Back in 1970, when I started driving, gas was around 30 cents a gallon, as it was in 1963. Cheap.
When I started high school in 1967, it cost a nickel with a school pass to get on a bus and the subway.
When I was about 7 years old, a Carvel Flying Saucer was 7 cents. And a Brown Bonnet was a dime.
A Hersheys chocolate bar was a nickel, and Bazooka bubble gum was a penny.
When I went to Fordham in 1971-72, as a freshman, annual full year tuition was $2,000. Now, it's $56,000.
The U.S. national debt in 1963 was slightly over $300 billion. Now it's 100 times as high.
In 1971, I went to an outdoor concert in the Bronx...Yes, Humble Pie, and Mountain...5 dollars. Soon after, another trio concert - Black Oak Arkansas, Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper - 5 dollars. Now, it costs more to see one knock-off band.
Also, nowadays, $5 does not cover the ticket processing fee.
A concert at the Fillmore East in December 1969? $3.50.
What about Mets' baseball? Back in the day? Also cheap.
You wanted a box seat? $3.50. Reserved seat? $2.50. General admission? $1.30. I used Borden milk carton coupons and got in for free many a time.
Heck, I used to make about $12.50 a week when I started delivering a newspaper route back in late 1965.
For one week's paperboy earnings, I could have bought 5 reserved seats at Shea.
Cable costs to watch the Mets on TV back then? Zero.
Who needed cable when you had rabbit ears?
And WOR 9 broadcast virtually every game for free.
Today? Cable ain't cheap.
And I took a quick look at Met ticket prices for an April 7, 2022 night game against the Braves.
You want "Metropolitan Field Platinum" seats? $196 each.
Too much? Well, Metropolitan Gold seats are "only" $117 each.
Maybe I can get another paper route, where I can earn $585 in a week, so I can buy 5 Metropolitan Gold tickets. Somehow, I don't think so. The amount of newspapers I'd have to fling, my arm would fall off.
My suggestion? Break out your barber's kit. Wouldn't you like to give every player making over $5 million a 50% salary haircut? Then,
ticket prices could be 50% cheaper. Still would be way higher than those 1963 tickets, on inflation-adjusted terms. But you got to start somewhere.
Because if someone wanted to take their wife and two kids to a game in 1963 in really, really good seats, it probably cost a total of $25 for ticket, food and drink, and transportation. Cheap.
Today, it would be $1,000, easy. Cuckoo.
The old days. Simpler, cheaper times.
Can you imagine, in simpler, cheaper times in the 1950s, having 3 teams - in NYC - like the Giants, Yankees and Dodgers? And cheap tickets? The first game I ever went to was at Yankee Stadium with my Dad and brother John. Dad got obstructed view box seats (behind a girder) for 90 cents each, then slipped the usher a buck and we were all down 10 rows behind the dugout. Total ticket investment? $3.70.
Anyway, with those 3 great teams, you were in heaven, no matter who you rooted for.
Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. And a whole lot more.
The old days. Gone forever.
It is OK if you want to shed a tear.
At least we got blaring sound effects now.
Anyway, I'll pay the first person to respond to this article a nickel.
Don't spend it all in one place.
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