When you work your life, well at least mine, revolved around the work. From 6:30 to 5 most days I was in the office and doing my job. In the meantime the world moves on and changes. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the cost of things, especially when referenced against the same things when we were kids.
The 25 cent Egg Cream of my youth is now $4.00
Free TV now costs upwards of $90 a month
Movies that were a buck now cost $10-$12. There is some good news however because as a senior citizen the price has dropped to $6-$9.
The NYTimes was a quarter and is now $22 a month.
Gas was .35 a gallon and now is 10x that
When did a pizza go from $4.00 to $12?
And what brought me to this realization was a recent desire to see the new Yankee Stadium. I have not been to the ballpark since they actually played in "The House that Ruth Built". So now with time I suggested to my lunch buddies that we go to a game. I'd drive to the stadium, go up to the ticket window like I always did and buy 3 tickets for $25 each, that should get us some real good seats, WRONG!
First you cannot go to the window that was iconically situated in front of the main entrance of the park. There are no ticket windows.
You'd haggle with the old guy sitting in the booth and he always made you feel he was doing you a favor because as he would tell you" I got some special seats, on the 1st base line, 18.00 bucks a piece and after the 6th inning you can probably move to better seats, no one will bother you".
The old guy, the booth, the prices, moving to better seats, all gone. Now everything is done on line and to ensure that the Yanks won't get screwed out of every last possible dollar, the Yanks and not Stub Hub are in the ticket resale business.
My visit to the sight was a real eyeopener, as I scrolled over the sections and saw the prices I thought I was dealing in another currency. Tix along the baselines at field level astronomical at upwards of $300.
A bleacher seat over $75! Who pays these prices? Well apparently no one. I contacted a friend who is a true Yankee fan for some advice. He wrote back a long explanation, basically telling me to get over it and no one pays those prices. He also told me he has a 14 year old son who has made it a personal challenge to secure good seats at more reasonable (it's all relative) prices. I put him on the case and sure enough within a day I had 3 tickets at the suggested price point that he characterized as "real good seats".
Now I just have to get over the $35 parking, $10 beer and $8 hot dog!
As life moves on I think I will be saying more and more "I got a kid" who can help me with that.
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