The Cost Of Love

I was making $1.25 per hour. I was rolling in the dough!

It was the sixties and I had my very first job working at Travel Town in Griffith Park.

I was scared to death that morning. Of both working with the public and my very demanding twenty-five-year-old boss.

She was tall, blonde and so much other older than I. Worldly, sophisticated and she could work the cash register and give out change without having to count on her fingers! Remember this was before computers did all the calculating.

Somehow, I made it through that first day and came home to our Sunday dinner and the Ed Sullivan show. I sat across the table from my younger sister, knowing that I had passed into a new realm, one that she wouldn’t reach for a few years. I was little bit more mature. A little bit full of myself.

But just a little.

That first day on the job gave me a taste of the future. A future I wanted to jump into, but one that was still terrifying.

Of course, my parents told me not to worry. And advised me always save for a rainy day.

But what did they know?

As the summer passed, my bank account grew and the fear of that first morning fell away with my adolescence.

I know now that my experience wasn’t an isolated one and that today’s teens still taste a bit of fear as they start their first job.

The difference is the minimum wage has increased significantly. It is now $15.00. Which is about a 1200% increase.

But in relation to the costs of everyday items such as postage stamps which have gone from .05 cents to .55 cents and gas which sky-rocketed from .30 to over $3.00 the minimum wage has barely caught up.

Cars today cost what a home did back then. Yesteryear’s average yearly income would qualify for today’s low income housing.

Today’s young adults not only face the fear of entering the workplace but of finding jobs where they can actually support themselves.

I guess if I knew back then what I know now, I’d have planned better for my future. But as young adults we know everything, don’t we?

It’s not until we get to be much older that we realize how smart our parents are. It’s not until we turn into them, that we realize they were right all along. (Well, some of the time.)

The cost of living may have gone up drastically but one thing that hasn’t changed is the parent/child relationship.

It’s still based on 100% love.

Thanks for reading!