One of you has asked how wages compared to costs during WW2. The re-use of scrap metal is not new. During WW2 every child gathered scrap metal, especially iron, we savfed used grease and oil and any copper wire one could find was taken to the junk yard. I remember taking my wagon (full) of iron and gaining a flat-out 5 cents a lb. Copper brought 8 cents, if my memory serves me. We gathered old newspapers at 2.5 cents per lb. and picked strawberries to earn a little since the men were gone to war. We got 5 cents per quart for that labor, and the same for picking apples, pears, etc. Cheap - nah - just as it should have been. Milk was 10 cents per quart delivered to your house, ice for our icebox 1 cent per pound, gasoline was 25 cents a gallon or 5 gallons for $1.00. My Dad paid 400.00 in 1940 for a new Chevy coupe. Hamburgers at the common restaurants were 5 cents, and bread was usually 8 cents a loaf. For the wealthy (and who were few and far between where I was raised) green fees at the golf course 40 miles away were 1.50. I frequently rode the train to see my Gparents - 100 miles round trip - for 95 cents (no air conditioners there or anywhere else, of course). My mother and father bought a new electric mixer for 22.00 and paid for it at 50 cents a month for 45 months. Dad had a good job on the RR and earned a GOOD salary - 85.00 per month. Savings accounts paid 2% interest and to borrow money at the bank the interest was 3%. I sold papers when I was 10, collected from customers 18 cents per 6 day week for the daily, and was paid 3 cents per customer - had 100 customers = 3.00 per week. Till I was in college it was usurious (and enforced) for lenders such as loan companies to charge more than 10% interest, and dept. stores charged nothing or 1% on balances. On and on, since you asked if I yearn for those days??? NO WAY, NEIGHBOR !!!!!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. It has removed 4611 spam emails to date. Paying users do not have this message in their emails. Try SPAMfighter for free now!