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The Good Old Days

thuggins

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RalphLambrecht

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Gerald C Koch

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Unless you were one of the Vanderbilts, Morgans, Goulds, ..., the good ole days were not very good.
 
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thuggins

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Gerald C Koch said:
Unless you were one of the Vanderbilts, Morgans, Goulds, ..., the good ole days were not very good.
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One of the most interesting things about about that particular document is all of the prices. According to the BLS Inflation Calculator those prices are just under one tenth of 2017 prices. So some things, like prints, were very expensive compared to today (this is one reason why slides were so popular). Even camera prices seem high. A Kodak Medalist II is listed at $312.50, or about $3200 in today's prices. The ugly little Kodak 35 is listed at $86.58, nearly $900 in 2017 dollars.

But you have to remember that there was a thriving and dynamic middle class, especially after the war when the US was the world's only economic powerhouse. So it wasn't a matter of a few incredibly rich people and then everyone else. There was certainly poverty but the majority of Americans were better off financially than they had ever been, and better off than they are now. Folks were buying all sorts of "luxury goods" and even the average guy working in a factory could afford a relatively expensive hobby like photography.
 

benjiboy

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The "good old days" were when girls used to wear garter belts and nylons
 

benjiboy

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John Wiegerink said:
And boys had to go through the trouble of removing them. Heck, nowadays some girls don't even wear underwear. Life has just gotten to darn easy!
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Wouldn't you know,they would just wait until I'm too old to take advantage of it.
 

benjiboy

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John Wiegerink said:
My wife of 46+ could care less. She'd be happy to have me stop bugging her for a favor. If you know what I mean?????
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I know exactly what you mean John, but always remember the old saying " hell hath no fury like a woman scorned".
 

Sirius Glass

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In the good old days, I could not buying the equipment I have now, much less pay for it!
 

John Wiegerink

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Sirius Glass said:
In the good old days, I could not buying the equipment I have now, much less pay for it!
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Yes, that's true, but it's only because the demand for film gear is almost gone and for a while people were almost flushing their used gear down the drain. Now it has bounced back a little. I struggled to buy my Hasselblad 500C years ago and I was shooting weddings to pay for it. I justified the purchase because my Bronica S2A couldn't do high-speed fill flash. It all worked out in the end, but I sure remember pinching pennies for a while. Now the expensive stuff is medium format digital and it's back to square one in the "I can't afford it department". Now that I just shoot for my own enjoyment I can't come up with any excuse to buy one of those new digi Hasselblads, but that's OK 'cause I'm enjoying film at my own pace now.
 
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