recently some thirty year older was taking about the cost of things and I began (quietly) reminescing...my allowance at 8 years of age was ten cents. what could I buy with this amount? I had, like all other kids, free range of the town which meant that I could walk downtown to the 5&10 cent store, drug stores, independent grocery stores and such. So each Saturday was "pay day" as it was with my friends, and off we would go to pormptly plan our spending. The Woolworth's was always the first stop and here is what they carried for ten cents: comic books (I rarely bought them as I had friends whose parents bought them, or somewhat had amassed collections that I never could have achieved. But I did read them. Candy bars: almost all were 5 cents, skybars and cough drops were bigger and cost ten cents. If I spent money on a candy bar, it was one I would split with someone else (or 3 muskateers--divded three ways, and then I would be "repaid with their candy purchase. combs, pencils (not ball point pens then) paperdoll books, cheap coloring books were all ten cents. Soda was 5 cents and a two cent deposit on the bottle (6 oz?)
I was never capable of saving the whole ten cents for two weeks to buy something bigger, and so depended on a visit to my grandparents, where I would often get a quarter....big times!
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