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View Winners → Dorothy’s Place: Oh My
Arcadia Weekly Apr 01, 2016
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By Dorothy Denne
For the past few weeks I have talked with you now and then about sorting my piles and cleaning my files. I uncovered an old column I wrote about Andy Rooney ruminating on “60 Minutes” about his many piles, files, and boxes of collected materials.
Is it a common characteristic of writers and communicators? Or, is it just part of the process of aging? I do not know, but for me the process continues.
Last week I threw away what seemed to be a ton of magazines I accumulated in just the last two years. It was a good feeling and it cleared space for me to accumulate new things.
In them I uncovered some time lines I had cut out and kept as reference for future writings. Let me share some of the info with you. I think you will find it interesting, maybe enlightening, mostly just fun.
– 1924 – a few prices: first class stamp (2 cents), gallon of gasoline (21 cents), Steinway upright piano ($875).
Annual income: $1,425.
New things: Oscar Mayer packaged sliced bacon, Bit-O-Honey candy, spiral-bound notebooks, Kleenex facial tissues, Columbia Pictures Corporation, “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip.
– 1933 – prices: first class stamp (3 cents), Kellogg’s Bran Flakes (10 cents), chuck roast (10 cents per pound), Oleomargarine (10 cents per pound), eggs (15 cents a dozen), sliced bacon (19 cents per pound), Eight O’Clock coffee (19 cents per pound).
Annual income: $1,045.
New: “Smilin’ Jack” comic strip, Newsweek and Esquire magazines, Perry Mason Singing telegrams.
– 1935 – Ford V-8 coupe ($495), three-piece living room set ($88), gallon of gasoline (19 cents).
Annual income: $1,115.
New: beer in cans, Richter scale, Gallup Poll, wearable hearing aids.
– 1945 – prices: gallon of gasoline (21 cents), spark plugs (33 cents each), five-piece dinette set ($40), flour (45 cents for 10 pounds), Crisco (68 cents per three-pound can), eggs (55 cents a dozen).
New: frozen orange juice, Fleischmann’s active dry yeast, slinky toy.
– 1951 – prices: 17-inch RCA TV ($299), automatic toaster ($16.75), electric waffle iron ($13.99).
Annual income: $3,452.
New: “Dennis the Menace” cartoon, automobile power steering, videotape recorder, color TV broadcasting, direct telephone dialing.
– 1958 – prices: first class stamp (4 cents), gallon of gasoline (30 cents), gallon of milk (42 cents), half-gallon Kraft caramels (37 cents per pound box), Harvard University tuition ($1,250 a year).
New: Rice-A-Roni, Diet Rite soda, Pizza Hut chain, American Express charge card, Chevrolet Impala, LEGO blocks, Hula Hoop.
When 1958 started, I was in my senior year at University of Pittsburgh, doing my student teaching. I had to ride three streetcars to get from home to my assignment in Wilkinsburg by 8 a.m. every morning.
I was lucky enough to have a fellow student teacher who gave me a ride back to campus in time for our afternoon evaluation class. His car was old and temperamental but the radio worked just fine. So, to avoid thinking about the possibility of stalling out or getting creamed on the slippery streets, we sang along with that radio to tunes such as “All I Have To Do Is Dream” by the Everly Brothers, “The Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley, “It’s Only Make Believe” by Conway Twitty, “Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)” by Domeico Modugno, and “Catch a Falling Star” by Perry Como.
By the end of 1958, Elvis Presley had gone from king of rock and roll to Army private. I had gone from student teacher to full-fledged teacher in Michigan at one of the top paying school districts in the country. I earned $4,500 a year, just under the national average income of $4,707.
A good place to stop rambling and go buy some stamps at 49 cents each and gas, while I can still get it for $3 a gallon.
