A friend of mine (well, someone who was a friend then, it's been years) got a teaching job right out of college and earned about $42,000. That was on the high end of what my peers were earning at that time, and also at the high end of starting teacher salaries at that time, but it wasn't totally off the scale. The top of it, but not off it. It was "good money," not "ZOMG YOU'RE RICH." That was 1993, so in today's money that would be $67,000.
I think diminished expectations combined with a bit of nominal illusion have led people to think that $67,000 is crazy money for a starting teacher salary. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but nobody thought it was crazy money back then, just good money.
