I wanted to share with you the inspiring story of Roy, a shining example of the “Greatest Generation.”
Roy was born to the young [unwed] daughter of a sharecropper - sounds like the start of a country song, right? It was 1926, and in rural Georgia, this was a very scandalous thing. The young mother was relocated to another community, with family, but without baby Roy. Her grandparents raised him as their own.
The first time Roy left the small, impoverished community of less than sixty people was in 1944. He departed in a mule drawn wagon, to catch a bus to Atlanta, to catch a train to Virginia, to enter a hurried Naval basic training.
He was assigned to the U.S.S. Randolph, an Essex-class aircraft carrier that would support the Pacific fleet.
Roy’s obligations on the carrier were loading the thirty-eight caliber (12”x5” shell) deck guns, ship maintenance, and a support role with the Quartermaster. The repair and painting along with the detailed work of books and records would have a lasting impact on him.
Upon his discharge, he returned to the small north Georgia community. Legend has it that Roy went to ask his pre-war girlfriend, Barbara, to a dance. Barbara broke the news that she had married another in his absence. Without skipping a beat, he looked to her younger sister, Kathleen, who was standing beside Barbara and said, “You want ‘a go to the dance?”
Roy and Kathleen were married sixty-five years before her passing.
In the early 50’s they relocated to Detroit where Roy got a job building Cadillacs. That lasted about ten years before they moved back to Georgia where Roy bought a small farm and opened his own autobody repair shop.
Roy recently passed away at 97. Roy’s oldest grandson is a good friend. He shared this story, and a mountain of ledgers Roy maintained throughout his life – a habit built serving with the Quartermaster.
He recorded rent, fuel, groceries, cars, vegetable yields from the garden, insurance, taxes. For almost eighty years he recorded everything.
According to the 1952 ledger, he earned $4212, monthly rent was $76, he purchased a blue 1948 Fleetline for $225, gasoline was $0.20, and a dozen eggs were $0.25.
Back in Georgia, in 1972 he built a three-bedroom, one bath brick ranch and a small cement block shop. The construction cost of the house (including an extra set of keys) was $16,724.12. The shop was another $3,606.37. That same year, they collected 106 ears of corn and canned 38 quarts of tomatoes. The chickens routinely produced 8 eggs per day. The following year he purchased his first new car, a 1973 Ford LTD for $3623.08. 1972 was a lean income year of $8600, presumably from spending time on the house and shop, but 1973 was almost double at $15,900.
This mass of data was absolutely fascinating to me. Roy, a shining example of the “Greatest Generation,” was resourceful, frugal, and meticulous, good qualities for all of us to emulate. He retired from the auto repair and towing business in 1992.
I started thinking about these records and how expenses (as a percentage of income) have changed over the years. Roy’s resourcefulness may be an unfair comparison to the average American, so I found some national data.
Homes (per square foot) are the same percentage of income. The car, gasoline, and eggs are actually a little less.
To be fair, Roy and Kathleen had 3-4 free television stations and they did not have $1000 cell phones with $300 monthly bills. But these comparisons were still shocking to me. The size of our homes is greater, our closets have gotten bigger, our bathrooms have multiplied, we definitely have more stuff, but the basics, as a percentage of income, have not changed.
It would seem that “keeping up with the Joneses” might be a bigger problem than inflation.
Please let me know if you would like to chat about Roy, household expenses, or anything else on your mind.
My Best,
Ryan
*The average square foot of a home increased from 983 to 2014 between 1952 and 2024.
** Calculations based on 20 gallons of gas and one dozen eggs per week.