What your parents' generation spent their money on

[Old School]

https://www.lovemoney.com/galleries...ts-your-parents-splashed-their-cash-on?page=1


How your parents splashed their cash


Just as millennials are accused of spending too much on avocado on toast, the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers had their own vices. From the everyday to the bizarre, here?s how your parents ? and maybe even your grandparents ? chose to spend their hard-earned cash, from the 1920s to the 1970s.

 

[Old School]

1920s: Radio

In the 20s one big invention shook up the entertainment scene: the radio. During World War I it had been used to contact ships at sea and send Morse code messages, but in November 1920 the first commercial radio station under the name KDKA was launched in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While in the UK the state broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was formed in 1927.

 

[Old School]

1920s: Telephone


While many of us are now getting rid of our landline phones and switching to cellphones, in the 20s the telephone was introduced to households for the first time. Although the invention had been patented by Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell as far back as 1876, with the first international call taking place between London and Paris in 1891, phones started to enter the mainstream in the 20s. During the decade, the number of American families that owned a telephone went from 13% to 35%, while those who couldn?t afford to own one paid to use telephone boxes.

It was late 1950's before we had a private line at my Grandparents house.

 

[REFLOG]

 

[Betone]

I remember hearing other people talking on our line...........oh the shit that was said :lol:

 

[Old School]

1930s: Alcohol


In America the 30s brought the Great Depression, pushing more than 12 million people into unemployment. But it was also a decade that saw significant legislative change: the end of Prohibition, a 13-year ban on alcohol that lasted until 1933. On the night of December 5 that year, people came out in droves to drink their first legal tipple in over a decade. Similarly, in the UK World War I had led more and more women to drink publicly, and by the 30s even middle class women were heading to the pub.

During the Great Depression my Grandfather made homebrew in his house on Brambleton Ave in Norfolk.It was family operation and my to be mother was a Capper.

Story goes him and the local police officers were tight.Grandfather being a Card caring Master Electrician had a trade to swap for a wink and a nod.And the boys got a bottle to go for free when they walk the beat downtown by the house.

In the mid 50's my Grandfather would wake me up in the middle up the night and tell to get my shoes and clothes on with a warm coat.."We gotta go shovel coal over at the other house the renters are getting low on heat."....Grandfather could provide at all times.

 

[Old School]

1940s: Washing machines

It?s hard to imagine how most of us would cope nowadays without a washing machine ? but many people didn?t own one until the late 40s. The first electric machine was actually invented in the 30s but it wasn't until a decade later that you could buy a fully automated machine. However, it came at a price: the Kenmore Automatic Washer sold for $239.95, which works out at around $4,000 (?3,120) in today?s money.

early 40's Model....the wife loved this...........