Well, of course I understand how inflation works- I'm 50, not 15,
When our grandsons (ages 17, 18 and 20) were out here at the house for Thanksgiving, I was showing them one of the 1962 Winchester catalogs I had from the little, country store my mom and dad had when I was growing up. Our grandsons were a little surprised at the prices in that catalog too, but like I said, they
are teenagers. And all I had to do to make them understand how $83.95 for a Model 94, 30-30 wasn't that cheap was tell them I was making a dollar an hour in 1964. They
still studied that 1962 catalog and the ballistics charts in the back for over an hour.
Mom and dad mostly sold groceries and gas (which I pumped, washed windshields and checked the oil) through their country store, but they sold a few guns and ammunition too. That was before GCA 1968 of course. I myself was 14 in 1962, and I spent a heck of a lot more time studying that Winchester catalog than I spent studying my homework. Of course to a 14 year old boy, the Winchester catalog wasn’t quite as interesting as a Playboy magazine, but it came in second. Besides, I didn’t have to hide the Winchester catalog, and I was in love with the Model 70 “African” 458 Winchester Magnum. Come to think of it, now that I’m 69, I’m not sure which I enjoy more – looking at a 1962 picture of a Model 70 “African,” or looking at a Playboy centerfold. I’m old enough now to realize I’m never going to have either one.
Mom and dad bought my first deer rifle through the wholesale house that kept them supplied them with those catalogs. It’s a Model 100, 308 Winchester. I don’t know what they paid for it, somewhere around a hundred bucks I suppose. I still have it. It’s well used, but not abused. And it’s not for sale – way, way too many memories.
