School Years, Outside of School
Driver's Licence
Not sure why I still have these but I remember how important they were back then. Out of the house, out of town, a summer job... CT passed a law requiring driver training for 16 year-olds--to start Jan 1958 or half way through our Sophmore year. [My father was happy about that.] The law got delayed until June 58 to give schools time to set up training programs. [I was very happy about that!] I turned 16 in March and got my license. I think that only 3 of us in '60 made the June deadline. CHS set up driver training in the fall of '58 (Mr. Haines) when we were Juniors but the Seniors got priority and most of '60 had to wait until late in the Jr. year to get a license.
"Callow Youth with Family Car, Circa 1959" (a la Diane Arbus)
That's a 1958 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe, V-8, TorqueFlite automatic (push buttons on the dash!), $2495.00 new.
(Auto trivia--"Christine" was a 58 Fury. The Fury was a special edition, high performance, Belvedere Sport Coupe.)
Finding the price of the old Plymouth got me thinking about other prices from those days. When I was a boy........not sure if these are accurate, just what I remember.
Caddies at Edgewood CC, around 1955, made $1.50 for 18 holes but expected $2.00. A good day was doubles for $4.00 and a really good day, if you could do it, was doubles twice for $8.00.
Part time nursery work for Mr. Amato paid $.75 to $1.00 an hour.
Tobacco, in 1956, paid $.67/hour the first year and $.75 thereafter.
HoJo's in Weathersfield paid $1.00/hr (plus tips!) to work the counter in 1958. (If I worked at least 8 hours, I got a $1.00 meal.)
School lunch cost $.25 in 1954.
A haircut from Fred Marozzi was $.75 in the mid 50s.
Around 1954-5 you could swim at Wesleyan for $.25 for 1 1/2 hours in the summer. Bus to Middletown was $.10 but you could often thumb a ride before the bus came.
Gas was around $.30 a gallon during high school. We tried to drain the pump hoses at night but it didn't work that well.
Cigarettes were $.25/pack at Amenta's all during high school.
$1.05 per hour. My night job that summer.
Civil Defense
Unlike a lot of other people my age, I do not remember hiding under my desk for air-raid drills. I do remember fire/evacuation drills at school. At some point, I worked on a monthly radio drill at the town hall for Civil Defense, and I vaguely remember some time spotting planes from a small wooden tower on Timber Hill. If we saw one, we logged it and called it in to somewhere. Apparently it worked...
Boy Scouts
I have included the Boy Scout material because it was an important part of my life back then, and it was a popular activity for many of us. Oscar Anderson (Richie's father) was the Scoutmaster when I was active. Troop 26 had a drum and bugle corp that did a lot of parades, met in the Quonset hut behind the town hall, and used Camp Tadma in Bozrah in the summer.
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Dick Nixon '60 and Brad Bergere '59
Top Gun 1956
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Cub Scouts
