Here's a Real Blast from the Past: 1957 Woolworth's Lunch Menu

Reaganite Republican ^ | April 8, 2011 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

Couple years before my time, but I sure remember eating there and similar places back in the sixties.  

I also recall when prices were in this vicinity, too... back when a dollar was a dollar:

One time when I was about twelve, just walking through the isles of Woolworth's with my buddy for what I don't remember... 

I found a $20 bill on the floor.

There was nobody around, so I kept it... a lot of money to a kid who mowed lawns for like $3 apiece. 

BUT, I insisted my friend take half, 'cuz he was there providing luck... then we spent it on 100+ packs of Topps baseball cards lol...

Woolworth Building, Manhattan
-tallest building in the world from 1913-1930:

-via email/thanks Speedunque-   Wikipedia photo

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[Nip]

I can remember when MacDonald's add said you could buy a hamburger, fries and a coke and still get change back from your dollar. If I remember correctly the change was a quarter when you ordered a cheeseburger, slightly more if you ordered a plain hamburger.

BTW, if you do a comparative study you will discover the ratio of prices between various items haven't changed - just the inflation charged by the government critters at all levels.

[Reaganite Republican]

I’m a Roman Burger man myself lol

[screaminsunshine]

Burger fries and a Cole was less than 50 cents.

[Travis McGee]

You can still buy that menu with the same amount of silver as in 1957.

Back when our “change” was real silver, and not silver-painted slugs.

[Daisyjane69]

I call my visit back home a “ten pound trip.” LOL

Oh, how I miss the family owned corner bar/restaurants that serve meatball sandwiches, or a Friday fish fry, or Tuesday burger specials.

These things are completely foreign out west. While I love the weather here, I miss those things very much.

Oh, one more thing....there is NO SUCH THING as Italian bread here.

[USS Alaska]

There was nobody around, so I kept it... a lot of money to a kid who mowed lawns for like $3 apiece.

If you, like, mowed lawns for, like, $3 during the sixties, you like, were moving lawns, in, like, Hollywood, because like in the sixties, the minimum wage was, like .90/hour.

I really like the word like it's, like so, like descriptive, know what I mean?

[RandallFlagg]

Another ad from 1957:

Those were the days...

[old and tired]

If you, like, mowed lawns for, like, $3 during the sixties, you like, were moving lawns, in, like, Hollywood, because like in the sixties, the minimum wage was, like .90/hour.

The going rate in the Philly burbs in the early 1970's was 5 bucks a lawn.

[Reaganite Republican]

I did an acre of grass -but on my dad’s Ford riding mower- for 3 bucks each, so same time as pushing over an LA yard I guess

Poor moles lol

[Joe 6-pack]

The memories that brings back :-) I grew up in the 70's and 80's in Indiana, PA - the hometown of Jimmy Stewart. We had a Woolworth's with a lunch counter; it was the only place in town that carried the Bachmann and Ertl metal toy airplanes and I spent a lot of my defense dollars there, building up my airforce.

In a lot of ways, it was like the last clinging vestiges of a Norman Rockwell world...

[Reaganite Republican]

Many relatives in Medina, was last there in 2008

I was born and raised N. Olmsted, BGSU, Toledo, then out

[SteelCurtain_SSN720]

Ahhhh, damn. Now I gotta think about Mr. Hero. Oh crap, now I wanna go to Arthur Treachers too, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[Arrowhead1952]

Couple years before my time, but I sure remember eating there and similar places back in the sixties.

There used to be a place we ate at in the 70s that had a full round steak as a chicken fried steak. It would barely fit on a meat platter and the fries, Texas toast were on another plate. Cream gravy and the salad came in separate bowls, and the cost was $4.95. A large glass of tea was an additional $.25

[MinuteGal]

We never said we were going to Woolworth's. We were going to the Dime Store.

At Christmas I could fill my mom's and dad's stockings (using mom's old, long nylons) right up to the top with 10-cent items like nail polish, golf tees, bubble bath, shaving soap, candies, you name it....with a couple of oranges, apples, tangerines and some whole nuts stuffed in to fill up some space.

Many times mom and I would grab lunch at the Dime Store's counter. The menu item treats were inexpensive.....and totally tasty because the food was not in any way, shape or form politically-correct.

Leni

[MNnice]

Back in the 1950s, my friend’s father managed the Woolworth’s lunch counter in downtown St. Paul. When we went down there every Saturday morning I’d have the egg salad sandwich. It seems to me I paid 30 cents too.

[blue state conservative]

you are right. I mowed lawns in the mid-60s for $.25 with a push mower.

[trisham]

Amazing!

[Coldwater Creek]

I still load up on C and H sugar when I leave Tennessee and go West. See's candy too even though it can be ordered over the Internet.

[A CA Guy]

I worked at one as a teenager stocking inventory.
They had the greasy spoon diner then as well.

Did they make it much past the early 80s?

[wtc911]

Five and Ten or Five and Dime. We had a Kresge and a WT Grant in the shopping center by us. Both had lunch counters into the early seventies.

In the fifties every "candy store" had a counter too.

As a note on the past in America...most of us on this thread have fond memories of the Woolworth's counter in the fifties. But, if we were black we would have not been allowed to sit and eat there in many states.