Black powder? You mean this old stuff?

by Byron, Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 19:54 (2931 days ago) @ Bob Hatfield
edited by Byron, Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 20:08

In 1968 I worked in a newspaper mill at night and went to highschool during the day and made union wages of $3.00/hr when I was a sophomore and 16. Even though they don't ever make paper anyplace nice this was blue collar royalty as the going minimum wage was $1.60/hr back then. I had a Honda 305 SuperHawk motorcycle, hot older girlfriend (she was a 18 year old senior) and thought I was the shit. I could not hear a word my parents told me and pretty much did my own thing, most of it wrong. Still, I never ran into the law and by most accounts turned out ok.

I bought a reproduction .44 Colt revolver and a .69 caliber rifle shooting mini balls and shot the hell out of them. The guns are long gone but I still have a couple of unopened cans of the case of powder I bought at that time.

Note the price tag of $3.80lb.

Note the minimum wage in '68 was $1.60 which corrected for inflation is around $12.00 in present money.

Note that corrected for inflation that old can of black powder cost around $25.00/lb and the hot headed 16 year old kid was making around $25.00/hr with quite a bit of over time...

Times change.

Cheers,

Byron