Here are some of the prices I grew up with. Kind of hard to believe, isn’t it?
Pack of baseball cards, with gum: 5 cents ($5.00 now–and no gum)
Comic book: 10 cents. Special issue, 25 cents
Box of Good & Plenty candy: 5 cents
Bag of Licorice All-Sorts: 29 cents ($5.00 now)
Movie ticket: 25 cents (Don’t ask!)
Gallon of gasoline: 25 cents
And so on… An allowance of 50 cents would get a 10-year-old kid through the week.
Remember penny candy?
You bet!
The mania surrounding baseball cards totally mystifies me. I understand the interest, but not the extreme prices. I bought plenty of those 10 cent comic books, and the 25 cent specials, too.
It’s quite rare for me to eat candy these days, but on those rare occasions when I have, I found the prices astounding.
When I was a kid, movies were inexpensive and much better. I wouldn’t go to most new movies if you paid me. I can’t remember the last time I walked up to a box office and bought a movie ticket. I’m sure it’s on the order of 20 years.
When I bought my first car, I actually worked in a gas station/car wash, but it was a name brand station, and gas was over 30 cents a gallon. I bought gas for my V-8 four-speed Falcon, across the street for 24.9 cents per gallon. Imagine that, driving a 6 year old compact with a V-8 and a four speed transmission, in near mint condition, all on the wages earned by a 17 year old working part time at a car wash.
America was much more meaningfully prosperous in those days. My weekly gas budget was $5.00 and that covered visits to pretty much every corner of Denver. Man, I miss that.
Hello everyone. Our computer went out on us yesterday and we had company, so couldn’t do anything until today. My son had to drive to the city and buy replacement part, and get it up and running, so finally, I’m back. About the prices of the olden days, I remember when gas was 16cent a gallon, bread- large loaf 10 cents, small one 5 cents, and lots of other items
along those lines. I did most all of the grocery shopping starting at age 9 and the other prices were similar.
If one could take their 2024 take home income back to those days … 🙂
I remember those mini-loaves: my grammy used to buy them for us.
At one store we could get 3 candy bars for 10cents, and they were big bars not the reduced size of today’s being offered.
Working at McDonnell’s in 1968 I was paid $0.95 an hour and milkshakes were 25 cents. Gas was around 30 cents. 45 records were 49 cents and albums were $1.98. In 1977 I bought a nice three-bedroom ranch style home for $33,500 in Milwaukee, a new 1977 Volkswagen Rabbit for $4,590 and butter was 49 cents a pound. I got a job in a machine shop in 1973 making $3.67 an hour. By 1993 my pay was $15.58. I will not tell you what it was when I retired. In 1990 I bought a new Toyota Corolla for $10,038.