More on Inflation and cost of Education

During my four years at Sandy High (1931 to 1935), I took a college preparatory course as I had always planned to go to the U of O in Eugene.

But, now that I had finished high school, I had to figure out how I was going to pay for college. My father had acquired debt during the depression and was in no way able to help me financially.

Since I was only 16, it seemed a good time to stay out a year to earn some money and to mature a bit. As it turned out, I stayed out of school two years, working at a great variety of jobs, none of them paying very well. Some [paid] at $1 per day and the best at 35 cents an hour at Oregon Bulb Farms.

I had to work at the U of O also, starting with dishwashing at the dorm, later waiting tables, and finally getting the head waiter job which paid my board and room. My second job at college was playing in dance bands with jobs in Eugene, Corvallis, Salem, and a few in Portland.

It took me seven years after finishing high school but I finally got a bachelor’s degree in business in 1942.

Looking back on it in the year 2001 and seeing what it costs today, I had it pretty easy. In the 1930s, tuition was only $33 per term ($99 per year), and board at the dorm was only about $32 per month. Of course, wages were proportionately low--the dorm jobs paid 35 cents an hour.

Costs at colleges today are outrageous--it seems that the community colleges are the only alternatives to huge school loans and student debt at other schools.

~ From 80 Years in the Same Neighborhood: A history of the Sandy Oregon ares, by Phil Jonsrud, c 2002, Sandy Historical Society, Sandy, OR, p. 61

Things could be worse

The current inflationary period is a long and stubborn one. Things have been worse, if that’s any consolation. During the Revolutionary War the wholesale price index rose from 26.4 in 1775 to 3650.0 in 1780! Money wasn’t really worth very much.