I received a copy of a local newspaper yesterday. It is a free weekly paper that covers many stories about this side of my town. It has been around in some form for decades.
There is a column each week called Reminiscing. It takes a look back at events from each decade for that particular week. It goes back 60 years.
50 years ago this week (I was a senior in high school) - there was a recollection of grocery prices listed at a local mom and pop store. OH MY!!!!
Can of Shasta soda - 5 cents
Dozen eggs - 19 cents
Whole chickens - 29 cents a pound
Gallon of milk - 69 cents
Pound of ground beef - 79 cents
20 pounds of potatoes - 89 cents
2 lbs. Maxwell coffee - 1.48
Good golly! Hard to believe.
Mom had a grocery budget of $15 a week - for things that we did grow and preserve. She kept that budget for quite a long while - then she finally broke down and raised it $25. She just thought that was horrible. Daddy passed in '84, and she finally had to start buying more things, as she didn't have that big old garden she had before. She sure hated handing that money over to the stores!
This was my life in the 60's for sure. I am very thankful there was no technology then. We had such fun using our own imaginations. Going for walks, riding bikes, playing in the creek. Those of us that lived this kind of life, had REAL childhoods in my opinion.
I could spend $2 or $3 on gas for my '64 Galaxy and drive all week.
I changed part time jobs - from working for my parents' shop to working for Topp's discount department store. I went up to making $2.10/hour and thought I was rolling in the dough!!!!
We hung out at someone's house on the weekends or went on cheap dates. There were no computers or laptops to distract us. No mobile phones. Just your friends. We had the time of our lives.
After I graduated in '73 I got my own apartment. I just thought I had to do that to be all grown up!!! (I moved back home after 6 months!!) All the friends from work would gather at my apartment after work, and I would fix Jiffy blueberry muffins and we would sit around talking and watching Star Trek!!!!!!
Times were so much simpler.
Front porch summer lunches with friends. Playing hopscotch and jacks.
The closest we got to technology was calling the radio station in the late 60's and early 70's and requesting a certain song!
It is fun to sit and think back. Life was pretty darn good.
I sure miss those times and all the people.
(Just brother (back R) and I is all that is left from this picture) 💓💔
Have a great weekend everyone.
What wonderful memories, Cheryl, and you were so darned cute! My big sister's 1st job was at a local grocery store when she was in high school. I remember plenty of whole chicken or ground beef (usually meatloaf) dinners. Or stuffed peppers, which I didn't like. My mom used to complain about the prices back then. LOL!
ReplyDeleteIn some ways they were simpler times, but in others? Not so much. There were assassinations. My older brother was in Vietnam at the end of the 60s. I remember evening news filled with footage of protests. When big sis was in college, it was the Women's Movement and burning bras. Divorce, once a shameful thing, became the norm as 1/2 of all marriages ended. By the time I was in high school, most of my friends were in single parent homes. We remember the best, I think, and block out the rest. Not a bad habit. It was what it was and there was still GOOD.
Speaking of GOOD, Safeway has some very good deals this week for anyone interested: London Broil is again $2.77 per pound, bone in pork chops are 97 cents per pound, 5 lb. bags of russet potatoes are 4/$5, Bar S franks are $1 each, a gallon of milk is $2.97, and Lucerne butter is $2.77 lb. w/coupon. Big difference from 50 years ago, but today those are deals!
Again, love the memories. I got my 1st job at 15, working at an A&W for $2.50 per hour plus tips, and felt rich! :-)
--Elise
Sheesh! Sorry. I forgot to sign in again.
DeleteYou are right - there was a lot of crap going on back in the day - but as a child and early teen - this is the stuff I remember. The good things and the fun family stuff and my friends.
DeleteI don't think I knew anyone whose parents were divorced until I made it to high school.
My first job (working for mom and dad) started at 15 and I got 1.25 an hour!
Those are some great grocery deals. Hope you took advantage. Deals - yesteryear and today - all perspective. Salaries were way different too!
Oh my gosh...that photo is so adorable! Love that house there and I would sure like to have a screen door like that! Thanks for sharing that great shot! That should be in a Reminisce magazine! It looks like a maternity set too, so nice and pretty, not those stretchy show-all kind they wear now.
ReplyDeleteI know what ya mean on the prices...Oh my. My hubs family had a grocery store that hubs grew up in, they lived on the top of the store for a long time. Hubs hated checking out people, it was a pain. Hahaha. When we were married in '80 I spent around 30 dollars a week for the two of us.
It's so true about technology, yesterday we had dinner at a little restaurant buffet and every time I would go up to the buffet I would see a couple, both were on phones the entire time, not talking at all. People are zombies now.
A few months ago my daughter told me that in her neighborhood a sweet lady on their neighborhood loop politely asked people to keep their kids from ringing her doorbell after 9pm and running away. You would not believe how many parents jumped all over the poor lady saying she should let the kids have fun! : O My daughter who is 32 couldn't believe it and asked me if that was normal in which I responded "No!" I remember when they had the reminder at 10pm on tv saying "It's Ten o'clock where are your children?" I would always wonder who these hoodlums were who let their kids out by themselves to play at 10 o'clock? I would always picture masked robbers who were parents not watching their poor kids! lol
Love your little flashback, and yes...I loved seeing how far we could swing up and the legs coming off the ground! Sometimes we would attach a sprinkler to the top of the slide and slide down into a little baby pool. Sometimes we would play werewolf! Great fun! I was an only child so it was such a treat when the grandma across the street had her grandchildren come visit!
Bless you Cheryl! Have a great day! : )
I love that magazine! Yes, that was my oldest brother's wife, and she was pregnant with my niece. Women just looked so nice in the pretty pregnancy outfits. I absolutely hate all the tight fitting and tummy showing things that they wear today. People just seemed to dress classier back then.
DeleteYes, people are like zombies with those stupid phones. Seems no one young knows how to live in the real world and just interact with others.
WHY are kids out so late? That never happened with us. I remember the curfew commercial as well! I see reports of kids getting shot a 2AM or 3AM and I thinking - where the heck were their parents, and why were they out roaming around to start with? UGH
I was alone at home after age 10 and it was kind of like being an only child - but there were lots of neighborhood kids.
Thanks
Good grief, I couldn't even buy a pint of milk for the equivalent price! I have had to put up my weekly food budget, it's now £25 a week. I could spend less, but my elderly dog can only eat chicken and I am not depriving her in her twilight years. Frankly, I would go short to make sure she eats, thankfully we haven't got there yet, but we live in scary times.
ReplyDeleteI think everything has gone up in price no matter where you live. Some areas are not as bad as others - but still inflated.
DeleteI totally understand about your doggie! My Coogy (cat) was losing weight and just getting sick a lot - so I incorporated fresh cooked chicken breast and he loves ham as well - and he is doing so much better. He needed the real protein! I agree, I would do with a lot less to take care of my babies!
Wow! I sure don't remember those prices. Mom drove to 3 different stores every week after checking all the ads. I do remember candy bars being 5 or 10 cents. When they went to 25 cents I thought that was outrageous! LOL I remember buying a pound of chocolate footballs at the Hershey factory store when we were on vacation for 99 cents. Boy was that good and fresh! The whole town smelled like chocolate.
ReplyDeleteOh, and a memory from that trip--we toured the production floor! Our tour group walked right by candy being wrapped and sorted. I was fascinated by the workers sitting by conveyer belts and pulling out any Hershey kisses not properly wrapped. I wonder if machines do that now. Candy was out in the open as it was a production floor. I could've reached out and touched a candy bar on a tray. No hair nets on us either. But you know everyone including kids were well behaved! They stopped those tours I think in the 80s. My father-in-law went in the early 90s and they showed a film and he visited the store.
~margaret
I hear that. Cany bars and soda pops went from .10 to higher prices - and it was horrible!
DeleteI had to chuckle when you were talking about the Hershey plant. Just reminded me of that Lucille Ball show when she worked in the chocolate factory!!
Things sure have changed. Hairnets, gloves, automation, sterile environments - probably for the best.
People and times were sure different.
Fun memories! We do have a tendency to filter out the negative and hang on to the positive.
ReplyDeleteI do know my grandson has a lot of technology at his fingertips, but that kid loves to play outdoors too, help his mom in the kitchen, and play with his friends. I expect those will be his memories in 50 years too.
We do and that is just probably human nature. I think we all like being happy vs sad.
DeleteGood for him. Glad he gets out and plays and is learning from mommy! I hope he has a lot of the playtime to remember.
There were always bad things happening in every generation, but I think most people followed the golden rule back then. Nowadays, it just seems like common sense and courtesy left the building with Elvis!! Especially parents. Sadly, they're making life much harder for their kids! Not only do the kids get harder to deal with, but theyre allowed to forfeit their childhood to screens. The health benefits of all that activity we got from all that playing! Both our bodies and minds gained. It's easy to sleep 10 hrs. if you've used up a ton of energy. Even walking to school burns energy so it's easier to sit and learn. We made everything a game, everywhere! We'd see if we could skip all the way to school lol.
ReplyDeleteI loved jumping rope, hopscotch, and swinging on our tree branches. Oh, and handball on the garage door! Those plain old wooden 5 ton doors were the best! How sad to have missed all that watching TV back then and with phones now.
I agree totally. Parents have done kids a lick of good lately, by the way they raise them today.
DeleteWe sure did get the exercise. If it was playing or walking to school. it was helping out at home. I helped in the garden and yard (when I got older). I helped mom in the house.
We were never bored, had fun and for the most part we stayed out of trouble. We knew how to be respectful little citizens.
And if we didn't remember, we were often painfully reminded 😂!
DeleteI often think about how much our children missed and how much my grandchildren will miss. We just had a much less stressful way of growing up. That is why it is so important to me that we take the kids camping and do things with them.
ReplyDeleteYes, kids need to be involved in simple, fun and wonderful events. Camping, fishing, picnicking - all fun and doesn't cost much. Kids learn so much by doing and watching.
DeleteI love the family picture! Things are vastly different today from even ten years ago. And I'm not talking just about grocery prices. Too many times there is a screaming child in the store. It is a joy to see well-behaved and polite children. Makes you wonder what kind of adults they will be.
ReplyDeleteThe Urban Farmer and I went to the White Castle in Avon that has been totally renovated and we were talking about how the price of those tiny square burgers has gone up. We both remembered when they were 9 or 10 cents apiece. Same with the small green bottles of Coke, icy from the cooler.
Thanks. Yes, so many things have changed, and not all for the good. I shake my head every single day about something.
DeleteI remember in high school, getting off the bus at the hardware store and going in and getting a bottle of Coke from the cooler and a Caravelle candy bar for a total of .25!
Thank you for sharing these things Cheryl. It's been a joy to remember. I grew up in the late 60s and 70s, and did many of these things.
ReplyDeleteBlessings from Harvest Lane Cottage, Laura
You are welcome. The good old days were a time of joy for me and so many others. Some days we just need a little journey back in time.
DeleteThe late sixties and early seventies were like a horror show to me with Vietnam, assassinations, the nurses murdered in Chicago. It just went on. I remember chicken being cheaper than that, candy and Coke being a nickel. We had no swing set, a tree swing. No street lights. But, life was dearer then.
ReplyDeleteSadly, all those things still happen today - and it has become normal every day life. Yes, bad things happened - but I do believe that stuff is much worse today.
DeleteLife was good as a youngster for me and many others. We didn't have street lights as a kid - but everyone knew to be home well before dark. Dinner was at 5PM!
I was young, newly married and had a baby born in 1968, so it was more horrific as I worried for my child.
DeleteUnderstand. I worry about all the babies today - what will it be like if they get to my age?
DeleteWhat a great nostalgic post! I remember grocery stores looking like that, too!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Br5ings back a few memories!
DeleteHope you are doing well!
What's different is not the awful things in the world. Those things have always been there. But there's no community and sadly often times no family to buffer those awful things any more.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the trip down memory lane and I say that a one who grew up in a family that experienced some really, really rough times..
~margaret
Yes, people have changed. Family has changed. Neighborhood has changed. Sadly.
DeleteIt is amazing the things we have all survived. Hugs!
I can't say I remember much of grocery store as a child. We did not go there. We had a huge garden and fruit trees, peach, pear and plum. Mom canned veggies, pickles, jams, jellies and tomato products. Many vegetables processed for the freezer. The meat came from ranchers, beef, chicken and pork, all the cuts. We had home delivery of dairy and eggs. The big exciting trip was going to the bread store to get products for the freezer. The only bread I remember Mom doing at home was cornbread or biscuits. She must have went to the store for some things but it must have been while we were in school.
ReplyDeleteI know in high school in the 70's a friend got a job as a checker where her Mom worked. This was back in the days when the register was like a calculator. They had to be fast and accurate. She made more money than any of us other teenagers! Most kids would faint if they saw how everything worked back then. They don't know how in the world we survived!
Sounds like a pretty neat life to me. Your family was very self sufficient.
DeleteThose cash register - were sure something. I remember working one in the mid 70's - they were a little more sophisticated than the ones shown above, and they were confusing at first! I had used an older manual model at mom & dads shop.
You are so right - kids wouldn't have a clue how to survive today. They must think we lived in cave man times! LOL
They don't even know where food comes from except the store.
I was watching some interviews of young people last week and they were asked what country the Queen of England represented - NONE gave the right answer!!!
I love this walk down memory lane. I grew up in the best neighborhood in the 60's. There were a whole pack of us that walked to school together and there was always someone to play with! We were outside all day in the summertime either in the yard or at a friend's house. We used to ride our bikes to Zip's store and buy candy bars for 5 cents and huge pickles from a barrel. Great memories!
ReplyDeleteLove this! Those memories sure do bring us joy. Times were more laid back (for the kids) - parents worked pretty darn hard, but us kids sure did have a great time. I walked to grade school as well. We had one of those little stores where we would buy penny candy. Such decisions!!!! LOL
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