Money!

I'm writing a historical fiction novel set in 1986. I had reason to wonder in the course of the novel how significant a lump sum of $50,000 would be to a college freshman. I found a web page which listed how much a US Navy officer would get paid in 1986 - the first full year of my active duty career.

I discovered that I would have made around $20,000 gross in 1986. Now I was far from rich, but I was quite comfortable as a new college graduate with than income level.

My Twitter feed, ironically, also blew up with links to this site - menus (with prices!) by year.