RUSH: I’ve got something here from my uncle who sent this to me for my birthday, which was on January 12, my Uncle Steve. It’s a booklet here on the year I was born, 1951. “Remember When.”
It’s a nostalgic look back in time at what print ads were looking like, what television ads looked like, what famous things happened in 1951. Like in January, the United Nations Headquarters were officially opened in New York City. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death in July of 1951 following their conviction. Willie Mays, aged 20, joins the New York Giants.
Joe DiMaggio signed a $100,000 contract for third year in a row. But the cost of living in 1951, the year I was born… These things, for some reason, they fascinate me. A new house…. The average new house in 1951 was $9,000, and we lived in one. We lived in a very average house. It’s still there. I don’t know who lives in it now, but it’s still there.
The average income in 1951 was $3,515 a year. The average price of a new car was $1,500. The average rent for an apartment, 78 bucks a year. Tuition to Harvard in 1951, $600. Gasoline was 19 cents a gallon. A first-class postage stamp, 3 cents. Sugar was 85 cents for 10 pounds. Vitamin D milk, 92 cents a gallon. Ground coffee, 72 cents a pound. Bacon, 52 cents a pound. Eggs, 24 cents per dozen. Fresh ground hamburger, 50 cents per pound. Bread, 16 cents per loaf. It’s just amazing stuff, how cheap everything seemed. But it wasn’t! It wasn’t.
That’s what the thing about inflation calculators is.