"Bob G." wrote in message
...

On my 21st birthday, I called home (Westchester County, in New York) from
Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Cost of a 20 minute call was about $115. A long
damned
time ago, and at that time I was making, if memory serves, about $124 a
month, net. Lance corporal, USMC. Big boost the next year, going to E4 and
over 3. Up to $170 a month.

Charlie you are younger then me.... I still remember my first check
from the US Army... $18.46 cents...NET ...and 16 bucks of that was
traveling pay from Ft Bragg to Walter Reed... That check I really
should have not cashed ..I should have had it framed and hung it on my
wall...

Hell, I had to be younger than somebody! That was in 1959, for anyone who
cares.


Prices are relative,,, My home cost less then $25,000 when I
purchased it in 1965 ...When my dad died a few years ago I discovered
he paid either $1160 or $1610 for my entire 1st year in college when I
was going thru his things... even laughed at his comment that I better
cut my beer consumption because he was going broke "supporting" me...

My first semester's tuition at Albany State (now the great and pretentious
University at Albany)
was 200 bucks, IIRC. and $400 for a semester in the dorms, with meals. One
semester and I went out, against the rules, and got my own apartment. It was
that or
kill a college kid.

My first job in High School was at a burger joint... we sold them fro
15 cents each..or 7 for a dollar... My 1951 V8 Hot Rod drank gas that
cost me 19 cents a gallon... and ran on "May Pop" brand tires ..like
one just may pop... at any time...I think I averaged 2-3 flat tires a
week...

Now back to the original posters comments... I have no idea if I can
afford to continue buying wood... Before I retired I stock piled a
lifetime supply of Walnut, Cherry and Poplar...(what A laugh...I must
have died a few years ago because it only took about 5 years before I
had to float a loan to buy a small supply to make my Daughters dinning
room set...(Table & Hutch,...no darn chairs...) ..

Fricken scary ...what EVERYTHING costs now...

My "Real Estate" Taxes per year today .. are greater then what I paid
in 1965 for my mortgage (P&I and taxes)... My first "new" car was a
1965 Corvette 396 BB purchased in 1966 for $4,700 ..today just the
knock off wheels for that car are worth that much...

My niece, her husband and daughter came down from LI a few weeks ago, and we
talked of
cabbages, kings, RE taxes and things. First, they are paying approximately
three times the
assessed value of my home for a similar sized place (though nicer) on Long
Island. They are also
paying approximately 16 times what I am paying in RE and school taxes. Their
tax bill is on the
order of $167 per MONTH more than I pay for a year. I was born and raised in
Westchester County, so
high RE taxes come as no surprise, but that's asinine.

Honestly as much as I bitch about what I have to pay for lumber I
really feel sorry for my grandchildren and what they have to pay for a
little, but nice, townhouse with a 200 sq foot back yard.....even the
dog can not get any exercise in that small yard...

Ok..
Off my soap box...

Our grandchildren, with minor exceptions, will scrape by. Our great
grandchildren will not. We--and this is
all inclusive--have gobbled their resources and their money. It has nothing
to do with SS, but with our allowing
idiot politicians over the past 65 years to **** away money at a rate that
would scare anyone with half a brain. We
make jokes about cost overruns and pork, and nothing EVER gets done about
it. The national debt mounts, and
we slither along--and that's how the kids will probably view us. As a bunch
of thieving snakes.

My soapbox.

The one check I will not have to write will be to the Funeral Home...
what a good though that is... Maybe I should run out and buy some pine
for a "box" today.... who knows what the wife will have to pay per Bf
of that crap in a few years...


Yeah, well...if they waste a box on me, I'll come back and haunt 'em.