Published: November 15, 2009 11:56 pm      

Old Bills

Couple’s old statements reflect changes in costs, time periods

Imagine earning today’s salary but going inside a time warp and getting charged the same monthly utility rates in force half a century ago.

Ed and Rosemarie Corey enjoyed some nostalgia by rummaging through utility bills the Beckley couple paid back in 1949 with results both amusing and, considering today’s inflationary spiral, a bit painful to boot.

For instance, a bill from the old Amere Gas Co., dated Nov. 8 that year, was for a mere $3. Appalachian Power Co. sent the couple a statement for $1. Corey’s latest electric bill came to $67.

The sanitary board mailed a bill for $1.68, and Beckley Water Co. charged the Coreys in October of that same year only $2.35.

On the statement, the utility reminded its customers the first 2,000 gallons cost 62 cents. The next 3,000 gallons brought a charge of 55 cents. At 20,000, the fee rose another 50 cents. For 125,000 gallons, the charge was 30 cents more. Another quarter was tacked on for the next 850,000 gallons, and all over 1 million gallons was 20 cents.

“That’s what our bills used to be,” Corey reflected.

“I could come up with $1 in those days. I wouldn’t mind (going back).”

His wife says she has been saving such items from the past and thought they would make an interesting comparison, given today’s steep utility charges.

A recent bill from Mountaineer Gas came to $400.

In 1949, the median salary for people 25 to 34 years old was $2,754.

A Beckley physician sent him a bill for an office call, seeking payment of $24. The letter bore the going rate for first-class mail at the time, 3 cents.

Corey was the owner of Corey Candy Co., which operated on the old Valley Drive, just across from the present day Captain D’s seafood restaurant.

Back in 1947, a man walked into his store to complain about the high cost of cigarettes, then 25 cents a pack but soon to go up a penny with the addition of a one-cent tax to cover a pay increase for West Virginia school teachers.

“Aren’t you a school teacher?” Corey asked the customer.

“Yes,” the man answered.

“Well, that’s for you,” he advised him.

Telephone service ran a little higher but nothing like it does in the 21st century.

One bill from the former Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. was $6.20, another was for $4.30 and a third still in the Coreys’ possession read $15.83.

“I just keep them,” said Rosemarie, Corey’s wife of 61 years. “I save a bunch of stuff. I’ve been doing this for years.”

While the recollection of small utility charges from the 1940s brought some smiles, Corey wasn’t totally laughing about the soaring inflation over the years.

“Makes me cry,” he said.

Corey is now retired and says he finds it difficult keeping up with utility bills. To him, it’s a mystery how some folks are surviving, especially those thrown out of work with no potential for finding another job.

“You can barely make it nowadays,” he said.

“If it was just normal, everyday living, it wouldn’t be bad, but these utilities have gone crazy. Their demands are ridiculous. They’re asking for a 20 percent raise. How about raising Social Security?”

Corey served as an Army sergeant in World War II, seeing action in both the Normandy Invasion and the Battle of the Bulge.

As the hostilities wore down, he recalled, the Army was pressuring the G.I.’s, some of whom hadn’t been home in two years, to re-enlist with a promise of retaining their rank and getting a 30-day furlough.

Corey had seen enough of the military, especially the murderous fire of Germans after his unit landed on the French coastline.

“Man,” he told the re-enlistment officer, “I’ve been over here for over two years and here you’re trying to sign me up. I took that piece of paper, tore it up and threw it in his face. Here’s the funny part. All those guys that signed up were recalled for the Korean War.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com