It’s not malarkey, a lot of that generation was compensated well for menial work. I still remember in 1985 when we were at grandma’s house on Christmas Eve, my uncle would leave the party early and work 3rd shift and receive holiday pay @ $37.50 per hr. If you calculated the current cost of living 37 years later I can promise you the people today are not making that kind of money doing the same job. Holiday pay for that same scenario today would probably be around $80 per hour.