Buying a car has changed over the years. No longer do you have to go
from car lot to car lot to find that perfect car. No more spending your
week-ends car shopping. Years ago car shopping was a big thing. Having a
car wasn't as casual or as necessary as it is today. People in town
walked or took the bus.
Again they slow down, then stop, look about, they hear
the water slapping the bank from the Great Lake again, but can not see
it. The breeze from the lake is picking up, as the window is rolled down
they can feel the breeze, there is a chill to it, so they roll it up a
bit more. Trees are swaying.
According to statistics, the average household income in 1970 was
$8,734 and it rose to $16,461 in 1979. The unemployment rate was 3.5% in
1970 and up and down all decade landing at 8.5% in 1979. Heart disease
was and still is the leading cause of death. Also, Aids and HIV was
discovered in the seventies. There were many major medical break
throughs in the 1970's. One of the most noted being the completion of
the MRI scan in 1977. My mother recalls having medical insurance and
being able to get a tooth pulled at the dentist for $15.00.
have a peek at this site
Considering cost of
living in her area in the seventies, her income was suitable. A new home
could be purchased for $25,000. A postage stamp rose from $0.06 in 1970
to $0.15 in 1979. I asked my mother if she could recall some prices of
the decade. She remembered bread being $0.29, gas $0.74 a gallon, candy
bars $0.05, soft drinks $0.10-0.15 a bottle in the early seventies and
in the late seventies prices started to rise. She remembered cigarettes
costing $1.00 a pack, cracker $0.29, milk $1.00 and most canned goods
$0.10. Li-Li led me into a corridor leading to an office in the back of
the building. There she introduced me to Mr. Nguyen van Duong who wasted
no time in getting to his questions. Duong was an ugly man, small and
fat at the same time. His hair was thin for a guy in his 40s, and he
used a pomade to plaster it to this head. The skin on his face had an
oily sheen to it. His lips were fat and reminded me of raw liver.
There were three major car
manufacturers. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Each manufacture had a
following. Arguments could erupt over which car was the best. A man's
Dodge pickup was a source of pride. Sunday morning the family would
dress in their best clothes and get into a Buick for the trip to church.
The Cadillac represented power and money while the Ford and Chevrolet
represented the working people. People that lived in the country had a
buy truck toppers online. It was a working
truck and on Saturday's the kids jumped in the back for a trip to
town. To digress a bit, I need to tell you that Sgt. Grace lied. First,
the language I was assigned to study was Vietnamese. Second, after going
through the 101st Airborne Division's jungle combat school in Phan Rang,
I was assigned to the 1st Brigade, a reactionary unit. I joined them in
Dak To, and early the next morning was flown out to join an artillery
battery in what was called "Operation Eagle Bait". Didn't take long to
find out we were the bait, and Charlie was the eagle. The objective was
to tempt the Viet Cong into attacking us, then bring in an assault wave
of Huey's loaded with infantry, and wipe the enemy out. What I quickly
discovered is that there is nothing in the world comparable to the first
night you are brought out of a deep sleep by M-60 machine gun fire. My husband's best friend Jake is the lead contractor for a
large construction company on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan. Last
year his firm was granted permission to build a brand new home Extreme
Makeover Home Edition in Armada, Michigan. It's hard to do anything. It's hard to button your pants or brush
your teeth, let alone jump off a three-story building into a pad. This
movie was the most physical thing I've ever had to do, and I had to do
it with a broken hand. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my
life. Constantly having to take hits and fall and run through explosions
and get hit and beat up all day. Aside from my hand, I also got 25
stitches making this movie, in various parts of my body -- stuff that
had nothing to do with my hand.