A lifelong Massachusetts resident reflects on saving up for a house, buying a $35 car, and working in the Navy

Interviewer 2: Have you lived in the Boston area your whole life?

George: Yes. I lived in Chelsea for 10 years. When I got married, we moved to Revere. I bought a house. At that time I went back to the shipyards because the war in Korea started, and then the war in Vietnam started. Both times, I went back to work because I didn't have a good job. When I went back to work during the Korean War, I was getting $1 an hour as an electrician's helper because you had to work three years as an electrician's helper before they'll go and get your license. So I was working on that, but I was only getting $1 an hour, so the shipyard gave me $2.21. So I doubled my money, and I started to save money. 

In the meantime, where I was living when I got married was a house, a duplex, a half house that I bought for my cousin Margaret to live in because she needed a place. So I bought the house for $3,000, and when I got married, I lived on the first floor and she lived on the second floor. It was like a two family house, no central heat, and I told my wife we’d have to save up money to buy a better house. In that area, I couldn't sell it because they wouldn't give any mortgages. They were redlined, you know, of mortgages. So I told my wife, we have to save up. And it took us 10 years. And what happened was the last year Nancy was born, in 1959, and that year I bought the house.

I bought the house, I had a baby, and I bought a new car, a Ford wagon. It was a beautiful car. And because my own wouldn't go anymore—I had a 50 Mercury—I bought this new car. That's the only new car I ever bought in my life. It was just starting that year with power steering and power brakes. Before that, there was no power steering and power brakes, and my wife couldn't use the 50 Mercury. She couldn't drive it. My wife was small, like Nancy, but this Ford wagon, she could drive it. It had three seats because I had passengers going to work at that time. 

I worked in the Navy. It was in South Boston, called South Boston Annex, Northern Avenue. That's where I was working, and I had passengers which I took to work, and that's why I bought the station wagon with three seats. When I was in high school, I bought a car, a 32 Plymouth Coupe with a rumble seat. You know what a rumble seat is? It was where the trunk was, it opened up and there was a seat there. They call it a rumble seat.

Interviewer 2: Does it face the back? Does it face the opposite way?

George: No, no, it faced forward. But it was out in the weather. The guys, you know, they had a running board. It was so you could step up and get in the car. It was a running board, and they had bumpers on the back so the car was protected pretty good all around from accidents. I had that car all during World War Two, which is from 1941 to… let’s see, when was the war over? ‘45, ‘46, or ‘47? Then I gave it to my cousin. He drove it to Florida. It was a good engine, a four cylinder, and it was a nice car. I had it my last year at high school, and I paid $35 for the car. 

Interviewer 1: 35? Wow.

George: I went up and got my license. That cost me about $10 to take the license and pay for the tests.

Interviewer 2: I think we have to pay, like, $100 or $200, so that's pretty different.

George: Oh yeah. Everything was very low in price because nobody had money. Like I said, gasoline was like 10 cents a gallon.