[PRCo] Re: Fwd: In Traffic's Jam, Who's Driving May Be Surprising - New York Times

[Fred Schneider]

Only you would have figures on their parent's earnings!    We do know  
that earnings dropped in the Depression and that $20 to $22 a week  
about 1938 was about average for a working man.   Your parents were  
quite well off.

I might also note that, in spite of post war inflation, I started  
teaching in 1967 at $4800 a year and began with the Commonwealth of  
Pennsylvania with a degree two years later for $6716.

What you are showing me here is simply that they could afford such a  
vacation and it was far beyond the reach of most people at that  
time.   There was a "See Both Worlds Fairs" ticket sold in 1939 and  
1940 from any point in the United States by any route you chose to  
both the fair at Treasure Island in San Francisco and the fair in New  
York City for $100.00 for coach tickets.   If you wanted sleeping  
accommodations, that raised ante.    So you could have taken four  
adults to the Pittsburgh to the West Coast by any route and back for  
$400 and still had a bonus trip to New York at some other time later  
that year.   However, you still would have had to pay for the meals  
and lodging.   I think you might want to add another $3 a day per  
person to cover that.   Three weeks, four people ...  $252.  I didn't  
insert anything for Pullman space.  I guess you could have done the  
whole thing with four people by train for $800.

We published an article by Jim Shuman in Headlights perhaps 25 years  
ago on a vacation he took by train for a week in Iowa.   John  
Swindler can correct me if he wishes.   Jim rode the Pennsy to  
Chicago, and some of the other carriers west of Chicago.   I think he  
saw the Mason City and Clear Lake; Waterloo Cedar Falls and Northern;  
CRANDIC; Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern; and Clinton, Davenport  
and Muscatine.   I know part of his method of financing it was  
walking 1.5 miles each way to work every morning and home at night to  
save 6 cents car fare twice a day.   He was working for Folmer Clogg  
Umbrella Company at the time and textile workers didn't make copious  
amounts of money.   Because it was before his employment with the  
Pennsylvania Railroad, he also had to pay for his tickets.   I seem  
to recall that that one week trip took something on order of 20  
percent of his annual earnings!
And that would be in keeping with what you see above ... $200 for a  
vacation out of earnings of about $1000 a year.

And Kodachrome, when it became available, was very expensive guys.    
The price was just about the same in 1940 for a roll plus processing  
as it was in 1965 or 1970.   It changed very little for the first 30  
years or so.   Explains why those early guys would not have used a  
motor drive even if they had one.   They understood conservation.    
Stretch a roll 8-picture roll of 828 size Kodachrome for a whole  
weekend on the Indiana Railroad!    Or get several months out of a 20  
exposure roll.

On Jan 12, 2007, at 5:15 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> If they'd had to go by train in 1940, the trip wouldn't have happened.
> Grandparents were along, and they went to see all those nice places  
> you
> couldn't get to by rail.  Costs were an item, too.  If I had time, I'd
> sketch the itinerary from their trip log (when was the last time we  
> did one
> of those?) and Fred could fill in cost estimates for the Santa Fe and
> excursions.  Then we'd compare them (multiplied by 4) with the expense
> record my mother kept of the trip, which survives.  I think they  
> spent only
> about $400 (including Kodachrome, but not the new 1940 Ford).  My  
> father
> earned $3654 in 1940, so it was indeed a big deal.
>
> But I don't have the time right now (count your blessings).
>
> Ed
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of  
> Fred
> Schneider
> Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 11:38 AM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Fwd: In Traffic's Jam, Who's Driving May Be
> Surprising - New York Times
>
>
> Yup.   You understand it.   I remember my mother saying that my
> father had two items on his wish list when she met him in 1930.   One
> was a vacuum tube radio to replace his crystal set.   He built that
> himself.   The other was a new Model A Ford so that he didn't have to
> use Pittsburgh Railways.   He bought the Ford.   Unfortunately, then
> he was laid off but he still had his dream car.   And he was only 23.
>
> And Ed Lybarger has some great slides of his parents on vacation in
> the "Great American West" in the Depression in the family car.   I'm
> sure Sam enjoyed that independence a lot more than he would have the
> Santa Fe's Chief and the affiliated Indian Tours bus rides.   What do
> you think, Ed?    At least he didn't have to haul the luggage on and
> off the trains and into cabs and into hotels. The luggage transfers
> were minimized.
>
> On Jan 12, 2007, at 11:10 AM, Dennis F. Cramer wrote:
>
>> Unfortunately, New York is in the middle of the Washington-Boston
>> metroplex
>> and the Cross Bronx does provide a short way to New England.  Mass
>> transit
>> is often not an answer.  Several of the students at Purchase drive
>> up from
>> Manhattan everyday to actually save time.  For example: take the
>> subway to
>> Grand Central-the MetroNorth to White Plains and the bus to
>> Purchase is
>> about 2 to 2.5 hours with an instrument strapped to your back.  Not
>> the most
>> fun thing in the world to do.
>>
>> I do enjoy having the mass transit available and have used it
>> regularly
>> since I have live in Westchester County.  After all, I live at home
>> in an
>> area (rural Kittanning) that is served from no mass transit within
>> walking
>> distance of my home.  My wife and I use mass transit whenever we
>> can in
>> Washington, DC and have used it in Boston, NY, St. Louis, Chicago
>> and SF.
>>
>> People like to be independent and the automobile is one of the
>> crowning
>> achievements of that independence in the USA.  Do you want to be in a
>> crowded subway with all of those "people" or do you want to sit in
>> a traffic
>> jam, listening to your favorite music, talking on the phone, doing
>> your
>> make-up, etc.?  We love our independence and forget about what it
>> costs.
>> Also do not forget, the "terrorists" will attack those subways some
>> day.
>> Just put the vent in your car on recirculate and you can drive
>> right though
>> the anthrax attack.
>>
>> The peak of the transit industry was circa 1918.  I wonder what
>> caused the
>> rapid decline from there on?  Can anyone say Henry Ford?  There
>> were no
>> conspiracies or hidden agendas, just a desire for more independence.
>>
>>
>> Dennis Fred Cramer
>>      Trombone
>>
>>
>>
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