If only we were making the money we make today, yet pay the same grocery prices that people in Cochrane were paying in 1957.
As we look at Cochrane history, it’s fun to check out newspaper ads from “back then” and compare grocery prices to what we pay in 2020.
This month in 1957, Russell’s Grocery and Feed on Railway Street was selling Devon sausage for 33 cents a pound and Schwartz’s peanut butter, a 16-ounce jar for 39 cents.
Cochrane Public Library archivist Ardis Proulx-Chedore points out a seasonal item.
“The most popular Halloween snack that was advertised in the Cochrane newspapers were peanuts,” she says, “at usually about 69 cents for two pounds.”
At Russell’s you could also get a box of assorted Weston suckers for 79 cents. It contained 72 suckers. And Halloween kisses came in a one-pound cellophane bag for 41 cents.
Ardis Proulx-Chedore hosts “Archives Live” every Friday afternoon at 2:30 on the library’s Facebook page. The archives are where we get our weekly history feature.