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Sewing Machine social history note

I am currently reading "Auditions" by Barbara Walters. It is a good book although not on my must read list.

In 1972 she went to China to cover President Nixon's visit. She comments about visiting a department store in China:

"Bicycles, the most prized possession---no one owned a car---cost about sixty dollars. The average factory worker made about twenty dollars a month. Denying himself all the extras, a worker could probably buy a bicycle at the end of the year. . . or maybe a sewing machine, the next most cherished item, which also cost about sixty dollars. Shoes cost a dollar fifty a pair, and face cream and shampoo were sold by the glob." page 220-221

Ok can one of our social historians tell us how the cost of a new US sewing machine in 1972 compared to the average wage of the US worker at the time? Wasn't this about the time sewing machine sales began to slump in the US? I wonder if the sewing machine is still an important part of a Chinese home?

Susan Price

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Susan Laity Price
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Not sure this is a direct answer to your question -- but when I graduated with my BS in 1978 -- my mom & dad got me a JCP model sewing machine. Pretty basic... had about 2 dozen cams you put in and out to do some design stitching. (I never really used it -- in retrospect I think the tension was really messed up!)

Anyhow -- I think they paid around $150 for it -- certainly not more than $200. And in 1980 my teaching salary was $8000 a year... and my 2 bedroom apartment rent was $192.50 (heat included)!

Does that help at all?

Reply to
Kate in MI

FWIW, when I graduated from college in 1966, my parents bought me a top-of-the-line Elna Supermatic. I think it cost them about $300.

Julia > I am currently reading "Auditions" by Barbara Walters. It is a good

Reply to
Julia in MN

In 1975 a Bernina 830 was about $800. Not sure what the average wage was then.

Pam (Dragonfly)

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Pam (Dragonfly)

Dunno about average.....in 1972, my spouse was fresh out of college as a pharmacist, and making about 20K; minimum wage (what I made) was $1.80/hour. And yes, that's just about when mom bought her Bernina, which was somewhere in the upper $700s, and I inherited the 1947 Singer.

--pig

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Listpig

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Susan Laity Price

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Susan Laity Price

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Susan Laity Price

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Susan Laity Price

Yes I was making more than $1200. I think that my teaching contract that year was for $5100.

Julia > That was a lot of money in 1966 but bet you were making more than

Reply to
Julia in MN

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