Saturday, April 3

SepiaSat: When milk was 7 cents a quart

This ad is from the Mason City [Iowa] Globe-Gazette dated Thursday, 16th January 1936.

It was next to the announcement of the until-then secret marriage of Howard Chandler TURNLEY, head of the Kato Brewing Company in nearby Mankato, Minnesota, to Muriel Inetta (nee WINDOW) Keane Hanford, the former Ziegfeld Follies and Peacock Girl that the Muriel Cigar is supposedly named for, and formerly the wife of (1) actor-comedian Emmett KEANE, and (2) her "butter 'n' egg man" Arthur S. HANFORD, Jr., of Sioux City IA's Hanford Creamery family and founder of Hanford Airlines, which after his death became Mid-Continent Airlines for which MCI, Kansas City's international airport, was named.

Whew!

Muriel is a distant cousin of a very dear friend and two of my grandchildren. She was born in Burlingame KS in 1892 and died in Florida in 1965, six weeks after appearing on the Mike Douglas Show as the oldest living Ziegfeld Girl.

And that's all I can tell you about "Little Muriel" (as we call her). The dear friend above has first dibs on putting her story in Blogland, but when she does I'll be sure to link to it here.

Until then, have fun seeing how much groceries cost in Mason City IA at the beginning of 1936.




All cuts of steak: 18 cents a pound!

Coffee: 15 and 17 cents a pound!

Wowwww...

Even so, it took careful shopping to feed a family
well when our grandfathers only made $10 week.
"Store-bought" was reserved for food a family couldn't
grow in their own garden and preserve for the winter.
America was still recovering from the Great Depression,
so finding an orange in one's stocking on Christmas
morning truly was a long-hoped-for treat!

I'm guessing the Brazil nuts, peanut brittle,
ribbon candy and mixed nuts (still in the shell,
no doubt) were overstock from the holidays
that Diamond Bros wanted to be rid of ASAP!


Hope you're having a great Easter weekend!

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Check out other Sepia Saturday entries

6 comments:

JamaGenie said...

Yes, I know Alan suspended Sepia Saturday for Easter, but I posted this one anyway so it'll come up with my other Sepia Saturday posts later. ;)

Unknown said...

Well, I know milk is no longer seven cents a quart, but the cream still rises to the top and this is a great post:-)

JamaGenie said...

Ah shucks, ppr, it's just a little something I threw together (she says, blushing).

But it did tickle my funny bone that the announcement of what had been a secret for 2 years was placed in the middle of the sale ads for every grocery store in town. Might as well have put it on the front page since *everybody* would see it anyway!

Trish and Rob MacGregor said...

coffee, gasp!

Dorene from Ohio said...

You have been awarded the "Ancestor Approved Award." Please pick it up at:

http://graveyardrabbitofsanduskybay.blogspot.com/2010/04/ancestor-approved-award.html

Nancy said...

I love these old ads. Makes me wish for those days again. Well, not exactly. Just the prices of those days. How did you get such clear images? I print my from a roll of microfilm at the library, where I always end up with lines. Yours look so clean.