When I Was a Boy

Beezer

Beezer

Well-known Member
My Dad would give me a 2 dollar bill to clean his golf clubs every other week.

As an 8 year old kid in 1974, believe me...that was a King's Ransom! I would bike down to the nearest Convenience Store and purchase gum, candy, pop, mojos, freezies...and on and on.

My Father is battling lung cancer as I type this...probably only a couple of weeks left to live. My buddy collects dollar bills and gave me an orange Canadian two like my Pop used to give to me. It was such a heartfelt sentiment, I almost teared up.

two dollar bill.jpg
 

My condolences in reference to your dad being ill. I lost my mom ten years ago to Alzheimer's and my dad a few years before that to a heart attack. Not easy at all to see them so suddenly depart that way.

About money, very true! Amazing how the same bills did have much greater value back then. As a ten-year old, I could have purchased 20 comic books in 1956 with two dollars. Now they are approx. five dollars each or more?
 

Last edited:
Breezer...I am very sorry to hear about your dad! My dad passed away some time ago. I still miss him all the time.

I had a similar experience with my dad, except I shined his shoes and got pocket change.

He was a banker, and, in those days, he had to wear a suit and tie every day at work. He also had lots of leather dress shoes to wear. I got really good at shining his shoes...with that and other chores around the house, I always had a pocket full of change in my pockets. Bubble gum, licorish, and chocolate were my favorite candies. I also would buy a yoyo or squirt gun, wooden airplanes, etc. at times...

Good memories all...
 
Very sorry to hear about your father. I lost mine to Parkinson’s years ago.

My father tried to teach me the value of money. He would say, “Money used to be different.” At one time, my allowance was a quarter, and you could buy stuff with that! Candy bars used to be a nickel…five cents, American…and they were bigger than the ones you’ll pay almost an American dollar or more for today! As a teenager, I’d mow lawns for as little as $2.

Remember the expression, “I’d buy that for a dollar!” Today, many dollar stores charge $1.25 for an item, true dollar stores no longer…
 
Beezer said:
My Dad would give me a 2 dollar bill to clean his golf clubs every other week.
Click to expand...
Good memories

I'd get a quarter a week for mowing the lawn and washing and vacuuming the cars
That was in the late 50s (talk about inflation)
I'd ride my bike to town and get two (hundred count) sleeves of BBs at 10 cents each
The rest I blew on wild wimmen and whiskey
 
Last edited:
My late father fought in Europe during WWII. He was 18 in his senior year of high school, 1944. He was drafted during his senior year of high school. My mom knew him in high school. He was wounded and was back in Denver in 1945, still under medical care. Eventually, he healed up, met my mom and they ended up getting married. She often commented to me how much he had changed when he got back from the war. He went from being a kid/ teenager to a man. His health was never great after the war, but he did live until he was 65.

He was a great father to my sister and I, but he did struggle at times with his health. He did not like talking about his time in Germany while in the American Army, what I have learned about his time in the war I found in the history books. As a machine gunner (he shared that detail with me one time) I am sure he was shot at and probably killed a few Germans...that is why he probably did not want to talk about it...

I miss him every day...
 
When I graduated from college in 69 my draft board immediately re-classified me 1-A and the very next month sent me my "Order to Report for Induction into the Armed Forces of the United States" That's when I went down to the Air Force Recruiter and signed up for the "120 day delayed enlistment plan." I knew there was no use applying for any decent job but I did manage to do a song and dance for the "Dixie Minute Mart people by lying to them and telling them that I hadn't been called up yet and was just waiting to see what my lottery number would be.

So long story short they hired me as an "assistant manager" which is convienience store code for "low man on the totem pole. 85 bucks a week for 48 hours a week. I only worked there a couple of months waiting on the Air Force to activate me. Turned out that 120 day delayed enlistment was in reality "up to 120 days" and in the end I only got 88 days. But that's another story. But even in that short stint working for the Dixie Minute Mart I had a number of "interesting" experiances and Beezer's story about going to the convienience store with his 2 bucks reminded me of one of them.

So one day this little kid, he's maybe 7 or 8 years old comes in and he's got some money. I forget how much but I'm thinking it was a buck and some change. And he picks out some toy, I forget what it was and he puts it down on the counter along with his money. I look at it and whatever it was he wanted to buy, it cost more than what he has. So I tell him "No, you can't buy that with what you have. So he goes back into the store and picks out something else and he holds it up and says "Can I get this?"

And again, it costs more than he has. Well this goes on for may 3 or 4 iterations and then the kid finally picks out something he can afford. So I ring it up and he has some change coming so I give that back to him. But does he leave? Hell no. He starts the whole process over with what money he has left, Can I get this? Can I get this? Well this goes on for about a half a dozen iterations and I'm starting to feel like choking him till his eyeballs pop out. Finally he's down to about 2 cents and he picks out something that costs maybe a dime and I just let him have it and make up the difference out of my pocket just to get rid of him.
 
Trade said:
When I graduated from college in 69 my draft board immediately re-classified me 1-A and the very next month sent me my "Order to Report for Induction into the Armed Forces of the United States" That's when I went down to the Air Force Recruiter and signed up for the "120 day delayed enlistment plan." I knew there was no use applying for any decent job but I did manage to do a song and dance for the "Dixie Minute Mart people by lying to them and telling them that I hadn't been called up yet and was just waiting to see what my lottery number would be.

So long story short they hired me as an "assistant manager" which is convienience store code for "low man on the totem pole. 85 bucks a week for 48 hours a week. I only worked there a couple of months waiting on the Air Force to activate me. Turned out that 120 day delayed enlistment was in reality "up to 120 days" and in the end I only got 88 days. But that's another story. But even in that short stint working for the Dixie Minute Mart I had a number of "interesting" experiances and Beezer's story about going to the convienience store with his 2 bucks reminded me of one of them.

So one day this little kid, he's maybe 7 or 8 years old comes in and he's got some money. I forget how much but I'm thinking it was a buck and some change. And he picks out some toy, I forget what it was and he puts it down on the counter along with his money. I look at it and whatever it was he wanted to buy, it cost more than what he has. So I tell him "No, you can't buy that with what you have. So he goes back into the store and picks out something else and he holds it up and says "Can I get this?"

And again, it costs more than he has. Well this goes on for may 3 or 4 iterations and then the kid finally picks out something he can afford. So I ring it up and he has some change coming so I give that back to him. But does he leave? Hell no. He starts the whole process over with what money he has left, Can I get this? Can I get this? Well this goes on for about a half a dozen iterations and I'm starting to feel like choking him till his eyeballs pop out. Finally he's down to about 2 cents and he picks out something that costs maybe a dime and I just let him have it and make up the difference out of my pocket just to get rid of him.
Click to expand...
The art of the deal!!! 😉
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top