Cost of food and entertainment when you were young

Cafe Society
1

The thread about lowest priced candy got me thinking about the cost of things when I was young.

First a couple of things that stick out from stories my parents told me. The were born in the 1927.

Milk Nickels were really a nickel and Popsicles were a couple of cents. According to my Dad, who grew up poor, a Milk Nickel was worth the price because there was a chance of getting a stick that allowed you get a free one.

Cracked seed (Chinese preserved fruits) was a nickel for a small paper bag, about a pound. My Mom would tell stories of the joy of licking the inside of the bag once all the seed was gone.

And the one that really astonishes me is the stories of how when my Dad was dating my Mom in the late 40’s, they’d go to the movies and my Dad would buy a whole dried abalone (asking for the largest one of course) for 25 cents! Then he’d use his pocketknife and shave off bits of it during the movie.

On to my memories.

The one that I always cherish is buying an entire meal in the early 70’s for $1.04, including tax. 69 cents for a Big Mac, 19 cents for a soda and 14 cents (no tax) for a waffle ice cream sandwich from Woolworths.

Godzilla movies were 25 cents at Toho theatre (don’t remember if it was a double feature or not) and there was no concession stand. Only vending machines. Popcorn, cup drinks and candies (regular size) were all 10 cents. Bus tickets were 10 cents each way, so a dollar was at least a half day’s fun.

I think other movie theatres were 50 or 75 cents for matinees, but for that you’d get two movies and shorts or cartoons before and in between the movies. There were ushers back then who would clear and clean the theatre between showings, so there was no hiding in the theater for the next run.

My favorite burgers were from Kennys. Teriyaki hamburgers were originally 30 cents in the late 60’s , early 70’s so I could get my fill for a dollar. They started going up in price and by the time they hit 50 cents I stopped buying them.

Forgot about the 5 cent strawberry ice cakes in a little Dixie cup I’d get from a ramen restaurant. You had to walk in the back door to the kitchen and get it yourself from the fridge right inside the door. In grade school, they had orange and chocolate ice cakes for the same price during recess. You always had to turn them upside down, especially the chocolate ones because that’s were the juice/chocolate was concentrated.

2

1950,
i was 11’

Movie ticket - 14c. When I looked 12, it was 20.
Candy bare 5c. Mounds 10c. In summer they had worms in them.
Bottle of pop, 5c, they were 7-9 oz
Cigarettes 23c.
Gas 25c a gallon
Baseball cards 1c each, or 5c for 6 pack.
Magazines and paperback boos 25c

Dad had to pay $16 a year for (Wis) car plates. Our rent was $60 a month for a pleasant 2-story house on a tree-lined street.

In Louisiana “silver dimes” were rejected as change into the 60s… Nickel was king, for coke machines, newspaper, phone call, bus fare.

At LSU, tuition was $35 a semester. Summer job in a canning factory paid $1.04 an hour, often worked two shifts a day.

3

Forgot soda.

7-Up in a 8oz? bottle was 7 cents
Coke in the smaller bottle was 8 or 9 cents
Pepsi in the 12oz? bottle was 12 cents.

I think Milk Nickels were still 5 cents, though no get one free stick.
Popsicles were 7 cents
Creamsicles and Fudgesicles were 10 or 12 cents.

Figuring out the best mix for a dollar was good math practice!

I never saw or looked for them in the supermarket so I don’t know if they were even sold them there. I always got them from the freezer at the neighborhood store, where they were in plain brown boxes.

Another dilemma was whether to buy two bags of candy and cracked seed for 10 cents each or go for the bigger bag at 25 cents which was the limit for that snack. Minutes were spent counting each piece in the bag, hoping that even though they were packaged by weight, you somehow hoped an extra piece fell through.

4

Movies at the on base theaters in Japan circa the late 60s cost 25 cents, that was such a deal. Back in the States, I remember Taco Hell selling most menu items (all five of them!) at 19 cents each–I got to go off campus from middle school at lunch because I was a student aide at an elementary school and for my 50 cents lunch money I could get two bean burritos and a candy bar for a dime at the grocery store. Baskin-Robbins ice cream was 18 cents a scoop–I’d get those with the change from being sent to the store by my mom. Ice cream at Thrifty drug stores was even cheaper, like a dime a scoop and they had these weird punch out style scoops that made a scoop shaped like a slice off a cylinder. Tasted good though. I earned $3.15 an hour at my first job when I was sixteen. That was over forty years ago and minimum wage is barely twice that–but Taco Hell burritos aren’t nineteen cents any more!

5

I used to buy lunch when I was working in the summer in the early 70s. A burger at the local luncheonette with fries and a drink was under a dollar.

Comics were a dime when I was a kid. I remember when they were raised to 12 cents.

6

When I was in high school, the movie theater I frequented raised their price from $3 to $4, and I thought that was absolutely outrageous!

7

I don’t go back as far as some of you. The one “cost of food and entertainment when you were young” that really sticks in my mind is how, when we would visit my Grandpa, he’d give us a quarter to get an ice cream cone at Baskin-Robbins—and we could. (This would have been in the seventies.)

8

When I was 8, 9 and 10 years old, building plastic models of cars and planes was popular. Cheap ones were 30 cents, while deluxe ones were 75 cents to a dollar. Paint was a dime for a small bottle, glue (the kind you got high from) was a dime.

9

That reminds me of “$2 Tuesdays” at the movie theatres in town.

10

I can remember going to see movies for a dollar when I was in high school (this would have been around 1976). It was at a discount theater that ran movies after they left other theaters.

Comic books cost twenty-five cents when I was a kid. You might occasionally see a paperback book for ninety-five cents but the general price was $1.49 or $1.95.

11

Some things I miss from when I was young in the 80s and 90s.

Hamburger deals at fast food restaurants. 25 cent hamburgers and 35 cent cheeseburgers. 3 hamburgers for $1. Those were common sales back then at McDonalds, Hardees and possibly other places. You could get a giant bag of hamburgers and cheeseburgers for $7 or so and it would take days for them all to be eaten.

Legitimate dollar cinemas. they played movies that has already run at the mainstream cinema but you could still see a movie for $1.

Also being in excellent health, my parents being in good health, my grandparents being alive, not being as jaded or realizing how messed up the world can be, etc. I miss that stuff about being young too. but mostly I miss the 25 cent hamburgers.

12

Grew up in Pakistan. An 8oz coke bottle was the equivalent of $0.12 c.1977. Which I think is about the same price as it would be in the US at the time. Locally produced candies were the equivalent of under a US penny each.

When I came over to the States in the late 80s a family of six including four hungry teenagers could get a filling meal at KFC for $15 max. Taco Bell used to run promotions for tacos at $0.39 each or sometimes 6 for $2.49. First run movie tickets were $3 or $4. There were discount theaters at $1. You could get specials at a MLB stadium at 4 tickets for $10. The outrageous price of soft drinks or popcorn at the ballpark was $2.

MTA fares in NYC were $1. A Circle Line cruise was $4. A 24 oz loaf of store brand white bread at key foods was $0.49 and often on sale at 3/$1.