[R-390] EAC Contract info in Red Bank Paper

Tue Aug 21 13:24:23 EDT 2012

I got out of the navy in 1964, and returned to my home in the Flint,
Michigan area.  Minimum wage then was $.90 or $1.00 per hour.  Flint is a
General Motors town consisting of Buick, Chevrolet, Chevrolet Frame &
Stamping, Fisher Body, AC Spark Plug, and Ternstedt Parts Mfg.  All union.
The United Auto Workers wage for assembly line workers was $2.65 per hour,
with a shift premium of $.25 per hour.  My navy pay was around $78.00 per
month, so, although I swore I would Never work in the factories, I was
employed at Buick as an assembly line worker on the third shift.  I was
making over a Hundred Dollars a Week! and thought I was finally pooping in
tall cotton for the first time in my life.

In 1966, several important things in life (to me) were in some sort of
harmony:  A new Jaguar XKE sports car cost $6,600.00,  a new Cessna 150
airplane cost $6,700.00 and my Union wages for the year was around
$6,500.00 gross.  Take home pay was obviously less because of taxes, union
dues, and other deductions.  I was single, living in an apartment that cost
me $16.00 per week, and I had recently purchased a new Buick LeSabre 400
fastback (that I myself assembled and walked down the assembly line on my
shift) that had a list price of $3,456.20, but I remember paying $2,900 or
so for it (I still have the window sticker somewhere).

I was taking private pilot flying lessons, and decided to not buy the
Jaguar XKE or the new Cessna 150, but I did purchase my first airplane, a
1946 Aeronca model 7AC "Champ" for $1,200.00.  I flew that plane for over
800 hours and even flew it down here to the Houston area in 1969.

I mention these figures to illustrate what the costs associated with life
in the early '60s were for the wants and needs of a young man with only a
high school education and military service behind him.  Life was "sort of"
good at that time, but because of the decline in the quality of life in
Flint, Michigan, I left for Northwest airlines in Detroit. (Better pay,
although still union). Good technical schooling (I was an avionics
technician in the aviation industry for the next 25 years (including ARAMCO
aviation department in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia). Today, Flint, Michigan (and
Michigan in general) is an economic cesspool of corruption, greed and
Chicago style politics.  ALL of those hundred year old automobile factories
have been scraped of the face of the earth.  It's still a union only state,
but there are very few jobs to be had.

The Collins R-390 series of radios at $1,000 - $1,300  were out of my reach
at the time, but are a bargain at most prices today.  As Roger says: you
need at least TWO of them.  More is better.  It's a great receiver.

Sorry to ramble, but this old man is starting to live in the past, these
days.

73,

Marshall M. Dues,  K5MMD, (ex WN8DIM, WA8PEX, WA5ZEP, WB5MYO)
Collins R-390As, ART-13, URC-32B, S-line, ARINC avionics, plus a hundred or
more of the Hallicrafters, National, Hammarlund, Gonset, Morrow, Drake,
Swan, Heath, Knight, and many other classics saved from the land fill by a
young man who actually Learned about Ohm's Law electronics.

On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 4:22 PM, Roger Ruszkowski <
flowertime01 at wmconnect.com> wrote:

>
> Ross,
>
> This looks like a sweet deal to me at 1K each.
> So in 66 a kilo buck was 1/5 of the take home pay for an automotive worker
> for a year in Detroit or Flint Michigan.
>
> That was serious money.
>
> In 68, for 40 hours in a Flint Chevy shop you took home $100.12
> Union due week you only got $98.12
> You worked 50 weeks a year and had a two week "change over" in July with
> no income.
> Guys use to raise families, buy homes and new Chevies on $5,000.00 a year
> back then.
>
> Roger.
>
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