Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej
And over 56 tons.
Great photos, ethereal, I really like them.
Yeah, 5 cent hamburgers-- and 5 cent root beers too? I never understood the prices on menus of that era. Often it'll be like 10 cents for coffee, and then only 25 cents for a burger... whereas today it'll be like 2 bucks for a soda and nearly 5 bucks for a burger. Was a penny really worth all that much back then? |
Both the burger and the coffee would have been a lot smaller than what you'd get today. When hamburgers first appeared they were sometimes marketed as "beef cookies", which gives you an idea of the size. IIRC from watching a documentary about this, these burgers were probably about like the smallest and cheapest at McD's today. The coffee would have been served in some variant of a traditional cup and saucer setup, so it would have been a lot less than the smallest size at a Starbucks' today.
But yeah--a penny really was worth a lot more, like maybe close to a quarter today. It's astonishing to realize how nearly worthless all that heavy metal is that we carry around or accumulate in jars, and yet how reluctant Americans are to have it changed. My favorite illustration is this: if you had a complete collection of the 50 state quarters, you'd have $12.50, not even enough to buy burgers, fries, and sodas for three people.
Sorry for the hijack, but this gets me every time people talk about it.