As I’ve been reading through the papers before shredding them, I have been made very aware of the great impact of inflation — of raising the cost of everything. As I have been working on the years 1968 to 1970 for the past three days, I noticed that the envelopes that had been through the mail were bearing six cent stamps. That’s what it cost to send a one ounce letter through the mail between 1968 and 70.
For one thing, it’s impressive that the six cents remained the same over those three years. Today, a one ounce standard first class letter going through the mail cost 82 cents. A forever stamp of 82 cents. That’s a lot of inflation.