One of the advantages of being a senior citizen is that one has experience, good and bad. Therefore, we can look back and compare yesterday to today. Because of that, I want to talk about working on a corn sheller crew in 1963.

A little background first. My dad was a farmer north of Marshalltown, Iowa. He farmed 400 acres of row crop, had 50 Angus cows, fed out 2,000 feeder lambs a year, plus custom shelled corn in a 10-mile radius. Yes, he was a busy man and I had work to do when I came home from school. I enjoyed every bit of it except for cultivating corn on a hot day about 2:30 in the afternoon. For you young folks, tractor cabs with AC and stereo sound were not invented. Getting a good tan was a bonus!! It was just Dad and me, no hired man.

I did not get paid while at home but Dad kept my 51 Plymouth filled with gas and I had all the spending money I needed, within reason, for “running around at night.” Plus, he paid for my college education. That was the deal.

So, it was a highlight to go with him on the corn sheller and get paid by farmers for scooping corn. I got paid the going rate of $2.50 an hour in 1963. That was $20 for an 8 hour day. It was a good feeling for an 18 year old to get paid cash for a hard day’s work while looking towards the future.

During my college years I worked in the summer for a manufacturing plant in Des Moines, Iowa. Again, I got paid $2.50 an hour on the 4:00 to midnight shift. Wow, I felt like I was walking “on air” making $100 a week.

Let’s take those numbers and put them into today’s economy. Based on inflation, $2.50 in 1963 is equal to $21.53* today. An employee today working 40 hours earning $21.53 equals $861.20 per week, $44,782 per year in today’s economy. The average price of a bushel of corn in 1963 was $1.06** the average land price in Marshall County, Iowa was $320 per acre***. Credit cards were just beginning to appear with petroleum companies. The only way you could buy clothing without paying for it was to put it on layaway. The store would put the item in storage and you would make payments until it was paid for, then you could pick it up. Car loans you got at your personal bank. Living was about cash. If you did not have the cash then you did not do it or buy it.

The important point is that a laborer in 1963 who was making $2.50 an hour was doing better than a person today is who is making less than $21.53 an hour.

Food for thought.

Dale Dickkut

*https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

**https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/crops/pdf/a2-11.pdf

***https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/pdf/c2-72.pdf