How'm I gonna spend my two bits at the five and dime?

compound complex

Do you remember the five and dime stores?

Whenever Grandpa saw us kids, he gave us two bits (25 cents) each and, when feeling generous, four bits (50 cents).

Back in the 50s, the late summer air was charged with excitement as we poor but studious urchins pored over what school supplies we would purchase with our then valuable coins. Whether school supplies or toys or what nots were on the must-get list scribbled out in our heads, we could spend quite some time determining how to allocate our dough.

How about you? Memories?

(BTW, I bought a 12-pack of plastic pencil sharpeners yesterday at The Dollar Store for, of course, one dollar [plus tax]!)

CoCo du Crayon

Glander

I remember getting a pencil box when I started the first grade. I was thrilled and inspired. Then my cousin and I went to school. With my new pencil box in my sweaty little hand I stood there while my mother and aunt gave a witness about the flag salute and holiday celebrations to our new teacher at the door of our new school room. We started off our school days with the teacher treating us like little weirdos. It never stopped.

Sorry...two bits at the five and dime? Dollar stores are great.

compound complex

Thanks, Glander, for you trip down memory lane. LOVE pencil boxes. Gotta find me one!

Later, I'd like to share my JW school story with you. It's totally out in left field (adult intervention was 180 degrees off from yours!).

CHEERS!

CoCo

compound complex

talesin

I remember the big counter, and walking up to it... a glass case, with *candy* treasures inside ..

some were 3 for a penny, the black balls if I remember,,, some were 2 cents each, and those were the 'good ones' ... 25 cents would get a whole bag of candy, if you were careful ...

compound complex

Thanks, Tal! What a deal. Thanks for sharing that.

Look at this:

[...] many of the Woolworth concepts ... included bright lighting, a polished high-luster floor, glass showcases, mahogany counters and merchandise which people can touch. Prior to this, clerks had to personally work with each customer, and take merchandise from cases or shelves to hand to customers. The old practice of individualized service caused higher overhead, and clerks needed to know the merchandise. Prior to Woolworth, the prevailing thought was an entire store could not maintain itself with all low-priced merchandise. The Woolworth Bros and their affiliated partner stores originally featured merchandise priced at only five cents and ten cents. Many other people tried to copy their lead. [3]

wikipedia: Variety Store

panhandlegirl

I remember going to the local drug store duing lunch time at school and getting a tuna sandwich with chips and a coke for 35 cents. "Those were the days my friend." I love the line in "You've got Mail" when Tom Hanks tells Meg Ryan that he loves Fall, it makes him want to buy school suplies and that if he knew her, he would send her a bouquet of fresly sharpened pencils." I have been looking for a suitable vase in which to place a "bouquet" of freshly sharpend pencils. Maybe I should go to the Dollar Store and look for one there.

PHG

Glander

I'll never forget the smell of the curls coming out of my little sharpener as I sharpened a sharp pencil down to a nub!

compound complex

Yes, panhandlegirl, those WERE the days (my friend, we thought they'd never end). So much eats for two-and-a-half bits! Loved eating at Woolworths. I love that movie - YGM - so much that I bought it and actually have a mini-bouquet of pencils before me. I do not like mechanical pencils (I always have trouble getting the lead out ...).

Therefore, Glander, I can relate to what you said about the smell of the curls. Isn't something that even the olfactory capabilities can take us down Memory Lane?

Gratefully,

CoCo du Passe'

BizzyBee

CoCo,

I am a 5 and dime girl. Yes, it's true. I rarely ever had more than 75 cents all together and loved to browse Woolworths. When I was 12-13 I loved to buy new shades of nail polish. (Still do - right now my toenails are a lovely shade of Kelly green - fun!)

When I was 18-23 (pioneering) I loved to treat myself to eating at the counter - hamburgers, malts, chocolate pie, mashed potatoes and gravy. Such indulgence! And I was so skinny!

Always loved fresh, stacked high pads of notebook paper, rows of pens and pencils - the author Erica Jung also loves shopping for new paper and pens -

Oh the orgies in stationery stores!
The love of printer ' s ink & think new pads!

I remember getting the thick newspaper-grade tablets with the Indian head on the cover - loved them at first when they were fresh, but then in time they seemed cheap and shabby.

Now I shop at the 99 cent store on occasion - I still love a bargain - get my readers and (some for friends who don't have access to 99cents), sunglasses, reams of napkins that I use as Kleenex, really good produce, novelties for the grandkids, and just the fun of browsing.

I do remember personalizing your "Big Pink" eraser in school was a significant passage.

How'm I gonna spend my two bits at the five and dime?

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