EMitch
Both of us came up hard with no big earners in the family, so we understood the art of being frugal and lived under the mantra "if you can't pay cash for it, you don't need it". 

I hear you.  I do use plastic, more electronic now, but have never carried a balance.  My Dad gave me that same advice when I opened my first credit card.  
 
I did have my first overdraft ever, just happen.  My fault on transfer dates.  Still cost me $36...  Not very happy about that.
 
Here is a good tool for inflation.  Depending when you were saying $28K, if 1987, that is close to $80K now.  Crazy how much things have increased.
 
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
 
Average price of a family has gone up a ton too.  But much to do with "modern conveniences" of then and now, beyond food and other necessity prices skyrocketing.  In 1987, it was getting a big box tv, VCR, stereo, long corded phone and maybe an Atari...  Now, it is a flat screen TV the size of your wall, 5 streaming services, phone in your pocket that costs an arm and a leg every month, etc.  Activities when I was a kid included, getting on a bike with a lighter, pocket knife and if lucky a stash of Playboys in the woods and find a cigarette that someone dropped in a parking lot...  Gone from sunrise to sunset.  Bug my dad on his days off from the mill to take me fishing.  Sports were seasonal and all run by the community charging parents barely anything.  Now, kids have that same arm and a leg phone as parents, ear pods that cost as much as the family stereo in 87, a bike that gets as much use in a year as the 87 bike got in a week, sports that are a few $K for dues then travel all over the country costing $Ks, to play the same level teams that are within a 2-3 hour drive...  Obviously, most of that is not a necessity, but I am guessing that the "average cost" studies have much of that included.  I know my life has much of that included and we are right at the average when I calculated it.  I have to skimp on a lot of things to make it happen.  I have a 2008 pickup that is paid off and plan to keep at least another 4 years.  Wife's car is paid off and making her do the same.  Our house is sort of nice, but all original cabinets, bathrooms, most floors original (had to replace a few carpets).  Have to hold off on most renovation stuff until the kids are on their own ($1K on a small renovation supplies was why I over drafted).  I refinanced to 15 year mortgage when rates were low to save a ton overall.  It has me paying a lot more on monthly payments, but done in a few years.  Both of us have to work.  No way I could come even close to that average on my own.
 
BTW - I vividly remember sitting at a stoplight on Rt. 51 at the Rt. 88 intersection when I was a teen.  I am guessing close to 87, maybe 88 or 89.  There was a billboard for a Camero for $9,999, with some sort of caption of "your dream car for under $10k".  It was the base model, but I remember dreaming about that car for years.  Every time that I was in the market for a car since, I remember that car for under $10k.  Now, $10k is about the minimum for a reliable used car...  Which is likely less than I can get for my truck...

So, I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say.

MyWar
So, I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say.

Now that's some authentic frontier gibberish!

 If you got 100,000 miles out of a car that was not in the scrapyard you got your moneys worth. A Vega was good for 40,000 miles. So many cars got around 10 - 12 mpg. Figure todays get 35 --- 50 = gas hasn't gotten as out of control for what we get in return. Now days a car/truck with 200,000 miles under 15 years old is still worth a pile of money. But then again if you can find a Vega (junk) that survived in decent shape it is also.
 

 If you were in a car from the 60's -- 70's doing 80 - 110 mph with the pedal to the metal you were scared to death. Nowadays look down at the speedometer doing 85 barley touching that pedal and  say oh crap felt like I was barley moving  
 
 My son is a Garlic and Onion farmer 
 
 The Queen needs the ****ants to survive.
 

crappiefisher
 Some of the new electric cars can go 200++ mph. Yeah times are a changing' like always.

My brother has a dual motor Tesla with the performance package.  It does 0-60 in 3.1 seconds.  It is smooth as heck, but throws you in the back of your seat like I have never felt.  That is not even their fast model...  Not sure what his top end is.  One of my neighbor's dad growing up was a big drag strip track guy.  He had some really fast cars back then, but a completely different feel with the AWD launches with no tire spin these cars have.  Don't get me wrong, smoky burnouts in the cars that he would allow my friend to drive were fun.  Both put a hypergrin on your face!
 
I use a lot of rental cars for work travel.  Some are so smooth at high speeds, it is almost impossible to realize how fast you are going.  My truck, I can pretty much tell how fast I am going by the feel.  Not sure if that is a good thing or not?

I have a 4-motor Rivian truck in my driveway right now.  It's my son-in-law's.  He's on a week long business trip and said I should use it as I see fit.  It hasn't moved in 4 days.  I did get in it with the intention of taking it for a spin but quickly realized I didn't know what the heck I was doing.  It's over 7,000 lbs and does 0-60 in 3.3 sec.  It's kind of intimidating...but very cool-looking.

I grew up in the age of muscle cars. Locally, the brand new Lobaugh bridge over the Allegheny was the midnight drag strip. Vettes, 'Stangs w/super cobra jet engines, Olds 442s, GTOs, Plymouth Roadrunners & GTXs, 427 Chevelle's and the ultimate Hemi Cuda. All very fast cars. But my ultimate came in '19 when I prepped and road tested a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trak Hawk. 6.2L supercharged Hemi, 707 hp. I did not use the launch sequence. From a rolling start, I nailed it in 1st gear and it slammed me into the seat so tight I lost my breath. The 8 speed electronically shifted torqueflite transmission rocketed through the gears and the speedo topped 100 in less than 1/4 mile and I had to stand on the big Brembo brakes to pull it down before the crossroad. Awesome! Fastest production 4WD vehicle in the world. Now the dual motored electric vehicles will blow the candles right out of Trak Hawk. Electric motors are so powerful, I just wonder how folks will get along in snow and ice. You barely breathe on the fuel pedal and spin the wheels on dry road.

woodnickle
Case in point with Darby:
My nephew makes over 6 digits as a computer programmer. Has a 4 bedroom house, new mustang and just purchased a 2020 cobra f450 with 18,000 miles for 85,970$. Paid off his student loan.
So yes choosing the right field to take up matters.

  
 
 My son sold a little over $6,000 in 4 hours last night using his phone. Spent half the time giving away stuff. Items he pays 25 cents and below for sells for $5 -- $17 each in 20 seconds. When I worked in sporting goods stores the biggest mark up in the other departments were Jewelry and shoes. 
 
 Plenty of ways out there to make a good living without a college education. He doesn't go out and buy new cars though. A new car deprecates 30 percent after one year. Not a good idea. 

 You can live in Timbuctoo and do this. Doesn't have to be near any good paying job area. Can work from home making your own hours.

 If your wife has healthcare that takes care of that part. Yep have to pay taxes. Nice the app he does this on takes care of a lot of the paper work and gives him pretty much whatever he needs. Just gave him $500 last week for a new phone, $1,000 cash allotment for a show, $100 weekly for giveaways and tell him anything he needs just ask. Small business' take many expense write-offs. They can also make a large purchase towards the end of year to get out of the higher tax bracket.  What you save on transportation and wear and tear on your vehicle plus all the time saved back and forth to work.  Merchandise can be delivered to your residences. Being your own boss and not being told what you have to do is nice also.
 
 Yeah, being a small business has it's pros & cons like most things.
 
 His child has a nice savings from donations from this app only after doing it for 4.5 months. Don't know many companies that do that. He has many lifetimes stockpiled of selling at this pace and only 30 years old. What else would he do with it?

I’m guessing about half. Maybe 60 percent.
Thing is, his overhead must be pretty low.

Dream car is a 68 Chevelle. Someday maybe when I have the garage space!

I enjoy reading these trips down memory lane from you guys. Pork - your teenage years in the 80's were the same **** thing as mine in the late 90's early 2000's. Favorite thing to do was grab a can of baked beans and a pie tin from my moms pantry, go into the woods to the creek. Light a fire way too big, heat some beans and burn my mouth on them, then flip rocks for salamanders and crayfish. Put em in a bucket, and would hide them to scare my sisters. Then my old man would lift up the sewer lid a day or so later and we'd let em go. Good Times.

Being 35 now, I think I was the last generation before cell phones and the internet took over. Started around when I was 14/15 I think. 

Gator
You were lucky to have a creek. My local woods didn’t have one. We could bike a bit to a pond and creek, but was pretty far on roads with a bit of traffic. That internal clock seemed to shut off around water and still does. Making that ride back in the dark was horrible and double once we got home an hour after we were supposed to.

Crappie,
Your "cpo jacket" reference triggered memories from long ago.  They were all the rage back in the late 60s, and my whole family had one.