Mike has a great thread on "gas prices" and in some of the responses people have mentioned gas prices from years ago. It is amusing to me to remember pricing for other items of years ago (Of course, a working man with a family making $100 a week, was "doing well.") so I am suggesting that we remember pricing from earlier times. I will start with a few that I remember:
Gas prices: Regular was 26 cents, hi-test was 32 cents and super hi-test (like golden Esso extra) was 38 cents when I started driving in 1958.
Cigarettes: The earliest I remember was in the late 1940's when we were in Arkansas (my father had a cheese company there although we lived in Pittsburgh) was 12 cents in a machine. You would put 15 cents in the machine and there were three pennies on the side of the pack inside the cellophane. We used to buy them for the guys in jail who would throw us 15 cents through the bars, we would go to the general store which had a cigarette machine on the sidewalk, buy the cigarettes, get the 3 cents for our trouble and toss the cigarettes through the bars to the inmates. This was in Jasper, Arkansas.
Food: I don't remember a lot of individual pricing but I do remember when we went to the A&P with our Mom and we checked out, sometimes with two baskets, the total would be something in the high $20 like $28.75. When the cashier said the total, people would turn and look. My Mom used to say she felt like the "old woman who lived in a shoe." Some prices I do recall were fish at 19 to 25 cents a pound, ground meat was 59 cents a pound, a good steak was 79 cents a pound, bread was 19 cents (my Father's family had a bakery and he used to deliver bread for 2 cents a loaf in the 1920's!), butter was 29 cents, margarine was 19 cents.
Cars: My first car was a 1958 Impala convertible, 3 two's on a 348 block, 3 on the tree and listed for $3875. I think we paid something like $2800 for it, cash, no trade.
Houses: Our home, built in 1939 was a 3 bedroom, one bath, all brick with covered porch, full basement, living room, dining room, kitchen and breakfast nook in a nice suburb of Pittsburgh and cost $8900. I recall going to my father's house years later and he was sitting on the side porch (which had been added when the covered porch was converted to a TV room) and he was staring at his new car, a 1980 something Buick and he said to me, "(do) You know, that car cost more than this house."
Restaurants: When I first took a date to a restaurant and the check was $15 for the two of us, I felt like "a big spender from the East" as they used to say in the cowboy movies.
Movies: Saturday, two features, two shorts and 17 cartoons for 20 cents then an ice cream cone for 5 cents after the show.
Minimum wage: The first one I remember was $1 per hour and the first one I ever worked under was $1.50 per hour at a garden center when I was in High School in 1958.
All of these prices are from the 1940's to the 1960's. I always had a job from delivering papers (1.25 cents for a daily and 2.5 cents for a Sunday) in 5th grade to caddying at Churchill Valley Country Club, to working at a garden center, beer distributors (underage), florists, construction, etc. I remember that it was good to have money in your pocket and not be dependent or beholding to anyone for it. My best pre-professional jobs were caddying (2 dollars per bag for 18 holes plus tip! I could sometimes get out twice a day and make as much as $14! This compared well to slugging along with newspapers for a week and making maybe $7.) and construction (my first union job in the early 1960's during Summer between college terms when I made $3.56 per hour, double over time and triple time on Sundays. I was working on the construction of Northway Mall which was scheduled to open something like September 1, 1962 but was way behind in progress. We could literally work as much as we wanted to and the overtime pay was super. I was young and strong and would work as much as 12 hour days Monday through Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday so my gross pay sometimes exceeded $450 per week. I seriously considered staying out of school for a quarter to continue working but my father would not permit it.)
What else do some of you "old codgers" remember?
Gas prices: Regular was 26 cents, hi-test was 32 cents and super hi-test (like golden Esso extra) was 38 cents when I started driving in 1958.
Cigarettes: The earliest I remember was in the late 1940's when we were in Arkansas (my father had a cheese company there although we lived in Pittsburgh) was 12 cents in a machine. You would put 15 cents in the machine and there were three pennies on the side of the pack inside the cellophane. We used to buy them for the guys in jail who would throw us 15 cents through the bars, we would go to the general store which had a cigarette machine on the sidewalk, buy the cigarettes, get the 3 cents for our trouble and toss the cigarettes through the bars to the inmates. This was in Jasper, Arkansas.
Food: I don't remember a lot of individual pricing but I do remember when we went to the A&P with our Mom and we checked out, sometimes with two baskets, the total would be something in the high $20 like $28.75. When the cashier said the total, people would turn and look. My Mom used to say she felt like the "old woman who lived in a shoe." Some prices I do recall were fish at 19 to 25 cents a pound, ground meat was 59 cents a pound, a good steak was 79 cents a pound, bread was 19 cents (my Father's family had a bakery and he used to deliver bread for 2 cents a loaf in the 1920's!), butter was 29 cents, margarine was 19 cents.
Cars: My first car was a 1958 Impala convertible, 3 two's on a 348 block, 3 on the tree and listed for $3875. I think we paid something like $2800 for it, cash, no trade.
Houses: Our home, built in 1939 was a 3 bedroom, one bath, all brick with covered porch, full basement, living room, dining room, kitchen and breakfast nook in a nice suburb of Pittsburgh and cost $8900. I recall going to my father's house years later and he was sitting on the side porch (which had been added when the covered porch was converted to a TV room) and he was staring at his new car, a 1980 something Buick and he said to me, "(do) You know, that car cost more than this house."
Restaurants: When I first took a date to a restaurant and the check was $15 for the two of us, I felt like "a big spender from the East" as they used to say in the cowboy movies.
Movies: Saturday, two features, two shorts and 17 cartoons for 20 cents then an ice cream cone for 5 cents after the show.
Minimum wage: The first one I remember was $1 per hour and the first one I ever worked under was $1.50 per hour at a garden center when I was in High School in 1958.
All of these prices are from the 1940's to the 1960's. I always had a job from delivering papers (1.25 cents for a daily and 2.5 cents for a Sunday) in 5th grade to caddying at Churchill Valley Country Club, to working at a garden center, beer distributors (underage), florists, construction, etc. I remember that it was good to have money in your pocket and not be dependent or beholding to anyone for it. My best pre-professional jobs were caddying (2 dollars per bag for 18 holes plus tip! I could sometimes get out twice a day and make as much as $14! This compared well to slugging along with newspapers for a week and making maybe $7.) and construction (my first union job in the early 1960's during Summer between college terms when I made $3.56 per hour, double over time and triple time on Sundays. I was working on the construction of Northway Mall which was scheduled to open something like September 1, 1962 but was way behind in progress. We could literally work as much as we wanted to and the overtime pay was super. I was young and strong and would work as much as 12 hour days Monday through Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday so my gross pay sometimes exceeded $450 per week. I seriously considered staying out of school for a quarter to continue working but my father would not permit it.)
What else do some of you "old codgers" remember?
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