What a trooper! Shia LaBeouf talks about his
return to the set to finish filming Transformers with a broken hand that
had to be written into the script.
However, while
Ford certainly saw the potential for soaring profits by basically
eliminating their payroll costs in Mexico where the daily minimum wage
is about $4.50 a day, they did not count on their business plan becoming
another casualty in Mexico's raging drug war.
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.
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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. In 1970 my husband bought a Dodge R/T for $5000. The
price of the car was usually a bit less, but this particular car had all
the bells and whistles needed to be a true Muscle Car. If kept in mint
condition this car would now be worth approximately $50,000. He was
young and foolish though; blew up the engine, and just trashed the car.
To this day, the thought of his youthful waste makes him kind of
sick.
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 topper. 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. I know that $20,900 is a goodly sum of money, but in 13 years we
more than doubled our money. And that is looking at just the financial
aspect of it. The many wonderful hours we had working on something
together that we both love, you can't even put a price tag on
that. The
abovementioned are only a few of the things that you can do to save on
fuel consumption. Planning your trips and avoiding unnecessary travels
can also help you prevent yourself from going to the gasoline station
more often and thus save your money for something more
worthwhile.