Prices

I heard on the radio a teaser about the three products whose prices are most marked up. I guessed one and a half of them.

The answers were movie popcorn (which I guessed); greeting cards (which I missed) and bottled water (which I almost got because I said iced tea in a restaurant).

I haven't been to the movies in a long time, but I remember if you buy a popcorn and a soda (and not even the big sizes), it's upwards of $10.

I know I've told this story before, but I have a strong memory of my father giving my sister and me a dollar to go to the movies. It was 35 cents to get in so that left us with 30 cents. We would each buy a candy bar or something for ten cents each, which left us 10 remaining cents. We would then negotiate one last thing to share. That is circa 1964.

Those prices seem incredible -- just like my mother's oft-told story of being sent to the store with a quarter to buy a quart of milk, a loaf of bread and something else.

These are the prices I haven't adapted to: cigarettes (of course I don't smoke, but I can't imagine paying $7 or $8 and more for one pack); bras (still think a bra should be around $5... ok, maybe $10); greeting cards (which I've stopped buying and use note cards instead -- last time I bought a birthday card or graduation card or something I picked a normal, average card and didn't even look at the price and it was $4.50.... what??); soda (still remember when a small was 5 cents, a large was 10 -- later raised to 15 cents for a small and 25 cents for a large).

What got me thinking about prices was the radio bit I mentioned, and then today I was editing an essay and the person wrote about 36 cents a gallon gas. Well, I remember 29 cents a gallon gas. I also remember in high school when someone had a car and we had to chip in for gas (to cruise around to nowhere), we knew certain gas stations that would "open the pump" for one dollar. We avoided the ones with higher minimums. Imagine pooling our change to buy a dollar's worth of gas. Those were the days before self-serve.

Candy bars were 5 cents. I dont buy one often, and I don't know how much I think one should be, but I'd say about 25 cents, but I'm amazed when it's 65 or 75 cents for a formerly nickel bar.

When I was working in 1972 in a trade association in DC, I made $6500 a year and had a paycheck of $96 a week. Paid on Fridays. So on Fridays, my big treat was to go to this lunch counter in a drug store and order the hot meat loaf sandwich which was about 1/4 inch thick slab of meatloaf on a piece of plain white bread, with gravy, and an ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes. That was their $1 lunch special. Then I'd buy a bouquet of flowers, also for a dollar. Remember the outdoor florist signs that said, "Your choice. $1" Now you couldn't get one stem or one bloom for a dollar.

I think when I first moved to NY, the subway was 35 cents. You could get a slice of pizza and a can of soda for a dollar. My first apartment rent in NY was $167.50, then when I moved to York Avenue, I shuddered at the jump in rent. I paid $330 a month.

In college, an everyday dress was in the $20 range. Blouses were $5 (Ship 'n Shore!).

Ok, enough of my little trip down Economic Memory Lane. What prices do you remember?

Oh wait, one more. When we'd go to my grandmother's house in Wisconsin during the summer. my sister and I would get a nickel to go to this little store to buy a popsicle. The kind that you broke in half and had two sticks. Fortunately we would agree on the flavor -- cherry mostly with an occasional orange. Then there was the delicate matter of breaking it in half. I don't think I had my own popsicle... both sides... until I was in college.