What did a kilt cost in 1960, 1970, 1980 etc?

[BoldHighlander]

Oh the heady days of 1970 - my wage was ten pounds a week, the rent was four pounds a week, and I ran a BSA 650 cc motorcycle combination and could fill the tank for under one pound.

Any pics of the BSA??
The fish & chips sounds like a place we use to visit up in White Rock (B.C.) across the road from the beach. They even served it wrapped in newspaper. Haven't been there in a few years, don't know if they're still around or if the fish & chips are of the same quality...

[Pleater]

I never took any photos of the BSA - I never thought it was all that interesting - it was a perfectly standard BSA A 10, with a Watsonian double adult sidecar.

I was lucky enough to have a motor cycle shop around the corner with staff who thought that a young woman rebuilding a motorbike in her dining room was quite remarkable. They looked out a set of genuine gaskets - and lots of spare parts for me which I suspect that would not have been available to the average customer.

My dad kept aircraft flying, in the RAF in WWII and was always the first one neighbours called on when their cars would not start, so there coud be a genetic component to my engineering 'bent'.

About the same time I bought a small yacht - I can't remember if it was two hundred and fifty or three hundred and fifty pounds, it would easily be ten to fifteen times that now.

[davedove]

The backside of this figure is the sobering thought that if all good quality kilts in fact DID cost $1,200....

then I for one wouldn't own one

and

the overwhelming majority of people on this board wouldn't own one. So let's be glad that they don't. All of a sudden a $400 - $450 kilt from Barb or Matt or Kathy Lare starts sounding a whole lot better.

BTW, Hamish's Kollection would be worth something like $100,000. *lol*

I would have to pretty much agree with that. I might still have one kilt at that price, but I certainly wouldn't be buying several.

[Colin]

the overwhelming majority of people on this board wouldn't own one. So let's be glad that they don't. All of a sudden a $400 - $450 kilt from Barb or Matt or Kathy Lare starts sounding a whole lot better.

Great point Alan, and let's also remember that a well made kilt from a professional kiltmaker will likely outlast most of us. To me that is the definition of Frugal (most Scots are frugal not cheap, whereas most North Americans are cheap not frugal). So If I average the lifespan of my kilt at say 50 years (here's hopin it and I last that long) and I paid $379 cdn then that means the cost to me was $7.58/ per year. Not bad.

The fish & chips sounds like a place we use to visit up in White Rock (B.C.) across the road from the beach. They even served it wrapped in newspaper. Haven't been there in a few years, don't know if they're still around or if the fish & chips are of the same quality...[/B]

Yes and Yes (thought there are several shops now and most are good). Many of the good fish shops in the lower mainland are back to wraping in newspaper. A trip to white Rock for fish and chips on the beach is a great summertime event

[McClef]

Alas wrapping fish and chips in newspaper became politically incorrect over here many years ago.

If you ask me they tasted much better!

[Phil]

Alas wrapping fish and chips in newspaper became politically incorrect over here many years ago.

If you ask me they tasted much better!

Was it some EU directive like bananas having to be straight? The smell of warm newspaper added to the experience.

[Nanook]

Was it some EU directive like bananas having to be straight? The smell of warm newspaper added to the experience.

The inks traditionally used in newspaper print are oil soluble and slightly toxic. Modern newspapers, however, are colour printed and these use azo based dyes. Azo dyes are not acutely toxic (as defined by EU regulations) in contact--- known, however, to pose a increased risk of contact allergies--- but via oral exposure (fish and chip wrap as a path) are metabolized to aromatic amines. Some of these can be nasty.

[McClef]

There were aficionados who claimed to be able to tell from the taste and aroma which newspaper they were wrapped in!

As to toxicity I expect that there were no medical surveys made about exposure to the long term effects and whether or not there was an immunity build up. Some hygiene regulations have tended to over sanitise and decrease the natural immunity that people used to have.

But as to the price of kilts - a mere statement of what they cost must be seen in the context of the earnings to prices ratio - back in those days people earned a lot less too.

[BoldHighlander]

The fish & chips sounds like a place we use to visit up in White Rock (B.C.) across the road from the beach. They even served it wrapped in newspaper. Haven't been there in a few years, don't know if they're still around or if the fish & chips are of the same quality...

Yes and Yes (thought there are several shops now and most are good). Many of the good fish shops in the lower mainland are back to wraping in newspaper. A trip to white Rock for fish and chips on the beach is a great summertime event

Thanks Colin
Sounds like a return visit is needed when my Newsome box pleat kilt arrives

[Alan H]

I had no idea that the discrepancy in income was so high between the UK and the USA in the 60's.

In 1968 my parents house in Carmel, California....pretty nice digs..... cost $24,000. That was roughly my dad's annual salary at the time. He was selling insurance at that time, and wasn't all that good at it (he admitted it). That's $2,000 a month. If the pound was around $4.50 USA dollars at the time, that means that Dads monthly salary was 444 pounds a month.

OK, so maybe not all THAT different....never mind.