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The "I'm so old" thread game

Well I woke up this morning and it went to full tilt everything hurts by the second cup of coffee ....

laughinghard
 
If I had a nickel I was rich. A quarter and I would spend an hour trying to decide how to spend it. The purchase power of a quarter in the fifties was incredible.
 
McDonald's

1960s Menu Prices

  • Hamburger: $0.15
  • Cheeseburger: $0.19
  • French Fries: $0.10
  • Milkshake / Shake: $0.20
  • Soda / Root Beer: $0.10 – $0.18
  • Big Mac (introduced later in the decade): $0.45

I remember their prices were a couple of cents cheaper. The local drug store had a fountain counter. A coke, which they made in front of you, cost a nickel. A place across the tracks sold hamburgers. It was Ozie's and his burgers were a dime.

A true story: In 1964, my mother came home from the bank and gave my sister and I a brand new shiny Kennedy half dollar. I carried mine as insurance until I married in 1973. I later put it in a bezel and wore it around my neck. I still have it and it is incredibly worn considering it never rubbed against another coin. The point of the story is to point out just how much money a half dollar was in the sixties. It would buy a meal or even a couple of gallons of gas. The coin was great insurance.
 
Yep: I remember our family or four going to McDonald's as a rare treat. That was the classic architecture: canted roofline and the golden arches on the sides. We each got a cheeseburger, fries and a Coca-Cola (there was only one size cup: I think it was 10 ounces) in waxed paper cups, no lids, and a paper straw. A carhop would bring it out to the car and the tray rested outside on Dad's window ledge. Mom would open the glovebox and use the door as a tray (there was a little round indention to hold the cup). I also remember, even in the mid-to-late 1960s, a Krystal burger was 10 cents.
 
I think it was the invention of ziplock bags, we where so happy to store our blueberries in fridge and freezers, then came anti-freezer bags, and we would be happy with twistie ties too....
 
Hutchinson, where the Kansas state fair is held yearly, had the only McDonald's that I knew when I was a kid. Wichita, a much larger city was without. Half of the treat of going to the fair with the neighbors was to eat at McDonald's. Even as a little kid, it struck me odd that it had an all male staff. The White Castle franchise started in Wichita. So did Pizza Hut but we never ate at either. Eating out just didn't happen but on rare occasions. If the family came to visit over a big weekend, there was a better chance of eating out. Otherwise, it was good ol' home cookin'. I was in high school and had my own car before I ever tasted pizza, Mexican cuisine, or oriental cooking. We were poor.. but mostly people just didn't eat out all of the time. There are so many fast foot eateries and restaurants in my small city of 36K that it blows my mind they survive. As an example: There is the original family owned parlor called Pizza Johns. Pizza Hut, Dominos, Godfathers, Pappa Johns, Gambino's, Little Busters, Madrocks, Firehouse Subs, Little Cesar's, Casey's, McAlister's, and Pappa Murphy's all fighting for their piece of the pizza market. How do they survive unless everyone is eating pizza out ever night. The burger places and Mexican eateries are the same. Obviously, it is a 180° change from when I was a kid. Life in the fast lane.
 
olbriar said:
Hutchinson, where the Kansas state fair is held yearly, had the only McDonald's that I knew when I was a kid. Wichita, a much larger city was without. Half of the treat of going to the fair with the neighbors was to eat at McDonald's. Even as a little kid, it struck me odd that it had an all male staff. The White Castle franchise started in Wichita. So did Pizza Hut but we never ate at either. Eating out just didn't happen but on rare occasions. If the family came to visit over a big weekend, there was a better chance of eating out. Otherwise, it was good ol' home cookin'. I was in high school and had my own car before I ever tasted pizza, Mexican cuisine, or oriental cooking. We were poor.. but mostly people just didn't eat out all of the time. There are so many fast foot eateries and restaurants in my small city of 36K that it blows my mind they survive. As an example: There is the original family owned parlor called Pizza Johns. Pizza Hut, Dominos, Godfathers, Pappa Johns, Gambino's, Little Busters, Madrocks, Firehouse Subs, Little Cesar's, Casey's, McAlister's, and Pappa Murphy's all fighting for their piece of the pizza market. How do they survive unless everyone is eating pizza out ever night. The burger places and Mexican eateries are the same. Obviously, it is a 180° change from when I was a kid. Life in the fast lane.
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I did not knew that Casey's was a chain, I thought the gas station / convient store was in here in my back yard though.. Huh. We had a Godfather's, and we had a Village Inn of where we ate there perodically, we hand made our pizzas nearly from when I was in high school, maybe before then, and we had family dinner on Sunday's with pizza, almost clockwork until we get the deals at Pappa Murphy's pizza.. We have a Mcalister's near by the Menards up here.
 
There was a family owned Italian restaurant in town when I was growing up. It was called Angelo's. Me and my buddy shared an apartment once out of high school and it was near enough to Angelo's that they delivered. I must say they made excellent pizza. There was a Pizza Inn and a Shakey's in Wichita when I was a big kid. I ate at both once I was out on my own. I never ate at any of them while growing up. It's the same thing with oriental cuisine. There was a long established restaurant in Wichita called Mar's Garden. I googled the place and they opened the year I was born. Did I ever eat there... no sir. Not until I was out on my own.
It just wasn't a thing to eat out. We lacked the funds. We lacked the nice clothing. And to be honest, we had never eaten that stuff and wasn't about to waste money on it. :) I can eat Italian, Chinese, or Mexican and be a happy camper. Maybe because I was deprived all of my youth. I think it's because of the new spices that I instantly loved. It wasn't just salt and pepper.
 
I haven't heard Shakey's in years.
Outside of stopping at "Kentucky Colonel's" on the way to our grandma's house, Shakey's was the only place I can remember us eating out at.
Mom would cook us breakfast, before school every day and then we'd have home cooking at night.

We definitely didn't eat out much
 
PitCarver said:
I haven't heard Shakey's in years.
Outside of stopping at "Kentucky Colonel's" on the way to our grandma's house, Shakey's was the only place I can remember us eating out at.
Mom would cook us breakfast, before school every day and then we'd have home cooking at night.

We definitely didn't eat out much
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Oddly enough, watching baseball, I see Shakey's Pizza advertisements. It's the West coast home games where the ads are aired. They made a good pie and it was a fun place to eat and be entertained.
We traveled to Oklahoma for ever possible holiday, birthday, and any excuse that my mother could come up with. Her family was tight. We ate at a hole in the wall place that was half way through the journey. Their sign was a cross with "A" being the intersection of the words EAT GAS :) And they had that right :) But by the time I reached ten or so, the town opened a Sonic. My sister and I were in heaven! Nothing is quite as good as the old Sonic chili cheese footlong.

When I was a kid, the convenience store was a pop machine and a cigarette machine at the gas station. A free map of every state could be had inside and the bathrooms were on the side of the building. Some stations even had a chiller on the edge of their drive where you could buy a block of ice. My dad was a mean mo fo with an ice pick.
 
When I was a freshman in high school, I spent the weekend with my buddy that had moved into Wichita. His single mother dropped us off at Shakey's with money enough for drinks and a large pie. We ended up there until they closed and then some before his mother made it back. Her car broke down. Being at the age where boys have a bottomless pit for a stomach, we started getting the pizzas that they would say the last call two or three times. Finally they would give us the pie. We probably ate three of four pizzas that night. Don't ever eat that much pizza!
 
I was never a big candy guy. I would buy baseball cards with the gum but I didn't chew the gum. I bought a lot of nickel balsa wood airplanes but mostly I'd save my money and buy a book. They ranged from a quarter to thirty five cents. I always loved to read. My sister would get Nancy Drew mysteries for Christmas and I the Hardy Boys. When I reached middle school, Mad magazine and books were a big money sink. 45's sucked up a great deal of my hard earned money as well. The five and dime was a T,G,&Y and it was more than a weekly visit for me and my buddies. It was in a neighborhood shopping center that we were allowed to visit. I read a number of books, a little at a time, as they sat in the stand to purchase. :)
 
I'm so old that I've bowled at a nine pin and a ten pin bowling alley that had a guy that jumped down from a bench above the rack, clear off the fallen pins and then sent your ball back on the ramp. After the spare attempt, he set the pins back up. Score was kept on a printed paper with a line for players with frames. Drink holders and ashtrays were part of the bowling setup. The last time I bowled, they charged by the hour and not by the game. Personally. I think that is BS. Money grabbing so and so's

When I was a young adult, I bowled on Sunday mornings at a closed door bowling alley for money. Invitation only and a no holds barred. :) It was lucrative if you were hot. I don't think they could get away with that sort of bowling in Kansas anymore.
 
We had a G.D. Risky's old fashion like bar food but they do come out with popcorn as an app, Still in IN, I just looked it up! We also had a theater downtown,The world infamous Virgina theater we get plenty of hit shows and flash back theaters and concerts, I remember catching my brother-in-law's chior group from around about twenty or so years ago and they all gathered at that tiny place and it was new years eve, a free music concert we all attented when he was in inside of it. Also there was a T.G.I. Fridays lower steps by his old occupation at Wolfram projects just was right there....What else was there, oh yeah a pizza place with all kinds of goodies and a lolipop machine for a nickle. It lasted forever inside this town, until they tore it down and it is now a shameful place for adults.
 
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If I remember correctly, aunties 5 and dime was the last one on the right :

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This was downtown the movie theater was at the end of the street straight ahead, we watched movies there for a quarter a day. The shop on the right second or third down was an Uncles grocery store.

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I was prolly hardly 10 years old back then (60 years ago) .... Often wonder what the place is like now.
 
The original downtown of the little town I grew up in was destroyed by a tornado. It was years after the main businesses moved to an East West intersecting road. My business partner and I came close to buying one of those old abandoned business to store tools and do projects between trimming houses. Instead, we rented a large storage unit for 30+ years. We, alone, paid for that complex of garages.

My little town started out to be something and then died on the vine. Poor city planning or tight lending policies of the only bank. It is still a dormant economic center. Our theater was a Saturday night movie that was projected onto a couple of white sheets on the back of the police station. Bring your own chair and lots of bug spray and watch a movie that was old long before I was born.

I won't dog on my little town. As little towns were, we were close and everyone knew everyone. We helped each other and the payback was always appreciated. It was a different time for mankind but the little town is still little and slow paced. A google search says it incorporated in 1951. That's a year before my birth. Population of just barely over 5K in 1960. It now has a population of 11K.
 
My little town was birthplace to one of the original baseball players in Leauge of her own, my college campus did a lot of movies and they where birthplace with a lot of different holy wood people too. :)
 
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