1952 gun repair prices

[Gun Smith]

Don't you wish!!
Average gunshop prices in 1952.
Barreling complete, threading, chambering, crowning, polishing, bluing. $47.00 to $55.00.
Octogon barrels turned to forearm. (half round) $3.00.
Cut and crown barrel. $3.50.
Alter bolt (on Military) to clear scope. $10.00.
Mount scope. No drilling. $2.50.
Fit semi inletted stocks. $50.00 up.

I started working in a gunshop in 1956.
Install Recoil pad. $4.50.
Boy, I could do recoil pads all day for $2.70, I split 60/40 with the shop. I could do two an hour. Wow, $5.40 per hour, big money then!
One wrap of masking tape around the square cut flat butt, and ground to knock the shine off the tape with a disc sander. Never touch the wood. Even Belgian Brownings with the laquer finish. Boy, I was hot stuff in those days.

[Pete44ru]

Yore makin' me VERY nostalgic, and lamenting those days long gone - when my eyes were sharp/clear and my hands steady. (sigh)

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[J Miller]

I knew I was borne too late. Sigh ......

Joe

[Batman1939]

While repair prices were low in the early 50's, so were wages. I worked digging ditches, with a shovel, no backhoes then, for $1.00/hour for the local water company in Southern Cal. Of course I was just a high-school kid working at a summer job.

New gun prices then were good too, but who had the money to buy anything? I remember drooling over a Winchester Model 63 at the local Sears-Roebucks Store. Don't recall the price now, but it was less than $70 I think.

I also recall buying gas for my old Ford at around $0.22/gal. so money did definitely go farther.

[Ray Newman]

Those prices appear inexpensive considering today's prices and wages.

But just how much money were people actually making -- or not making -- back in 1952?

See "prices for 1953", which states among other things that the average 1953 income was US $4011.00, or $334.25 per month.
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/pop/prices-1953.htm

[Pete44ru]

$1/hour ? Shucks, I can remember celebrating when the Mininum Wage was RAISED to $1/hour.



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[Terry Murbach]

BACK AROUND 1967 IT COST ME 12 BUCKS TO SEND A REMIINGTOM MODEL 30S EXPRESS 257ROBERTS TO P.O.ACKLEY IN UTAH AND HAVE HIM RECHAMBER IT TO 257ACKIMP. SHIPPING BOTH WAYS INCLUDED.

[Pete44ru]

Yep. In 1971, P.O. only charged me $32, w/return shipping, to bore out/rifle a .243 Winchester Model 100 to .358.

Compare that $32, about 39 years ago, to the least expensive rebore I see today - a three-groove job by Jess Ompaugh @ $245.
Then, compare wages then/now.

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[J Miller]

Yes, wages in the 50's were much lower than we have or some have today. BUT, so were taxes. When I was a youngster in Farmington, NM we had a brand new house on Crestridge Drive, so new they were still doing the landscaping in the neighborhood. This house had a built in intercom with radio, washer and dryer in the kitchen with the very modern appliances. Mom her her Buick, dad had his Chevy PU and we were living good. Mom worked ... because she wanted to, not because she needed to. Dads wages at the Navajo Dam covered it all and then some.
Today with all the taxes, licenses, fees, and other outrageous expenses both mom and dad have to work just to make poverty level wages.
All these high prices are hard on those who don't make a 5 figure income.
The sad thing is when I was single and pulling down 45 hours a week with over time and other bennies, I never equaled what my parents brought home just 20 years before. And that was in the 80s.

Borne too late.

Joe

[Gun Smith]

Hi Joe, That probably was a Nutone Intercom.

When I got married in 1957 we had a brand new 1957 Chevrolet Bel air hardtop, a 16' inboard boat, a nice apartment and new furniture. I made $2.73 an hr. ($436.00 mo.) at the Gas and Electric company in San Diego. Rent was $90.00 a mo., car payment was about $60.00 a mo. Groceries were $15.00 a wk. 100 octane leaded gas was $.24.9 a gal. or less.
We lived like kings.

[Ray Newman]

Gun Smith: do you gave any idea as to what other wages were in 1957? What you posted $2.73, your annual income --$5232 -- of was about 20% more than the US average of $4494.00.
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/pop/prices-1957.htm

Anyone remember what the min. wages was then? From what I found Federal min. was $1.00 per hr.
www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html

Also SS Admin. calculates the average national wages index form 1957 as $3,641.72 or $303.48 per mo.
www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/COLA/AWI.html

I also found this: "In 1957 wages jumped 4.5%, yet output per man-hour rose only 1.8%—and prices jumped 3%."
Read all 'bout it: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... z0f9fxynaO

From the Washington DC, local 5, plumbers site:
"By 1957, wages had increased to $3.76 per hour, with an increase of $4.16 scheduled to take effect in 1959."
http://www.local5plumbers.org/history.asp

[Gun Smith]

Hi Ray, I was a Switchboard operator at the San Diego Gas and Electric Company. It was not a minimum wage job. I had started out at $1.87hr (1955) as a night watchman at the equipment yard (Sta. A) for SDG&E. When I got on the maintance gang (1955) at one of the electric generating stations (Sta. B), I made $2.10hr. I then got raises to $2,43hr (1956), and $2.73hr (1957) the year I got married. The wages were good for that time in San Diego, as this was a union job, (IBEW 425). There was even and old saying that when the GASCO guys got a raise, the price of bread went up a penny.
I was gunsmithing part time from 1954, and I started working full time in the trade in 1958. I took a BIG cut in income when I did this, but my wife worked for the city school system and made more money than I did in those years. I had to leave the business in 1963 in order to earn more for our, soon to be, family addition.
I went into the electrical construction business in 1963. I became a General Building Contractor in 1974.
Your list of wages is interesting, I never realized until now how well I actually did!
A couple of other things that may be of interest to you is the prices of things. We paid $13,500.00 for our first home, an 18 year old two bedroom, one bath of 885 sq. ft. in East San Diego. The down payment was the boat I mentioned before, and payments were about $100.00 per mo. Interest rates were about 6%, and your local banks carried the 20 year loans in house. I bought a new 1957 Chevrolet Bel Hardtop, with a factory option of a 270hp Corvette engine, (top of the line) for $3300.00 out the door, and after my trade-in the payment was about $60.00 per mo.
New home construction was $10.00 per square foot. New tires were $9.95 up. In 1955 a gas pump jockey started at $1.00hr, and you pumped the gas, washed the windshield, and checked the oil, water, and tires on EVERY car. Hambergers were $.18, fries $.15 at the new MacDonalds chain, although we hung out at the Oscars Drive-in on El Cajon Blvd. The original MacDonald brother's business that Ray Croc bought the name from was two blocks from my wife's grandmother in San Bernadino. We always stopped there when we visited her.
Times were good and, to us, those really were "the good old days".

[Ray Newman]

Gun Smith: I chuckled when you mentioned San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE). I was at 29 Palms in 1967 and two guys from San Diego were getting out. They had their SDGE applications in about 60-90 days before discharge. They said that outside of the Navy Yard, they couldn’t find a better job as far as pay, benefits, and security. Same when I lived in the Bay Area, 1968-2001. When I was attending college, several guys worked part-time for Pacific Gas and Electric. They were going to college under the GI Bill to increase their job skills. They claimed it was one of the better places to work --"lifetime" job security + pension plan.

‘Sorta’ surprised at the house price that you mentioned. Was that in a higher end/up scale neighborhood? Housing is and was always a bit or more higher in San Diego, but that seems high to me now.

I grew up on Long Island, NY, and graduated from high school in '64. The ol’ neighborhood (homes built in '39-40 ) was strictly blue color/skilled tradesmen. Maybe about one-third of the wives worked. Everyone always groused about prices -- esp. food, gas, and heating oil. More than a few families only had one car -- usually an older car. When someone bought a ‘brand-spanking’ new car, it was a big deal and everyone went over to ogle it. One of our neighbors didn’t buy a car until 1957. Seems like a number of people walked or rode the bus.

I remember the “odd” prices -- 6, 9, 43, 98, 99, etc., cents. Also a number of things were sold from trucks: fresh vegetables and fruit, mower/other sharpening services. Local soda bottler would home deliver soda, beer, etc. Were such services also in an San Diego?

A neighbor’s son worked as a delivery boy for the local meat market. No pay; just tips. Same with the local deli and market. The local A&P and Grand Union supermarkets hired teen age part-timers to unload the trucks and stock shelves.

One thing I now notice and I observed in my colleagues before I retired, is that they expect the same lifestyle as their parents within a few years or working,even with a low end or enrty level job. They just don’t seem to understand that often their parents/neighbors worked and saved for 25 - 30+ years to obtain what they have....

[Gun Smith]

Actually the home we bought was about the least expensive one we could find in an area where we wanted to live. Other poorer parts of town were cheaper. Remember San Diego and the rest of the U.S. was very segregated in the 50's and we all lived in our own neighborhoods. After saying that, in a sense we were progessive in that we had no visible "colored only" drinking fountains, cafes, or public facilities as did much of the rest of the country. My high school had one African American student then. But San Diego High School was mixed race. Living in San Francisco you know housing prices have always been more expensive in most of California over other states.
You mention street vendors and such, nothing like that in our part of town. Heating was not a factor in San Diego. Remember San Diego is desert country. Because of imported water Southern California can exist. If the Colorado River dried up most all of So. Cal. would be a barren wasteland.
San Diego had very limited mass transit, and you needed a car, or two if you both worked.
We had two cars, our Chevy and various second cars. As you know, California is a state of miles of spreadout housing developments with no public transit and two cars have been the rule for us since the 50's.
I was lucky, my dad owned a dry cleaning business which made our family a good living. I always felt we were almost upper middle class. But he worked six days a week until his retirement when he was 70. He earned everything he got.
Your remark about retirement reminds me of my wife and I commenting over the years that kids now days want to start at the "top". They don't want to have to learn a trade, or work their way up into a profession or business as we did. " I want it all, and I want it now". What a terrible ad campaign for young people.