16-116 Garand Picture of the Day - 1959

[Mark in Rochester]

No one noticed that the add is of the very rare left hand Garand

[Sentryduty]

Like the Left-handed Lee-Enfield my father spotted in an old war movie, a result of a flipped negative, I don't know which film it was but it set me off on a bit of a research project.

[Seaspriter]

$97.50 to a 12 year old in 1959 might has well been $970.

It was. I was 12 once and purchased a Knightkit Amateur radio to build for $99.99. Took a lot of lawn cutting, snow shoveling, baby sitting, trash hauling, corn picking, and house painting to earn it. But to put it into perspective, in 1959 my father went to the Elmwood Sports Shop in Cranston RI with me in tow to buy me a really good baseball glove (I'd outgrown the kid's model). It was $12.95. While I was picking out a baseball glove, he found a big old wooden barrel full of Lee Enfields for $12.95, and picked out the best he could find. IOW, in 1959 you could by 8 Enfields for one M1 Garand. Interesting perspective on the value of an M1 Garand so many years ago.

[mmppres]

My first rifle a Remington 580 was bought thru the mail by my father i was 5 years old an he paid 27.50 total with shipping for it
Still have it an shoots great too

[Bob Seijas]

I am reminded of a story my aunt told about when she and my parents were newly married and could only afford 12 ears of corn for dinner (as a change from Cornflakes)... my father said he would sign a lifetime contract for $10,000 a year

[Bob Womack]

My father thought his original GI mortgage of $125 per month for a large house and 3/4 of an acre was userous... until the '80s. Then he said, "I don't know how you guys live." At the time I had a two-bedroom townhouse with a $450 mortgage.

Bob

[ed skeels]

I bought a 310 Cadet from Kliens (Chicago?) when I was twelve. Mail order delivery. Around twelve dollars shipped.
Still have it 57 years later.
Ed