollar an hour to $2.46 a day, or $74 dollars a month. That included a place to sleep in a crowded barracks that was made in World War Two. Every day was filled with classes and drills on a grinder outdoors. The outdoors drills were okay until winter rolled into Great lakes, Illinois. Then things weren’t so good outdoors.

It took me from 1963 until 1965 before I was making $100 a month as a 3rd class petty officer and getting flight pay for being on an aircrew. By the time I was discharged from the navy I was a 1st class making about $800 a month.

After the navy things got better working at Burroughs corporation and later at Litton. Joyce and I both worked during those times and we made good money for the time, but times have changed a lot since then. These days new people going into the workforce are making more an hour to start than I ever made in 49 years of working jobs.

I was lucky to have Joyce by my side through the years. She was a good money manager, while I was like my father, if there was enough money to pay the bills, I was fine with that. Any extra was fun money. Joyce got us to begin saving what we could even through the ever rising cost of living expenses. Without her I would be broke and living on the streets these days. Though she got us to start saving some money, that was long ago and what we saved doesn’t go as far as it once did.

My cost of living for this month is well over $1500. That only covered rent and groceries. That’s before anything else. That amount may sound like peanuts to many people, but it’s a lot on a fixed income. During the month, I only did one thing out of my normal expenses, but that was not included in my monthly expenses, it was a separate issue, a one time only thing. I did not eat out at a restaurant this month, did not go anywhere but to the Walmart store and to Aldi’s for groceries.

The times are changing and they may catch up to me before my life is over. In bygone days men had to say, “Hey brother can you spare a dime?” I may have to ask for a little more than that. How about, “Hey brother can you spare a 100 bucks?”