They were way cheaper back then.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1950s-Dime-Store...#ht_4465wt_1002

I have to wonder what we played with that will be looked at with such ... surprise? shock? agog-ness? in 20 years...

in the early 50's, milk was 17 cents a quart, a can of soup was 10 cents, a bag of potato chips was 10 cents and a serving of french fries was also 10 cents.
in the 60's, a "today's special" (complete meal) in a restaurant was $1.00 and a 200 mile round trip by bus from the city where i lived to Montreal was $4.00
Gas prices hovered around 30 cents per gallon...
and greyhound busses would do 80-85 MPH on the highway.

Slap bracelets for one.

Bren R.

In the 60's I could drink and drive. When pulled over by a cop with beer in hand, the cop would tell me to be careful with that, and let me go.

That didn't become illegal in TX until the late 80'S! That's also when they closed all the drive-thru bars.

And everybody knew you could hide from a nuclear nucular bomb by ducking under your desk. Ah, the good old days...

i bet those are the ones who survived in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

a great example of governments manipulating the people's minds.

Did Canadians have "duck and cover" drills?

It had a catchy little tune that went with the instructional 8 mm film....Duck!...and cover, Duck!... and cover. Where's Jack when I need him?

I used to buy chocolate cigarettes all the time when I was a kid. I think there was another kind of candy cigarette too.

Isn't a Tootsie roll a kids version of chewing tobacco?

Given that a person's weekly wage was maybe $50 - $100, then these prices seem about right.

Multiply everything by about ten - prices and wages - to approximate inflation and you're right back where you started.

You weren't even there, so just stay out of this, OK, Mr. Facts?

Edit: Kidding aside, my Dad made $62 a week in 1955. He owned a house, a car, supported a non-working wife, two kids, a dog, a cat and too many hangers-on-ne'er-do-well relations who lived with us (3).

I'm pretty sure that $620 per week wouldn't permit any of that now.

That's cuz you're busy buying doggie collars and vertical blind chains. People didn't waste money on stuff like that back in the day.

Yeah, I think all my dad spent his money on was stuff like Old Crow.

Yes they did.

They were gone by the time I was in school... but we did have the national anthem in both official languages.

Although the French lyrics bear little resemblance to the English.

Bren R.

Oh those French! They have a different word for everything!--Steve Martin

once i heard someone say, in french: the word "aimer" is so much more expressive than "love"...

I LOVED those wintergreen flavored candy cigarettes. I'd STILL eat a box if I could find them. But, my favorite to "smoke" was the cigarette gum. There was extra powder on the gum, so when you blew through one end, "smoke" would come out the other.

Me too Foxy, me too. I thought I was bad ass blowing smoke out of those things.

You missed out. The woman doing the duck and cover demo was hot. Well, '50s hot.

Edit: That's 1950s hot Bob...

Did you really mean for that NOT to have a comma, 1950's hot Fred?

I asked myself: "What would Yosemite Sam do?"