The Way We Were

Growing Up in Mid 20th Century America: Chapter 1 - The Way We Were

The following is a portion of a narrative I have been writing especially for my grandchildren to read in the future. I thought it might be interesting for "Throw Back Thursday." I call this "Growing up in Mid 20th Century America." There are old family photos sprinkled throughout the text however they did not get picked up in the copy and paste procedure. This is rather lengthy but might be interesting to some friends and family. The photos appearing I was able to add from my computer picture files but they actually belong at the very end of this page of narrative. I might post more narrative on a future Thursday if it is of interest. I hope that by posting here I may be moved to keep writing as I have a tendency to get lazy on writing projects. So far I have written about 12 pages total but there is much more material in my brain as well as the photo files.

The years following WWII provided an exciting setting for children in the United States because it was a time of unlimited optimism. The world was at relative peace. Surviving veterans of the great war were returning home to an ever expanding peacetime economy that was unfolding wonderful employment opportunities and the chance for happy family life for everyone - or so it seemed to those of us in small town America.

Consider the reasonable prices and wages we enjoyed during 1948 for example:

Automobiles
New
Austin of England, Devon, sedan, 1,660.00
Used
1946, Chrysler New Yorker, sedan, 2,495.00
1941, Oldsmobile, sedan, 1,395.00
1939, Buick Club Coupe, 1,195.00

Clothing
Boy’s suit, seersucker, 3.98-4.98/each
Girl’s bathing suit, 2.50-6.98/each
Girl’s dress, 1.00-5.98/each
Girl’s pinafore, 1.00-5.98/each
Men’s shirt, Basque, .98/each
Men’s shoes, Florsheim, 8.95/pair
Men’s slacks, washable, 3.95/pair
Men’s sport jacket, 17.95-45.00/each
Men’s suit, Palm Beach, 26.75/each
Women’s blouse, 2.00-5.00/each
Women’s dress, 7.98/each
Women’s shoes, dress, 9.95-16.95/pair
Women’s skirt, 2.50-5.00/each
Women’s slacks, 5.00-7.98/each
Women’s suit, summer, 19.98-29.98/each

Employment
Barber, 50.00/week
Counterman for coffee shop, 50.00/week
Handyman to work in garden, 1.00/hour
Telephone operator, New Jersey Bell, 32.00/week
Tree men, 1.25/hour

Food & beverages
Apples, Western Winesap, .15/lb
Bacon, Armour’s Star, .69/lb
Blueberries, .39/pint
Bread, .14/sliced loaf
Cake, Virginia Lee, Angel, .45/each
Cake mix, Gold Seal, .23/box
Cereal, Kellogg’s, Rice Krispies, .14/5.5 oz pkg
Coffee, Nescafe, instant, .39/4 oz jar
Cookies, Nabisco, Fig Newtons, .18/8 oz pkg
Cracker Jack, .09/2 pkgs
Crackers, Nabisco, Ritz, .31/lb pkg
Eggs, .79/dozen
Fish, tuna, Breast of Chicken, .45/can
Frankfurters, Armour’s Star, .55/lb
Ham, smoked cala, .57/lb
Jelly, Shimmel’s grape, .15/12 oz jar
Juice, Del Monte, orange, .25/no. 5 can
Juice, Welch’s, grape, .39/quart bottle
Lamb, leg, .69/lb
Margarine, Asco, .41/lb
Marshmallows, Campfire, .31/lb
Mayonnaise, Hellmann’s, .49/pint
Milk, fresh, .23/quart
Olives, Ideal, stuffed, .25/3 oz jar
Onions, yellow, .17/2 lbs
Oranges, .19/dozen
Peanut butter, Fyne Taste, .31/lb jar
Pickles, Colonial Kosher dill, .35/quart jar
Plums, red, .19/lb
Pork & beans, Rodal Scarlet, .27/two 16 oz cans
Potato chips, .23/5 oz bag
Processed meat, Hormel, SPAM .47/12 oz can
Soda, Coca Cola, .25/six 6 oz bottles
Soup, Campbell’s, tomato, .29/3 cans
Spaghetti, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, with meatballs, .21/6 oz can
String beans, fresh Jersey, .23/2 lbs
Sugar, Jack Frost, .42/5 lb bag
Tea, Asco, .28/4 oz pkg
Watermelon, .05/lb

Household
Ammonia, Sped-up, .25/two 32 oz bottles
Cleanser, Ajax, .11/14 oz can
Cot, roll-away, includes mattress, 59.50/each
Diapers, 2.00/dozen
Dutch oven, 6 quart, 3.99-6.98/each
Fan, electric, 8″, 4.45/each
Laundry soap, Octagon, .39/3 pkgs
Mason jars, .69/pint; .75/quart
Paint, house, 4.25/gallon
Sheets, Cannon, percale, 42″ X 72″, 1.37-1.98/each
Towel, Martex, bath, 1.79/each
Washing machine, Bendix, 199.95/each

Lawn & garden
Charcoal briquettes, .39/2 lbs
Grill, charcoal, folding, 3.98/each
Hose, garden, 3.35-5.00/each
Insecticide, Flit, .39/quart
Lawn chair, Telescope, canvas with wood frame, 7.98/each

Newspaper
.05/daily paper

Personal care & health
Alka-Seltzer, .49/pkg
Aspirin, Bayer, .59/bottle
Calamine lotion, .49/bottle
Cleansing cream, Noxema, .49/jar
Mineral oil, Squibb, .69/pint
Permanent wave, Lustra Oil, 7.50/person
Soap, Ivory, personal size, .20/3 cakes
Sunburn cream, Diana Grey, .59/pkg
Suntan lotion, Norwich, .23/pkg
Tissue, Lidia Grey, .65/two 400 count pkgs
Toilet paper, Petal Soft, .25/2 rolls
Toothpaste, Ipana, .43/tube
Real estate

Houses for sale
Mendham, 4 bedrooms, 12,000.00
Morris Plains, colonial, 6 rooms, 12,500.00
Morris Plains, 4 rooms, 8,500.00

Houses for rent
Wharton, 5 rooms, 95.00/month

Apartments & rooms
Morris Plains, 7 rooms, 65.00/month
Morristown, large room, 15.00/month

I chose 1948 as an illustration of pricing as that is the year I was 4 years old and the first year I began storing away various facets of life in my personal memory bank. A toddler’s brain is usually engaged in learning motor skills and language skills and later begins the process of learning about more abstract intellectual elements.

1) Morris County Library>Research>Local History&Genealogy>Historic Prices>1948

My sister, Cynthia Suzanne Prichard, was born January 17, 1941 in Titusville, PA. Shortly after her birth our father was transferred to the Warren, PA plant of Struthers Wells Corp. where he worked as a chemical engineer. Our parents, Ted Prichard and Margaret Ebbert Prichard
,had met in Titusville while roller skating in 1938. They eloped in October 1939 to be married in Virginia and then returned to Titusville. Margaret was 22 years old at the time and Ted was 27. His parents, Will and Georgianna Prichard were already deceased and her parents, Clarence Andrew Ebbert and Katie Hendren Ebbert were in middle age still raising some of their 11 children. Ted had two younger brothers Arnold (born 1917) and Reno Warren (born 1918) who would soon after 1939 leave for California where they were both employed in the aircraft industry. Due to their critical employment skills none of the three brothers were called to serve in the military during WWII. Margaret had owned a beauty salon with her partner Opal Ross in Titusville called “The Personality Shop.” Upon moving to Warren she turned the shop over to Opal and became a full-time housewife/mother.

The Prichards lived in several rental properties in Warren prior to purchase of their first house at 3 Tremont St. in Warren. They had no money saved to buy a home but were able to finance their home purchase through a land contract with the owner who was a local plumber. The house was located on the south side of the Allegheny River which runs through the center of Warren. It was a rather large 3 story home with full basement and separate double garage built of stucco. Tremont St. was actually an alley just a half block long with just two houses on the north side plus a vacant lot next to our house and across the street was the Howard Tree Expert Company that consisted of a row of garages plus an office an apartment behind the office. Next to the Howard Company was a large lot with two or three apple trees that we always called the “orchard.”

It was to this family home that I arrived on September 12, 1944 after my birth at nearby Warren General Hospital. It was a typical “4 square” wooden home as built by many Swedish carpenters in the small town of Warren which bragged on entrance signs “15,000 friendly people.” The kitchen was especially modern for the time with two walls of custom built cabinetry plus a built-in dinette area. A long living room/dining room area was on the west side of the house and a large square entrance hall had a lovely oak stairway with room left over for our ornate upright piano. The kitchen dinette was soon torn out to make way for installation of an automatic washing machine. I recall the first machine was a Bendix Front Loader which turned out to be a lemon. It was replaced within a year or two with a Maytag which lasted about 20 years. Laundry was hung in the backyard to dry as clothes dryers, though available, were prohibitively too expensive for the average family until the early fifties.

Upstairs the house had three bedrooms, a large bathroom with clawfoot tub, and a walk-in closet at the end of the center hall where our father kept his clothes. I was told by my sister that for a time the hall closet was my bedroom when I was a baby. At the end of WWII our Uncle John Ebbert was discharged from the Army and obtained employment with the Penn Furnace and Iron Company as a timekeeper. I believe he occupied the third bedroom for a time prior to his marriage to our neighbor and baby sitter Maxine Custer in 1948. After Uncle John’s exit our third bedroom was occupied by our father’s Aunt Myrtle Harwood, older sister of his mother. Aunt Myrtle quickly became one of my best friends and “nanny.” She loved to read and she loved to read to me. I would merely call up the stairway at any time and say, “Aunt Myrtle, will you come down and read to me?” She would lay aside whatever book she was reading and come down to read me another chapter in whatever Bobbsey Twins book we had going. Then she began walking me across the big bridge over the Allegheny River for a journey to the Warren Public Library. Our parents were very fond of going on picnics to the various Allegheny National Forest picnic grounds that were near our small town. Above is a photo with Susie, Denny and Aunt Myrtle at Sandstone Springs, a favorite destination. Water was provided at the picnic grounds with hand pumps used to bring the water above ground. To the left, Susie and Denny are hand carrying freshly pumped water back to the picnic table in the 1st photo below. 2nd photo is Susie & Denny with Aunt Myrtle Harwood and 3rd photo is Susie & Denny at home at 3 Tremont St. Warren, PA.