A Dime's Worth by William James Johnson
You had to be there to appreciate how important one thin dime meant in a child's life. There may even be some of you who don't realize a dime is a silver coin, smaller than a penny, worth ten cents each, It had a beautiful engraving of Canada's champion racing sailboat called the "Bluenose" which was constructed at Lunenberg on the Nova Scotia east coast.
Just to have that tiny silverboat replica gave a kid a feeling of freedom because he could do all kinds of things with it. My favorite choice was the Saturday movies. Imagine! One thin dime and you could spend all day and part of the evening enjoying a double feature after watching the previews of coming attractions, always an exciting cartoon of that "Cwazy Wabbit", and the latest on the world scene on Time's Newsreal. And get a load of this. If you really liked all of this, you could see the complete ten cents worth of excitement a second time, and no one asked you to leave.
One of the highlights which changed every week, was a serial action movie which always ended with the hero's life in jeopardy. You couldn't risk interruptions to the amazing "Captain Marvel". Each new chapter always began with a brief review of his dilemma, resolved in a few exciting frames. What a guy.
There was also a special treat in those days. Small corner stores sold penny candy in grab bags. Nothing fancy. But a nickles worth of penny candy, that is five bags, would give you enough munching to last for the complete double feature seen twice.
My best choice was to buy a coney island hot dog at the Post Office lunch. You can't get them any more. Served on a steamed bun which held the footlong weiner, floating in mustard, and drenched in peppery chili con carne, covered in diced Spanish onion. And believe it or not. It cost only five cents. So a dime could buy you a fantastic lunch. Two coney island dogs, before leaving for the movie.
And remember, all of this took place during the depression, which began when the stock market crashed in 1929. I was born in 1927, and I am still around. Seventy percent of the workers in my town were unemployed. I began to realize spaghetti was not just for Italians. You could tell what day of the week it was, by what was for supper.
I should mention as well Comic Books cost a dime. Kids would bring their new editions and have me read them aloud, because I put in all the sound effects. Sometimes there would be as many as ten excited kids sitting on our front steps. The boy who owned the magazine would sit next to me, looking at all the fantastic illustrations. The others listened to the escapades of "Batman and Robin", or "Faster than a bullet". It was an interesting time.
Just to have that tiny silverboat replica gave a kid a feeling of freedom because he could do all kinds of things with it. My favorite choice was the Saturday movies. Imagine! One thin dime and you could spend all day and part of the evening enjoying a double feature after watching the previews of coming attractions, always an exciting cartoon of that "Cwazy Wabbit", and the latest on the world scene on Time's Newsreal. And get a load of this. If you really liked all of this, you could see the complete ten cents worth of excitement a second time, and no one asked you to leave.
One of the highlights which changed every week, was a serial action movie which always ended with the hero's life in jeopardy. You couldn't risk interruptions to the amazing "Captain Marvel". Each new chapter always began with a brief review of his dilemma, resolved in a few exciting frames. What a guy.
There was also a special treat in those days. Small corner stores sold penny candy in grab bags. Nothing fancy. But a nickles worth of penny candy, that is five bags, would give you enough munching to last for the complete double feature seen twice.
My best choice was to buy a coney island hot dog at the Post Office lunch. You can't get them any more. Served on a steamed bun which held the footlong weiner, floating in mustard, and drenched in peppery chili con carne, covered in diced Spanish onion. And believe it or not. It cost only five cents. So a dime could buy you a fantastic lunch. Two coney island dogs, before leaving for the movie.
And remember, all of this took place during the depression, which began when the stock market crashed in 1929. I was born in 1927, and I am still around. Seventy percent of the workers in my town were unemployed. I began to realize spaghetti was not just for Italians. You could tell what day of the week it was, by what was for supper.
I should mention as well Comic Books cost a dime. Kids would bring their new editions and have me read them aloud, because I put in all the sound effects. Sometimes there would be as many as ten excited kids sitting on our front steps. The boy who owned the magazine would sit next to me, looking at all the fantastic illustrations. The others listened to the escapades of "Batman and Robin", or "Faster than a bullet". It was an interesting time.
posted by William Johnson | 3:10 p.m.
1 Comments:
I can remember, at age six in 1951, buying popsicles for a nickle and ice cream cones for six cents. I think freshly baked rye bread was a dime. On the other hand, computers probably cost $10,000,000 and needed specially-constructed, air-conditioned buildings to house them.
The best thing about the era was that taxes were lower for the average Joe.
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