We all know how things change and how inflation drives up all of our costs of living. Just to not the cost of a few things when I was around ten years old.
Postcards were still a penny and first class postage was four cents. Bazooka Joe bubble gum was two for a penny. Candy bars and ice cream novelties were a nickle and sodas (pop) were a dime. As I recall lunch at school was a quarter a day. Gasoline was somewhere around a quarter a gallon and a lot of times people would drive up and ask for just "a dollar's worth" and it actually meant something. And, all gas stations were full service. Someone else pumped your gas, checked your oil and washed your windshield no matter how much or how little gasoline you purchased.
Fast food did not exist for us except for TV commercials and the one Dairy Queen in Paintsville that closed for four months in the winter. They had the very best hot dog sauce EVER. Even today I have never been there when it was not crowded. I recall the first time I ever went to a McDonald's I was on my way to Florida. I had seen so many McDonald's commercials I decided to try it out. Talk about culture shock! I went in and ordered my usual, a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and mayo. They politely told me the had none of that. I asked them what they did have and they told me pickles, onions and mustard. I just turned and walked away. Today I've changed my toppings to include onions and pickles but I still have to have my lettuce and tomatoes (and if I'm feeling reckless, mayo).
Hamburgers were thirty-five cents at a 'sit down' restaurant. Coffee was a nickle and a fountain soft drink was a dime. They had the very best hamburgers though. No quarter-pounders but those small meat patties tasted the best. Sonic is the closes one can come these days to the flavor of those old burgers.
My sister worked at one of those old places and once got a dime tip on a nickle cup of coffee and was on cloud nine. Such simple times and simple things. We have gained a lot in the intervening years but we have lost a lot as well. Our innocence, civility and appreciation for small things seem to have disappeared. It has been crushed by the isolation we now feel from our neighbors, technology which allows us to do almost everything on our own and communicate without ever having a face to face conversation, the civility and respect we treated all people with until they proved they did not merit it.
You know I could go anywhere at night and be out playing and my parents never had to worry about where I was. Now you can't even leave your kids unattended during the daylight hours. I have fond memories of playing "whistle or holler(hollow)" during the warm, evening hours with lightening bugs lighting up like embers in the night all around.
Back then pop bottles had a two-cent deposit on them if you did not bring them back. Most people just tossed them out the window (yes littering was rampant then) rather than going to the trouble. Keith, the boy my mother babysat, and I would roam the roads and railroad tracks looking for pop bottles. Since pop was ten cents it only took ten bottles to get each of us a pop(soda). Most every day we could find that many bottles in an hour or so.
I even remember when Kentucky did not have a sales tax. Sales tax and inflation ruined my personal economy. Candy and ice cream went to six cents and pop to twelve and if you spent sixteen cents or over sales tax kicked in. It was horrible.
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