It's 1959 and you're a kid with a dollar.

[bobthedrummer]

What could you buy with a dollar then?

[Floogeldy]

1. More candy bars than I could eat . . .

. . . with change left over.

I was there and I am grateful.

B-)

[bobthedrummer]

3. They were a nickle a piece.

[Floogeldy]

11. In addition . . .

. . . one of those fifteen cent paper kites. What was the brand name? "Something" Flyer?

My childhood was mostly blessed. U?



B-)

I just remembered the brand name of the kites. "High Flyer."

[BikeWriter]

2. Aww, hell. I'm too worried about the copycats to think...

[maveric]

4. 20 popcycles

You and a friend could go to a saturday matinee, buy pocorn, soda and candy for 2.

[ChoralScholar]

and have enough left over for a used Buick, I would imagine... EOM

[lenidog]

5. Probably your way into the movies

[bobthedrummer]

10. Yep, and you could have popcorn and a drink too for a buck, maybe less.

[lenidog]

18. Now you more or less have to take out a small personal loan

to go to the movies and buy any snacks.

[Elidor]

6. The Charles Atlas Bodybuilding Course!

[Elidor]

12. Sea Monkeys!

[Elidor]

14. X-Ray Glasses!

[Elidor]

16. The Amazing Magic Ovaltine Decoder Ring!

[Huckebein the Raven]

7. Uhh candy but only at certain places if you get my drift

[Floogeldy]

20. In 1959?

What are you trying to say?

:shrug:

[JI7]

34. "Dark" Leftist so i assume he is Black and in 1959

was discriminated from many places.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. Four or five gallons of gas if you were a teenager. n/t

[lenidog]

9. Here is something for comparison

In the early 80s when I was just entering my teen years a buck would buy me a candy bar and a 16 oz soda.

[punpirate]

13. A Nehi...

... a Classic comics, and a Saturday matinee, and have fifty-odd cents to save.

[jeff30997]

15. A couple of beers.

:toast:

[immoderate]

17. Two Winky Dink kits!

--IMM

[murielm99]

36. I wish I still had my Winky Dink kit.

:-(

[lpbk2713]

19. The latest ish of Mad magazine and a root beer.

might have had enough left for a Three Musketeers.

[givemebackmycountry]

21. LOT'S OF STUFF

100 pieces of penny candy
20 Subway rides in New York City?
10 Tickets to a Saturday Matinee at the movies?


I don't know what else.
It's almost midnight where I'm at, and I'm only four years old (really) in 1959 and I'm really sleepy.

Can I have a cookie and go to bed?

[bobthedrummer]

22. I used to buy 3-4 paperbacks.

[murielm99]

23. A hula-hoop.

[bobthedrummer]

24. You could buy a 45rpm record for around 75 cents

and get a couple of other things too.

[tuvor]

26. That's actually pretty pricey

...when you consider that an iTune's 99 cents.

[bobthedrummer]

28. It was vinyl, sometimes they were .50 cents

[blackcatpgh]

25. probably a bunch of M-80s...

...or cherry bombs. they were legal back then.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

27. 100 pieces of bubble gum

with little comics inside the wrapper.

[norml]

29. A box full of fireworks, big ones too.

[Bat Boy]

30. A two bit whore.

Twice.

[asthmaticeog]

41. That would leave you 50 cents change.

What's next on your agenda, stud?

[zann725]

31. I think that would've bought a double-header at the local movie theatre

Popcorn was a quarter.

[samplegirl]

32. A kite, a ball of string, 4 comic books

a mallocup, a payday, a long roll of rollo's & a handful of bazooka
gum

[solinvictus]

33. Ten comics...

All of them would be DC's early Silver Age heroes (Green Lantern, Flash, Adam Strange).

[Dover]

35. I often took my dollar and went to the Penny Candy Store

or bought an ice cream cone and a soda.

[Yupster]

37. 20 packs of 59 Topps baseball cards

guaranteed to get you at least a few stars like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax and Stan Musial.

For 75 cents you can get a ticket to Shibe Park to see the Great Connie Mack and the Philadelphia A's. For another 50 cents you can get their yearbook. (PS - have to look up what year the A's left Philadelphia. I think it was a few years before 59)

For 25 cents you can buy a Mad magazine and read regular comic writers Ernie Kovacs and Andy Griffith.

[Tom Kitten]

38. Ten comic books

Let's see, 1959, I'd stick to DC comics, you could get the first ever appearance of Supergirl, plus check out issues of Showcase and the Brave and the Bold...

If you kept them in the same condition you bought them in, probably worth a couple thousand dollars!

[cleofus1]

39. that's easy

comic books...candy bars and an RC cola

[mrbill]

40. a dollar was a fortune to a kid in 1959.......

the average rate for mowing yards was about 50-cents.

Admission to the Saturday afternoon double feature at the State Theatre was a quarter. Very tasty chilli dogs cost another quarter, then a dime for a coke. You could kill an afternoon and have 40-cents left from your dollar. And no pesky sales tax to figure.

The junior green fee at the the municipal golf course was 50-cents for all day and cokes and cheeze crackers were a dime.

A broken leg, surgery and three days in the hospital cost $192. Compare with an estimate of $20,000 in today dollars.

Lunch at school was 15-cents and milk cost 2-cents.

Just a theory but prices starting going up in 1963 after they took the silver out of the us coinage.

[bobthedrummer]

42. Eventually you could buy a miniature camera or a transistor radio

for about .99 cents.

Or a lot of food.

[miss_kitty]

43. 100 candy necklaces

200 rolls of Smarties, and 20 Hershey's Candy Bars, larger probably 2 times as large as the micro bars of today. Or 4 gallons of gas...

[bobthedrummer]

44. 100 Sour Apples or Sputniks or Atomic Fireballs, several pounds of

ground beef, 10 bags of potato chips, 5 gallons of gas during price wars...all for a 1959 buck.

[livetohike]

45. Some comic books, MAD magazine, and lots of penny candy

and then I would eat it all and get sick :-).

I was 7 in 1959.