ice cold lemonade & hot dogs 1930's

[green papaya]

only 5 cents each

 

[Talbot]

Get em while they're hot

 

[green papaya]

Fried Egg Sandwiches,

Hamburger steaks & Banana Fritters only 10 cents

 

[LizzieMaine]

Had a walk-up hot dog stand hot dog for lunch today, but it cost me $2.50. Life is very sad.

 

[green papaya]

Had a walk-up hot dog stand hot dog for lunch today, but it cost me $2.50. Life is very sad.

the daily wages back in 1938 was around .25 cents an hour probably less before the minimum wage laws in 1938

low wage workers made $1.00 - $2.00 a day , professionals like doctors made $1.50 an hour or more

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, yes, I know that -- in 1939 my grandfather's entire income for the year was $475. But when he paid a nickel for a weenie, he got one that was plump, juicy, and all-meat. For two fifty I get one that's skinny and nitrite-injected and all-meat-flavored.

 

[Shangas]

[video=youtube;MVgW1SYqjRA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVgW1SYqjRA[/video]

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

How sanitary were the hot dog carts back then? Did they have to adhere to strict food handling laws or did anything go?

 

[LizzieMaine]

How sanitary were the hot dog carts back then? Did they have to adhere to strict food handling laws or did anything go?

There were health inspectors, but they had a hard time keeping up with the sheer number of "hot dog kennels" that existed. When the hot dog fad was at its peak in the early twenties, ramshackle wooden stands and carts were everywhere -- many of them fly-by-night enterprises that made people very suspicious. The rise of the first fast-food hamburger chains in the twenties -- White Castle, White Tower and the like -- was the direct result of public mistrust of weenie wagons. White Castle and its clones were sheathed in highly-polished porcelain enamel and had a rigorous sanitation code for employees -- setting the pattern that was duplicated later on by McDonalds and Burger King and the rest of the second-generation fast food operations.

 

[Harp]

But when he paid a nickel for a weenie, he got one that was plump, juicy, and all-meat. For two fifty I get one that's skinny and nitrite-injected and all-meat-flavored.

I can recommend Chicago Dogs at the Las Vegas airport-all Vienna beef and loaded like dice with everything on.

 

[Tomasso]

Yeah, Vienna dogs are the best. I wish they were more readily available outside the Midwest.

 

[green papaya]

a guy could take a girl out on a date go to dinner & a movie for a dollar

 

[Tomasso]

Sure but that dollar wasn't that easy to come by.

 

[Fading Fast]

There were health inspectors, but they had a hard time keeping up with the sheer number of "hot dog kennels" that existed. When the hot dog fad was at its peak in the early twenties, ramshackle wooden stands and carts were everywhere -- many of them fly-by-night enterprises that made people very suspicious. The rise of the first fast-food hamburger chains in the twenties -- White Castle, White Tower and the like -- was the direct result of public mistrust of weenie wagons. White Castle and its clones were sheathed in highly-polished porcelain enamel and had a rigorous sanitation code for employees -- setting the pattern that was duplicated later on by McDonalds and Burger King and the rest of the second-generation fast food operations.

The whole sanitary movement in food was something I felt as an echo in my parents and grandparents growing up in the 60s/70s. Nobody in my generation worried or thought much about the cleanliness of fast food places / diners / carts / etc. Even when an issue came up, our mind set was it was a "one off" and we didn't think past that. But my grandparents and parents were constantly talking about it being a "clean" place or a "we won't go there 'cause it's a dirty" place. And when we were in a diner, etc., my mother and father would comment on the cleanliness of the plates, table, kitchen, etc. (My Dad used to wipe his silverware on his napkin before using it no matter where we were.) As a kid, this just washed over me as parents being worried about nothing, but having now learned about the history of it - Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" and the general nastiness of many places in the 20s and 30s (not that many weren't clean) and the fear of disease (pre-antibiotic, in particular) - I understand where they were coming from. I've seen History Channel specials on this and - as Lizzie notes - White Castle was started with a large selling feature being its hospital-like cleanliness (hence, the white, the uniforms, the surfaces that could be easily cleaned and look clean). I feel almost nostalgic now when I think back on how important it was to them that a place was "clean" in a way that is different, more visceral than it is to most of us today.