Economists, correct me if I"m wrong, but seems like a good rule of thumb to take today's prices and amounts and divide by 20 - that will give you the early 60s price of things.

So if Don was carrying $50 cash in his wallet, that's like walking around with $1000 today. Few people do that nowadays, even the wealthy. People all mostly have credit cards or debit cards rather than cash.

But in those days, there were fewer credit cards and carrying lots of cash was common.

Remember when Don got that bonus of $2500, he acted like it was a small fortune? And when he was made partner, he was offered a salary of something in the $30k range? Or was it a bit more?

bocaraton, he took a $45K salary as partner. Hey, $2500 would be a small fortune for me at this point! I was surprised he was able to hand Peggy back so much $$ for the bail (wasn't it $150), and he said he'd bring the $50 the next day. That's alot for those days (remember CC Baxter's rent was $69 a month or around that in The Apartment?).

There is a web site that lets you convert 1962 dollars to 2007 dollars.

http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppowerus/result.php

Peggy's $110 bail for Don would be $753.72 today--a pretty healthy sum to scrape up without ATMs.

Ken Cosgrove's $300 payday would be $2055.60 today. If that was weekly, it would be 100 Grand per year. Not sure myself that fits in with what Ken does.

I think it's a sign of the times.

I carry almost NO cash. Everything is debit or credit card. I pay almost all my bills online. Nowadays, you practically never have to SEE cash.

However, in Don's time, people did not use credit cards the way we do today. Don is a professional, upper-middle class man. He would carry more cash. I recall as a child, whenever we travelled, my parents carried cash. I rarely saw them take out a credit card. My father also used a money clip ( as Don does ) he also had a money belt.

I think it's just the era. More cash, less plastic.

My dad used a money clip (or a fat rubber band, if he'd misplaced the clip, lol.) The morning he died one of the EMTs, a neighbor, suggested we empty his pants pockets before the funeral people arrived. He had papers and a wad of cash which my brother stuck in his own pocket until later in the day when he had a chance to collect himself. He was stunned to find dad had been carrying around $5K in his track suit pants. We figured he knew he might keel over (longstanding heart and other problems) and wanted mom to have cash on hand to cover bills while waiting for insurance etc. Depression era habits are hard to break, I guess.

I can't imagine how Peggy came up with that much money on short notice. It was the middle of the night, so the banks weren't open, so she must have had it lying around her apartment. In 1963 or 64, whenever my teacher told a joke and it fell flat, he'd say something like "Well, what do you expect for $7,000 per year?" so that must have been about what teachers made (for working 9 months out of the year.) When my family filled out my college scholarship application that same year, each of my parents (a railroad clerk and a telephone operator) said that they made $7,500 per year (total family income=$15,000.) We lived in a nice neighborhood in the Midwest and were considered middle class.

Peggy lives alone ( no room-mate anymore. ) Even Joan has a room-mate. How can Peggy afford to do that? She may have gotten a promotion, but the "raise" was not much.

And you are right. Not only was she able to come up with $110 on short notice ( a large amount in those days ) but apparently Don KNEW she'd be able to come up with the money when he called her to pay his fine / bail him out.

How is it that the roomate is gone and Peggy has the moola to live alone? And does she live alone simply because that's her preference? Or is it a convenient arrangement?

Hmmmmm ......

I remember that everyone dealt in cash in the early 60s. We all cashed our checks on payday and didn't put anything in a checking account and maybe a small amount to savings.

Peggy's apartment is very small compared to what the male copy writers probably have. Even if she doesn't make as much as the guys, And I suspect Peggy is very frugal. So $110 in cash seems just about right to me.

I used to make a whopping $200 a month- and I paid my $65 rent and my bills, too. Not much left over, but I did manage to live on that, as a single young woman. Notice Peggy wears mosty the same old clothes.

How did she raise the cash? Pawnshop? How did she get her bro-in-law's car in the middle of the night? Anita will be twisting in her knickers when she finds that out!

Peggy was more concerned about Bobbi throwing up in the car. A flashback from Roger up chucking his martinis and oysters. Bobbi had steak tar tar for dinner, so it would have been raw meat down the front of that gold dress! Peggy having to clean that up...she was probably thinking, "this job sucks!"

According to an online inflation calculator, $1 in 1962 is equivalent to $6.67 at the end of 2007. In other words, you could get for 15 cents what it would cost you $1 in 2007, therefore, Don's $67 would be like having $447. No wonder Roger's hooker was delighted to get $100.

Also, as has been said people didn't use credit card like today and they kept cash around as there were no ATMs and you couldn't always get to a bank during the week. What would you do on the weekends unless you could cash a check? The Recession was still fresh in mind and people didn't trust banks, either.

Yes and where I lived in PA, grocery stores were closed on Sundays and you did not get cash back at other stores.So if you forgot to get cash or ran out of money or food, you were stuck until the banks reopened at 10 am on Monday. I remember in college - if we got into financial trouble we could get an emergency loan to tide us over for a week- $20! Plus a stern lecture. I think minimum wage was $2. something an hour!

i was born in '71, i still remember when i was i kid, before the family went out for friday night dinner my dad would have to stop at the bank and get money. we didn't have atm's until around '84 or '85.i don't remember my father using his c.c. that much, mostly cash.when my father was in his late 30's he made the equivelent of what d.d. was making in '62 (around $275,000). he always seemed to have at least $1000 in his wallet, i should know because occasionally i would lift a $20 out. haha.but i guess having $60-$100 on you was a decent amount of cash back then.

I remember using counter checks, they had no name stamped on them, and, at least in small towns, if you forgot to sign the check it wasn't a big deal and they went through any way. Probably not so in NYC! I wonder about Peggy's financial situation, although, she does appear to be the type of person who has a savings account that began with early birthday money. When she was pregnant, she had a twin bed, with the roommate apartment. Now her bed is double and looks better. by that I mean, the first room looked sparse and the second much more filled. I can see that while she was away, her roommate would have had to replace her, unless someone continued to pay Peggy's rent, which is unlikely, I think.

Still, I wonder why the writers made at least two (that I remember) references to Don not having much cash? His wallet could easily have been ignored. Was it just a vehicle used to show that Peggy and Don have secrets? Or were we seeing that Don's bank account will be an issue this season?

Back then except for Diner's Club and American Express, there were no credit cards worth mentioning. Visa and Master Card came out much, much later. Almost everything was paid cash or check.

That Don had fifty dollars on him would not be unusual and he probably would have gone to the bank the next day to replenish. His pay (along with everyone else's) would have been in the form of a check, no direct deposit, so he'd be visiting the bank regularly, probably one just down the street.

I did like the way Peggy reminded him that $110 was a lot of money to her. She probably had that much sitting around, just in case, her "mad money." She could also be in a rent-controlled apartment and making more than even Joan as a copy writer, she's got savings. Probably makes half of what Paul does and he had a huge apartment albeit in New Jersey, as I recall.

I notice the apartment was one bedroom, not two, so she had moved since last season. (Otherwise Bobbi wouldn't have been sleeping on the couch.) Who knows, perhaps Peggy's roommate got married.

As far as Don being low on cash, it was a vehicle to bring Peggy into the scene which segued to the scene with her at the hospital. Smoooth... :-) It also begins a relationship between Peggy and Bobbi. Peggy has Don as one kind of mentor/model. Now she has Bobbi as well and Bobbi feels at least slightly indebted to Peggy. Just as Don does. Bobbi also knows that Peggy could say something to Jimmy which would be bad...

Apparently Don didn't sign on for the "Liberty Executive" account? I would've thought every male at SC would have been required to take one out.

Good one, regertz!

Hi Ritt! I agree, peggy probably had the $110.00 in her cookie jar. I remember her saying to Don "this is all I could come up with on short notice", or something like that.

Liquor stores were the ATMs of the 60s and early 70s. You could always cash a check at your local store of they knew you. But you could get maybe $20-40. Not $110, I don't think.

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