I thought this was interesting, I wish they had told more about the construction and materials used. No doubt it is bottom of the line everything.
These are primarily intended to house resident of Alabama's southern regions known as the black belt(after a soil type).
Most of southern Alabama is very poor unlike the nothern half that fairs much better.
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I bought a newly built house in 1957. 2 bedroom, large living room, utility room, kitchen and bath (no shower) Wired 120/240. Had well and septic system. 1/3 acre. Forced air heat. Well insulated. (Colorado). Added storage shed and total fencing. House cost me $7500.00 Lived in it for 10 years. Sold for$ 10,000.00.. Checked tax valuation of it about 5 years ago.
That does not seem right. I started driving in 1961. Gas was about
20¢ then. One Merit station often was .199 and the Esso across the street was .219. Going from memory, when the gas crisis hit in the
1970's it was mid 30's per gallon and jumped to the 70's or so.
I can't remember when it hit $1. Many of the gas pumps could not handle the price increase
Depends on where you are at. I recall paying .199 during a gas war in
1972. Typically I paid .239 ~ .259 during the that time period. I recall the astronomical price of .759 in 1979 and .989 in 1998. Today I have been seeing it at 2.929 at the local Shell stations.
-------------------------------------------------------- The only thing about the price of gas that pisses me off is that it doesn't include the cost of cleaning up the pollution it creates.
What does truly piss me off is that the minimum wage ($1/hr in 1957) hasn't kept pace except here in CA where it will be $10/hr next year.
Interesting but I'm kinda confused. They talk about the Black Belt of Alabama but Newburn is in the far Northeast, a long throw from Auburn (rar East-Central).
Well, I was in the gas pumping business in the late '60s and againnin the late '70s. In 1969 regular gas in Ontario sold for about $0.45 a gallon for regular. Sometimes a bit less. I pumped a LOT of gas for $0.456 to $0.459. Some short "gas wars" knocked it WAY down - I remember a nickel a gallon a few times. Then I went to Zambia where I paid $1.65 per liter for what was supposed to be 87 octane. Came back and for a while the price was under a dollar a gallon, but around 1978 it went over the dollar a gallon, so we set the pumps to half price and doubled it. Gas was $1.06 per gallon, pump said $0.503. That was solved when, in January
1979, we switched to metric pumps - and $0.26 a liter
I guess there could be two Newberns, the one they are referring to is in Hale county in west central AL. The blackbelt is narrow around Auburn, but gets wider and more Notherly in west AL. That leaves the question as to why Auburn University would have a studio and project clear across the state.
Gas prices have always been regional, varying from neighborhood to neighborhood, much less city to city/state to state. As we speak there is a .20/gal spread from here to the Interstate, five miles away.
That said, in 1957 I was 14 and bought a 1949 Willy's Jeepster for $200. I distinctly remember paying .25/gal for regular, leaded gas, as I was making .50/hr working at a landscape company and it really cut into my weekly paycheck to fill it up, to the point that I would use the last few drops at the pump to fill my Zippo lighter, instead of buying lighter fluid (yep, I started smoking at 14 ... hell I had a car, a job, a girlfriend who put out, and I was a MAN, right!). Yeah, right! ;)
Therefore, I don't think that an average of .31/gal, considering that premium was likely a nickle higher than regular, is too far off for that period, particularly for illustration purposes.
Sorry, I was using Mapquest to find it. It found NewbUrGH when I entered "newbUrn". NewbErn is in West-central AL, very near Tuscaloosa. It makes even less sense for AU to be working there. ;-)
Apparently the Black Belt (I lived in Auburn for a few years, recently) is a swath cut across the entire south-central part of Alabama. I had never heard the term before so it piqued my curiosity.
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Thanks. Learned something else, today (went to a Woodcraft dovetail demo today, too).
In the weeks leading up to the $1plus pricing I had an extension ladder chained to the sign post - the oil company was changing the price, up and down, sometimes 3 times a day, and someone had to climb up and change the numbers every time.
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