Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg
The year was 1934—90 years ago. The stock market crash of 1929 resulted in a downward spiraling of the economy, leading to the Great Depression. Jobs were in short supply, and food was hard to come by. The era of The Great Gatsby (published in 1925) was over, and the anthem “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” had begun.
It is hard to imagine our country being so desperate. And on the heels of this era of desperation, the United States would be thrust into World War II on Dec. 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy” attack on Pearl Harbor.
Then, enter the 1950s!
But Americans were resilient, and the 1950s ushered in the beginnings of prosperity. Servicemen started returning to jobs, starting families, and buying new homes, and the economy showed positive signs of growth. Let’s take a look at how things are different from then to now:
• Handkerchiefs—Now we use packaged tissues.
• Detention in schools—Largely discontinued
• Whole milk—Yikes!—Whole milk, reduced-fat milk, low fat milk, skim milk, almond milk
• Soft drinks—There are over 450 soft drinks on the market today.
• Car hops—Drive-thru windows
• PF Flyers—There are about 1,000 types of athletic shoes on the market today.
• Babysitting for 25 cents an hour—About $20 an hour now
• Gasoline 29 cents a gallon—The national average is $3.47 a gallon.
• Married by age 19—Now age 30.5 for men and age 28.6 for women
• Percentage of women who went to college 21%—Today 71%!
• Party telephone lines—95% of Americans own cell phones, literally eliminating many land phones.
• Walking to school—Parents drive children to school.
• Allowance ~$2 a week—Now $10 to $20 a week
• Price for a barber haircut ~$1—Now $31 (average)
• Price for a salon haircut ~$20—Now ~$50 to $70
• McDonald’s burger 15 cents—Now ~$2.19
• Movie admission price ~50 cents—Now ~$10
• Size of T.V. screen 19-inch—Now 48-inch
• Children played outside 4-6 hours per day—Currently, children are playing outside ~4 hours a week.
• Number of hours adults watched T.V. per day 4.5 hours—Now 4 hours a day for people over age 65
• Percentage of males, per capita, who smoked 57%—Now 20%
• Life expectancy 68—Now 77
• Dress size for a woman? A dress to fit Marilyn Monroe’s waist would have been between a size 8 and a size 12. Today, the average dress size is 16.
• Aspirin—There are five popular OTC pain medications on the market today.
• Percentage of women who worked outside of the home 30%—Now it is 62.3%.
• Number of babies born ~4.1 million—Now ~3.7 million
• The median salary for a woman ~$1,100—Now $39,688
• The median salary for a man ~$3,400—Now $52,612
• NBA player’s average salary ~$55,000 (capped by the NBA)—Now the average salary is $4.02 million.
• WNBA player’s average salary (the WNBA did not exist in 1955)—The average WNBA player’s salary is $102,751 (Kaitlin Clark’s starting salary in 2024 is $76,000 … just saying)