What it cost in 1963--The year we were married

I was looking up stuff about the year, 1963, the year we were Married.
It brought back a rush of memories.

We were 21 years old.
I knew a lot more then, than I do now.
I was earning $3.15 an hour in a body shop.
We drove on our honeymoon in my/[b:4b2719def1]our[/b:4b2719def1] new 1963 Ford XL convertible
We stayed at the Cambell House Hotel in Lexington Kentucky
My wife was earning $55 a week working for the R.T. French Co.
We rented an upstairs in a 2 family flat. It was very nice.....$70 a month
Our funiture, wedding, rings, pictures....all paid in full.
FIL gave me $500 to take care of everything.
We were liv'n "High on the Hog"


[b:4b2719def1]Top Songs for 1963[/b:4b2719def1]
Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton
He's So Fine by Chiffons
My Boyfriend's Back by Angels
I Will Follow Him by Little Peggy March
Sugar Shack by Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs
Fingertips (Pt. 2) by Little Stevie Wonder
Dominique by Singing Nun
Hey Paula by Paul & Paula
Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto
Walk Like a Man by Four Seasons

[b:4b2719def1]1963 Prices[/b:4b2719def1]
Bread: $0.21/loaf
Milk: $1.04/gal
Eggs: $0.96/doz
Car: $2,300
Gas: $0.30/gal
House: $19,300
Stamp: $0.05/ea
Avg Income:$6,998/yr
Min Wage: $1.25/hr
DOW Avg: 763

[b:4b2719def1]US President[/b:4b2719def1]
John F. Kennedy
[b:4b2719def1]US Vice President[/b:4b2719def1]
Lyndon B. Johnson

[b:4b2719def1]On TV in 1963[/b:4b2719def1]
The Twilight Zone
Bonanza
The Andy Griffith Show
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Flinstones
Perry Mason
Leave it to Beaver
The Fugitive
Alfred Hitchcock Presents

[b:4b2719def1]Massey Ferguson Tractor[/b:4b2719def1]
Original price (USD): $2,529 (1963)

With the exception of some of the medical advances, I wish we could go back to those days. And I wasn't born until '70.

I was born in 1962. The only bad thing back then was no internet...

Remember when TV was just 5 channels or so. Cable TV didnt come out for me until I was 13 years old and we had 25 channels....That was incredible, now I have 200 channels and cant find much to watch.
In the late 50s a Winchester .30-30 carbine was $81. That same Winchester, if Winchester still made those guns would be $400, at least that is what the Mossberg version is.
When I got married in 1995 Gasoline was $1.30 per gallon, not too long ago huh?
The more stuff goes up in price one thing still remains the same.......All the politicians are still crooks.

LOL we gat married Dec 73. Yea I can remember making 100 bucks a week and thinking that was good. First pay raise I got in the Army was going from 388 a month to 410 and I thought that was pretty good and when I made E2 that was another 30 a month! Buy then the oil embargo was going on and gas jumped from .33 a gallon to .58. In 1976 a new Chevy Caprice Classic with all the bells and whistles was around 6700. IN 78 a fully loaded pickup was 8K or under. Then the Carter/Reagan recession was in full bloom and I was real glad I had a full time job....

No computers, no cell phones, some places I was assigned got cable in the early 80's. Most of those areas only had 1 channel.

Rick

1964, E1 was $68 a month, plus three hots and a cot.

I got married in 1960, week after getting out of the army. They had a draft in those days.

I was condemned & sentence for life in 1966 (married) . Not really . But I was swooned off my feet & married Nov 1966 . Rented our first home from my Gramma , then purchased in 1972 for $7,200.00 at 6% interest including all taxes being paid in the loan . Got lost trying to find our honeymoon hotel in NY close to the Canadian bridge .I thought my life was one any guy would dream of . Then 33 yrs later during the phase a woman goes thru at 50 hit home . She left for playLand saying she never was happy being married to me . Then I had to refinance my home in order to get her name cleared off the deed or loose it also . Interest at 14.7% for 15 more years . Had a complete breakdown & forced to quit working & file for total SS Disability at age 54 .Oh what a life & what a way to enjoy the retirement I worked so hard for .Live Life to the fullest while happiness is part of it . We never know what lays on the sidewalk ahead to knock us down . God bless

(quoted from post at 13:34:56 10/06/11) 1964, E1 was $68 a month, plus three hots and a cot.

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Jim back in 64 I was an Army brat. Back in those days the PX and commissary were cheap. As local off post businesses complained that they were not getting enough on post customers congress and the senate in their infinite wisdom changed how the PX and commissary did business. The PX was forced to start paying for employees and buildings and could only under cut local regular places by 15% (all profits go to MWR). They were not allowed to price things in box stores. The commissary had to go from being part of the GS and having soldiers doing some of the work to all civilian hire and pay for their buildings too plus they still have the 5% surcharge that goes to MWR. By the time I joined in 74 you could get better prices downtown. So they had to raise pay to match the increase in prices. E1 now starts at 1357 for the first 4 months then jumps to 1467. thats a heck of a lot more than 68 bucks!

Kinda funny but the other day an Army general made a statement about there being a discipline problem in the Army. Says it isn't many troop but a few and that commanders need to treat these guys harshly. He went on to say that a big problem was DUI's. He is looking at catching heat because some guy just off of deployment got stupid. The company commander is looking at the same guy who did a great job in a combat zone plus the fact that the unit could be deployed again. Now what commander is going to want to lose a proven battle field performer? So I kinda see the dilemma from both sides. You can't have soldiers killing is getting heat over soldiers DUI's and wants it to stop but I can also he a commander being reluctant to lose a combat vet.
themselves or someone else on the highways. Don't misunderstand me, I don't drink and drive and don't condone it, I'm not trying to justify an SM getting behind the wheel drunk. But I undersatnd where the Chief of Staff
Rick

Where you from?Is RT French the mustard co.? I believe they were founded in my home town.
Rochester,NY

So what I gather from all this is we should have all got married twice? Bought more than we could afford so we would all be wealthy by now?

Seems the younger generation may well be on the right track, and for sure our government must be thinking the same way. (NOT MEANT TO BE POLITICAL)

(quoted from post at 05:17:20 10/07/11) Where you from?Is RT French the mustard co.? I believe they were founded in my home town.
Rochester,NY

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You are correct sir! Rochester was thier home office and yes they are the mustard company. In 1963 my bride and I were living in St. Louis. She worked in a big office building in downtown. We now live in the Missouri Ozarks.

In '62 E-1 was $78, E-2 $85.80, E-3 $99.37.
We.ve come a long way.

Areo

1972 - E5 with combat pay, tax exempt, got one hundred bucks a week. Never dreamed I would ever make that much in service.

We still buy eggs for about $1.00 sometimes

(quoted from post at 08:34:24 10/07/11) We still buy eggs for about $1.00 sometimes

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Yeah.....I was a little surprised at the eggs and the milk compared to today.

They were either high back then or their not getting enough today.

I also got married in 1963 and was a mechanic for the Yellow cab company in Lexington, Ky. I also remember the Campbell House..

I was married in 73 also. Took the honeymoon in a new 73 Plymouth Sattelite that cost me $2700 new. The only options were a radio, power steering and a V8 engine. Yeah, I know, I'm cheap! On the honeymoon in August gas was $.43
along interstate 80 and I thought that was horribly high. Jim

I got married in 82 and bought a house and 210 acres for $96K . Feeder calves were $.68. I bought a new F150 4x4 for $9200.Trip 17 fertilizer was $139 ton and a roll of barb wire wass $25. I was making $8 an hour.
2 years ago I bought a house and 10 acres for $95K. This year I sold my feeder calves for $1.40, fertilizer was $589 per ton, barb wire is $72, my last 4x4 was $29K and I think I might make $2 an hour 8)

Geeze, I didn't know of TV til I was 14 or 15. First tv had 3 channels, two of them snowy and poor reception with roof-top antenna. Gas was 19.9 per gal. 5 gal for a buck. First weeks pay as a high school math teacher was around $100. Thought I was rich.

Interesting comparing gasoline prices to wages. At $3.15 an hour you were earning more than 10 gallons of 30 cent gas an hour. To do that now you'd have to make around $35 an hour (plus taxes take a lot more now). Minumum wage at $1.25 back then bought 4 gallons of gas an hour. To compare minimum wage now would need to be up around $15 an hour- not to mention the extra taxes paid now. We're falling behind!

I don't like paying for gas today, but the price doesn't surprise me since we brought most of it on ourselves with taxes and regulations.

Look at the average car price.... it was 1/3 of the average yearly wage. Can you buy a new one today for 1/3 of your yearly wage?? I know they are loaded with things they didn't have back then, but they also had alot more metal/iron in them back then.

Oh well, eggs are about the same. I wasn't born until 64 so I can't say as I remember anything from 63.

Tim

Winchester model 12 shotgun, 98 dollars.
Model 61 pump 22, 78 dollars
Model 61 22 Mag 90 dollars.
300 hp 327 Corvette Stingray $3950
Base pay USN Ensign $220 per month.
2/3 carat diamond ring at Tiffany's $800.
Large Men;s Black Hills Gold ring $32. (600 today)

And a machine that could do what the cheapest computer can do these days would have covered 10 acres and cost a Million Dollars.Things change so do relative costs.

A few years ago, I remember seeing a journal of expendures kept by my wife in the early "60s, in which she wrote a check to our Houston Post paper carrier, L. N. Ryan (Nolan Ryan"s father. Nolan delivered our paper). The amount was $2.50/month. The Post went out of business in 1996.

Gordo,
I too was an Ensign in '63. Base pay was $222.30,BAS was $47.88 and BAQ was $87 something. Sea store cigs were $1.10 a carton. Bought a '59 Vette with two tops. Life was good, then I got married.
Pete

shoot,i was married and raising two kids then.was making $127 a week,and i swear we had more money then than now.Wife and i was talking about that just the other day.house payment was $11.00 on that little old house we had,and if i remember right we paid $900 for it and the lot.I remember very well the first brand new pickup i bought,a brand spanking new 65 chevy half ton custom cab,i thought we were moving right on up!i gave 2400 dollars for it,cash money.saved up from that 127 even after paying bills and everything.i 've got to admit though I worked far harder for that 127,than i do 2700 nowdays,i think most folks did.

Company I worked for had corporate office in Lexington. We used to stay at the Campbell House. I think the turtle soup was their specialty.