September 23, 2013

Coffee shop Baltimore, Maryland 1930

thirtiescoffeeshop.jpg

A big menu, "Tables for Ladies," and the prices are right. From History in Pictures

Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 23, 2013 7:31 PM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

So, I can have a T-bone steak and oyster stew (with crackers!) for 35 cents? Too bad it will take 7 hours of backbreaking labor to earn that much.

Posted by: Mumblix Grumph at September 23, 2013 9:17 PM

"Tables for Ladies"... yes in the kitchen peeling the potatoes and kneading the bread.

Posted by: Potsie at September 24, 2013 5:11 AM

Mumblix,

I think you're being facetious, but still..... the wages were pretty low in those days. The Depression hadn't really set in at that point, and the average Joe still had a job, probably paying something on the order of $10 to $15 a week for a 48-hour week. Rents and mortgage payments were pretty low, and so were utility bills, and suchlike, but there still wasn't a whole lot leftover at the end of the month, I'm sure.

But I think Joe Average could have afforded a hot dog or two a few times a week.

I think about how much got lost in this country from about 1920 to about 1950, and I wince. Yes, some of it should have passed away, and we're better off for it. But some of it shouldn't have, at least so soon. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time to about 1925 with a hundred bucks in my pocket, and go riding trains for about a week-- so much has vanished, and is fading beyond living memory....... One of the sadder sights in this world is a railroad reduced to two parallel streaks of rust in knee-high weeds, with trees springing up between the rails.

My two cents' worth.

Hale Adams
Pikesville, People's Democratic Republic of Maryland

Posted by: Hale Adams at September 24, 2013 5:47 PM

All the men back then, they wore slacks, jackets, probably a tie, and a hat on their head. Shaved every day even if they couldn't afford to go in and eat.

Personal pride. We'll probably see that in a museum someplace.

Posted by: chasmatic at September 26, 2013 9:09 AM