1962 Surplus ad, what to get if you had 35 bucks

[echo1]

I remember the pickle barrels full of rifles. Gun & Ammo's facing page always had a surplus dealer's listings. P51's, $1500, when new cars were that much. PAX

[echo1]

I think it was "Guns & Ammo" in the '50s-'60s era, the facing page was always a surplus dealer "ACME" or ?? $1500 got you a P51, they had half tracks, deuce & 1/2s, jeeps, tons of gear for dirt.
In '59 my pops bought a 1100 sq. ft. flat top tract home for $13,500 @ 2% on a WWII G.I. note. In '78 they sold it for $75K, in '14 it sold for $860K!!!??? PAX

[72 usmc]

Mc Donalds in 1960, and a thin hamburger is still around a buck.

Woolworths had barrels of surplus rifles at $10 -16. Got my first M95 long rifle there dad had to buy it for me. Still got the rifle.
Here is a blast from the past, https://forums.gunboards.com/showthread ... Woolworths

[Tommy Atkins]

Lets not forget the flip side of the coin:

The average family income in 1962 was just $6670!

That works out to $128.27 a week or $3.21 an hour.

[Ghoulardi]

Lets not forget the flip side of the coin:

The average family income in 1962 was just $6670!

That works out to $128.27 a week or $3.21 an hour.

don't think it was that high, unless you were upper-middle income or had a white collar job.
in any event, that was before they took out federal, state and local tax.

back then, except for a house and maybe a car people saved up for WANTS........firearms, vacation etc,,,or they went without them. WANTS are not NEEDS, NEEDS are things like shelter, food, clothes etc... people didn't go into deep debt for wants. it wasn't until later that all of a sudden EVERYTHING BECAME A NEED, and to pay for those "NEEDS" they became deep in debt.

youngster, those born in the 1980s -1990s and early 2000 don't and probably will never understand that, they look at prices from the 60s and say, "boy those were cheap"

this commercial spells it all out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0HX4a5P8eE

[Tommy Atkins]

I don't know, I didn't move here till '68.
I found it online, but as an average it might be right as it would include both high & low paid workers.
https://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-040.pdf