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Menu from the Fred Harvey Dining Room and Coffee Shop. El Paso


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Found on FB.

 

 

Menu from the Fred Harvey Dining Room and Coffee Shop. El Paso, Texas in c1910. You may need to zoom in to see everything. 

From the Culinary Institute of America, Conrad N. Hilton Library, Archives and Special Collections
http://ciadigitalcollections.culinary.edu/digital/collection/p16940coll1/id/7010/

 

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Oysters. I noticed that a half a dozen fried oysters was 50 cents. And I noticed that oysters on the half shell were 60 cents. But it didn't say how many come on the half shell.

 

You suppose you got a dozen for 60? Don't have to batter them or fry them - just open 'em. And you got to open them whether you going to cook them or not.

 

Hmmm.

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I like how they keep saying "head lettuce". So you know you're getting iceberg lettuce, and not dandelion greens or poke salat?

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The prices of things always seem wonky. But a dollar in 1910 would be valued at $33.19 today. So the sirloin steak for a $1.40 is $46.46 today. Yikes.

The average wage was $.22/hour. so the steak would take 6 hours of work. The menu is for rich people.

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1 hour ago, Tex Jones, SASS 2263 said:

I'll have KC Sirloin, blood red, with Delmonico potatoes and buttered broccoli, followed by vanilla custard and strawberries.   For a drink, a couple of bottles of Ballantine's and Arbuckle's for dessert.   My pal, Joe is picking up the tab! :D

Well, I can agree with the vanilla custard and strawberries, and in a pinch I'll take the potatoes.  I'll take the sirloin too, if you can cook it...up to a medium rare.

 

My folks moved down form the caves and trees many generations ago and we don't eat raw meat.  (Dang Texas barbarians. Probably cannibals, too.)

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It's funny.

 

Based on TV and movies and comics, cowboys either want their steak bloody or burnt to a crisp.

 

They will tell the waiter "knock off his horns, cut off his balls, and hold a match under his ass. Then bring him to the table".

 

Or when the food is brought they will poke it with their fork and say, "MOOOOO! HEY! THIS AIN'T DEAD YET!!"

 

But they never seem to eat it medium rare.

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34 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Well, I can agree with the vanilla custard and strawberries, and in a pinch I'll take the potatoes.  I'll take the sirloin too, if you can cook it...up to a medium rare.

 

My folks moved down form the caves and trees many generations ago and we don't eat raw meat.  (Dang Texas barbarians. Probably cannibals, too.)

i like mine medium thanks. 

 

TM

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Most of those prices are in cents. 
I remember a teacher telling us that a slice of pie with a hot beverage would cost 1¢ in the late 1700’s. Now it’s about a thousand times higher. 

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39 minutes ago, Pat Riot said:

Most of those prices are in cents. 
I remember a teacher telling us that a slice of pie with a hot beverage would cost 1¢ in the late 1700’s. Now it’s about a thousand times higher. 

 

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d029289565

 

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Screenshot_20241103_103026_Chrome.thumb.jpg.9973577518553ed6ec1f1ca97269826d.jpg

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everything gets more expensive as folks make more money - there is a reason they keep pushing the minimum wage up - most contracts are tied to that in some way so if it goes up so does the contract , dont get me wrong im not against folks doing better and making more , it would be nice if it was really an increase , 

 

in actuality the cost of everything goes up and the value of your dollar goes down , 

 

in the depression anything you had was worth something , in the war most of what you had was worth something , today not so much , 

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We don't have to go back that far. In 1967-1970, as an undergraduate with two children, I supported the family and paid tuition with a swing shift job that paid about $3,500 per year. A solid working man's salary then.

 

In law school in Salem Or 1970-1973, our rent was $100 a month for a [very] small 2-bedroom house, gas was 25 cents per gallon, milk 25 cents per gallon, bread (on sale) sometimes 10 cents per loaf. We qualified for Abundant Foods, the Dept of Agriculture program, before food stamps, that provided staples: flour, cheese, canned chicken, sugar, butter, and such.

 

Even though we lived it, it's still hard to believe. My first salary as a lawyer was $12,500 per year. My wife and I danced in the streets that the six years of toil had been worth it....

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9 hours ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

We don't have to go back that far. In 1967-1970, as an undergraduate with two children, I supported the family and paid tuition with a swing shift job that paid about $3,500 per year. A solid working man's salary then.

 

In law school in Salem Or 1970-1973, our rent was $100 a month for a [very] small 2-bedroom house, gas was 25 cents per gallon, milk 25 cents per gallon, bread (on sale) sometimes 10 cents per loaf. We qualified for Abundant Foods, the Dept of Agriculture program, before food stamps, that provided staples: flour, cheese, canned chicken, sugar, butter, and such.

 

Even though we lived it, it's still hard to believe. My first salary as a lawyer was $12,500 per year. My wife and I danced in the streets that the six years of toil had been worth it....

Yeah, I remember those days when $100 a week was great money and you were able to pay all your bills and have some left over for going out to dinner or a movie without worrying about it. Life was a lot easier and slower paced back then. I do miss those days for sure.

 

TM

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