UP! 



National statistics on sport fishing and hunting 

 show the same trends as other national data. 

 UP! Personal expenditures on all recreation rose 

 by almost 60 percent in the fifties. Thirty mil- 

 lion people spent almost $4 billion for the fun of 

 fishing and hunting, during 1960, as compared 

 with 25 million who spent $3 billion in 1955. 



As a Nation, we play a little more each year. 

 Our work week has grown shorter and shorter 

 during the first half of this century. Perhaps you 

 remember when we worked 60 or more hours a 

 week at the turn of the century. If you are too 

 young to remember, your father, or at least your 

 grandfather, remembers those long-hour work- 

 weeks. Now all of us have more time to our- 

 selves — it is no longer rare for us to find a person 

 going on a vacation for a month, especially a 

 person with seniority on the job. Another and 

 newer development in our Nation is that as many 

 as 25 million Americans are "making a living" 

 from retirement income or other sources. 



Besides having a greater amount of time for 

 play, we also have an increasing amount of money 

 to spend on pastime activities. Family expendi- 

 tures account for about two-thirds of all goods and 

 services purchased during a year. As a Nation 

 of consumers we have achieved a level of living 

 above that of subsistence. The family budget calls 

 for less and less spending on "hard" goods. Big 

 items like houses and automobiles, demanded after 

 World War II, have been bought and demand 

 for those items has declined from postwar peaks. 

 Not only have our families shown a trend to shift 

 their buying patterns, but they have more dis- 

 cretionary income — the amount of money left over 

 after necessities have been bought and over which 

 the family can exercise option on other purchases. 



Discretionary income accounts for about one- 

 third of our total personal income and will proba- 

 bly increase more in the future. About three-fifths 

 of our families have some discretionary income and 

 many family treasuries are bulging. Personal buying 



