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1946 Memories

Going through a collection recently, I came across an interesting pamphlet entitled “Remember When: 1946 Memories.“ Of course, I stopped working and started reading. Well, here are some facts that I certainly didn’t know:

Our life expectancy was only 62.9 years. The President of the United States was Harry Truman, and there was no vice president of the United States. There was no Pulitzer Prize winner that year.

A new house could be purchased for only $5,600, and the average annual income was $2,500. A new car cost $1,125, and if you bought a car and then couldn’t afford a house, you could rent one for $65 a month. You could tool around a lot in your new car since gasoline only cost 15 cents a gallon. If you picked Harvard University for your education, tuition was a hefty $420 per year. If you weren’t serious about studying, you could go to a movie for 55 cents and send a letter to your sweethear for only 3 cents.

Some 1946 babies were Diane Keaton (Jan. 5), Dolly Parton (Jan. 19), Liza Minnelli (March 12), Cher (Cherilyn LaPiere Sarkisian, May 10), and Sylvester Stallone (July 6) to name a few. Yes, it was a good year.

The Academy Award Winner in 1946 was “The Best Years of Our Lives” (still one of my favorites). This momentous year produced “It’s a Wonderful Life.“

Goodyear put out an ad that was a pleasing change of pace. It pictured a WOMAN holding a rivet gun. “Here’s a gun that shoots planes —t ogether!“ it said.
No, America was never the same, as women had a taste for earning their own money, by then.

Was it a good year? You be the judge. The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) was formed, AT&T announced the first car phones, the birthrate jumped to over 1.4 million in one year with the return of surviving WWII service men and women (BOOM!) and — best of all — World War II veterans, making use of the provisions of the GI Bill of Rights, headed off to college in record numbers, many of whom could never have afforded to go otherwise. And Tom Brokaw has said that many who received their education because of the war went on to make fortunes and become the backbone of U.S. business and industry.

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