The Cost of Things: Bewildering Changes Over a Lifetime

It's so hard to get used to the constant changes in the prices of things. I remember as a kid how my Uncle Paul Rosenfelder used to give his nieces and nephews a dime. Instead of being grateful, we sometimes thought that a quarter would be better! But back then, in the 1950's, you could buy things with a dime. Today, many people wouldn't bend over to pick up a shiny dime on the ground, thinking it's hardly worth the effort.

I'm going to list my memory (my fallible memory!) of how much things cost in my growing-up years (1950's and 1960's). Sometimes the prices seem unbelievable looked at from the perspective of 2008.

--candy bars: most were a nickel; some were a dime.
--pretzel sticks: penny a piece.
--piece of Double-Bubble gum: one cent.
--pack of baseball cards: nickel [I might be wrong about this--I bought these so rarely].
--glass of Coke at Woolworth's: nickel or a dime.
--pack of cigarettes: about a quarter [will continue].
--regular gasoline: 33.9 cents per gallon (and when I worked at Healey's Sohio in 1964-66, we'd wash your windows, check your oil and water, wipe off your headlights and taillights, and do anything else you wanted, especially if you were a pretty girl).
--a brand-new 2 floor bungalow in Euclid, Ohio: $11,900 in 1951 (that's what Mom and Dad paid for our Euclid house).
--a year's tuition (the "book bill") at St. William's School in Euclid: $8 per year; the second child was $4. After that, all other kids were free.
--a year's tuition at St. Joe's High School in Cleveland in 1962: $180.
--a year's room, board, books, and tuition at the University of Notre Dame in 1966-67: $2500.
--a working used car: before the car went to the junkyard, you could buy it for maybe $75 (I went with my Dad when he purchased the family car for that amount).
--a good hardwood Louisville Slugger bat: $3.50.
--a working TV: in the early days of television, the sets were not all that cheap. But Dad picked up our family TV in the early 1960's on junk day for free. He collected it off someone's tree lawn, took it home, replaced the plug, and voila!
--a cheap six-pack of beer, the kind Uncle Bill bought: 89 cents.
--the Cribari wine Dad bought: about $1.25/bottle.
--hamburger at Holzheimer's Grocery: 3 pounds for a dollar.
--cheap loaf of white bread at the Upson Delicatessen: 12-15 cents per loaf.
--a gallon of milk at Lawson's: 60 cents.
--an ice cream cone at Franklin's, 7 cents per dip (39 cents would get you a banana split, with 3 different kinds of ice cream, 3 different syrups, banana, whipped cream, nuts, and a maraschino cherry).