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Old Bill reveals medical costs of 50 years ago
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Published: November 1, 2009
Usually we keep medical bills, particularly paid ones, only long enough to serve for tax deductions.
Somehow a tissue-thin doctor bill of a half century ago survived and was brought to our attention by Bill Owen Sr. of Red Fox Trail, Statesville.
The bill is a year's worth of medical treatments for himself and the Mrs., daughter Karen, and son, Bill. They resided on Euclid Avenue at the time.
The bill is from the office of Drs. John Stegall and Harry Walker, general practitioners, located on North Tradd.
A careful scrutiny will reveal the bill is for a whole year's services, December, 1958, to December, 1959.
Further scrutiny may cause you to clean your eyeglasses and take another look- yes, those are the charges: $2 for an office visit, $3 or $4 for a home visit. Yes, doctors actually went into people's homes and treated them there.
Things cost less then than now. True, but people made less money.
Let's go back to 1958 for a moment.
A 1958/1959 dollar, by the way, was worth about $5.40 in today's purchasing power. The federal minimum wage was $1 an hour; a fine new house could be purchased for less than $20,000; a new car (probably made in Detroit) ran a little over $2,000.
The production of the Packard automobile literally reached the end of the line in 1958. A top-of-the-line Cadillac convertible, the epitome of status, would set you back about $5,400.
Almost unnoticed at the time was the introduction into the U.S. market of two cars from Japan: the Toyota and the Datsun. The Datsun marque was discontinued in 1986.
Premium leaded gasoline sold about 30 cents a gallon, depending on where you filled up. You could move your gas gauge from "E" to "F" for about $3, which was 3 hours work at minimum wage.
Milk was about a buck a gallon; a loaf of bread could be had for 19 cents.
There was a genial, avuncular golfer in the White House named Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom everyone called "Ike."
"I Like Ike" had been printed on his campaign buttons and bumper stickers and most Americans did. His vice president was a young congressman from California named Richard Milhous Nixon who got into some political hot water because he accepted a gift of a cocker spaniel named "Checkers" for his daughters.
Ike signed the Alaska Statehood Act into law in 1958 and Alaska became our 49th state the next year. Our national flag looked very neat with seven rows of seven stars.
Elvis ("the Pelvis") Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1958, much to the distress of thousands of bobby soxers. His service number, for you trivia fans, was #53310761.
Two inventions were introduced in 1958 that you may remember. One was the microchip, that little gizmo that has become an indispensible part of life in the 21st century.
The other "invention" was mass marketed by the Wham-O Manufacturing Co. and was called the "Hula Hoop," a piece of colorful plastic tubing fastened into a circle. They sold 25 million of them in the first four months and over 100 million total that year. The fad began running out of steam by October, 1959. Also regular folks and other companies soon realized they could make their own knock-off hoop at a lower price.
But all was not bliss and serenity in the U.S. of A. The cost of first class postage stamps skyrocketed by 25% in 1958, from 3 cents to 4 cents.
Speaking of skyrocketing, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed by an act of Congress, replacing the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1958.
A short time before this the U.S. was finally able to place a satellite into orbit, Explorer I, in January. Our numerous unsuccessful launch attempts, unlike those of the Soviet Union, were shown on television.
We were ahead of the Soviets in another frontier: The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The ship was named for Jules Verne's ship in his futuristic novel, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
Some other events from 1958 you might have missed: The first African American flight attendant, Ruth Carol Taylor, was hired by Mohawk Airlines. The first International House of Pancakes (IHOP) opened in in Toluca Lake, Calif., and the ultra-modern looking United States Air Force Academy opened in Colorado Springs, Colo.
And finally, the post World War II baby boom officially ended.
And that's the way it was.
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