16-116 Garand Picture of the Day - 1959

[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.