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In reply to the discussion: In 1981, I was a full time stock clerk at an Ohio Big Bear grocery store making 12.60 an hour [View all]Wednesdays
(17,635 posts)He started working the line at Ford in the 1920's, and retired in 1967. He was paid partially with Ford stock and by the late 1970's, he was worth a quarter of a million dollars. Starting that time, he was able to buy a new car (usually a Lincoln or Mark VII) twice a year, and we still have old home movies of his vacations to Mexico, Hawaii, etc. He never lived in any kind of mansion, but he and his family always had a decent, middle-class home. His son, my father, went to a private high school. Grandma never had to work an outside job.
My grandfather on my mother's side worked the line at Chrysler during that same period. He may have gone to high school, but he never had education beyond that. He, too, had a nice middle-class home, and two cars. He was able to send my mother to a private college, and he and my grandma had a second home next to a lake, with a boat. I remember going to their main home where they had a remodeled basement with a fully-stocked wet bar and recreation room with a piano.