LOOSE CHANGE...WHAT WILL IT BUY?

Politicians, bureaucrats and banking officials say the penny has become obsolete and should be done away with. Their reason is singular: "What will it buy?"

It's a good question. What will a penny, nickel, dime, or quarter -- small change -- still buy these days?

Surprisingly, they can still buy a lot, although not as much as 20-40 years ago.

At Juanita Ratliff's grocery store on South Sprigg, a penny will still buy a piece of candy or bubble gum. Other candy and sweet treats range from three cents each to 50 cents for candy bars.

Because of its location in a residential area with lots of children, and May Greene School just two blocks away, Ratliff gets a lot of business from her young customers. "They come in every morning on the way to school to buy their candy and gum, and they stop by on the way home in the afternoon," said Ratliff.

To help the children make their selection, Ratliff has all of the individually wrapped candy and treats in open boxes on the lower shelves that are easily accessible to short arms.

Ratliff and her late husband, Carl Ratliff, operated a grocery store on South Sprigg, in Smelterville, in the 1950s until the flood of 1973 forced them to relocate to the 1000 block of South Sprigg. She recalled what "small change" in the 1950s and 1960s would buy in their grocery store.

"You could buy a quart of milk for a quarter, or a half-gallon for 50 cents. Bread was around 18 to 25 cents a loaf. Frozen treats were a nickel or a dime; now they cost 50 cents," said Ratliff.

"Back then, you could buy an apple or orange for a nickel each; now they cost around 35 cents. Ground beef was 39 cents a pound, and cold cut sliced meat was 29-39 cents a pound. Porks chops were 59 cents a pound."

Ratliff recalls kids and adults who liked to buy the quart-size glass bottle of Canada Dry soda in all flavors, for only a quarter. This was long before the two-liter plastic bottle was ever thought of.

Ratliff's recollections prompted a search of old newspaper grocery ads of 1955 that turned up these "small change" prices: Coffee, 95 cents a pound; sliced bacon, 25 cents a pound; round steak, 77 cents a pound; three pounds of ground beef for 95 cents; a 50-pound bag of red potatoes, $1.39; ten pound bag of sugar, 99 cents, and ice cream, 77 cents a gallon.

But "small change" would buy a lot more than groceries in the not-to-distant past. On a hot summer afternoon, you could walk into the corner neighborhood grocery store, plunk down seven cents and get an icy cold Pepsi, Coke or Nehi soda. If you returned the glass bottle, you got your two-cent deposit back.

In the spring, a nickel would buy a pack of baseball cards and two sheets of gum. Yo-Yos, which every boy had to have at that time of the year, cost a quarter.

That morning cup of coffee was only a nickel, or maybe even as much as a dime. On your way home from work, you could fill up the family car with gasoline for anywhere from 18-25 cents a gallon, depending on whether there was a "price war" in progress between gasoline stations.

At the local drug store, the soda fountain clerk dispensed fountain Cokes for a dime, or ice cream floats for a quarter. For five cents, you could play the drug store's pinball machine that was equipped with real flippers.

For those with the nicotine habit, a pack of smokes ranged from 18 cents to a quarter at most stores. Cigars were a nickel or a dime each.

On a Saturday afternoon in the 1950s, two brothers could get into the Rialto Theater to see a double feature with one or two cartoons, a Three Stooges comedy, and the latest episode of the serial, for just 50 cents, and still have enough left over for each to buy a nickel Slo-Poke caramel sucker. At the local drive-in theaters, admission was only a $1 a carload on special nights.

On the way to the theater, a haircut at the barber shop ranged from 50 cents to a dollar. If the barber shop was downtown, you fed the parking meter a penny or nickel. Or, if you rode a Cape Transit Company bus to go to town, you paid 15 cents, which later went to a quarter.

In downtown Cape Girardeau, you could still buy a lot of things for a nickel or dime at Woolworth's Five and Dime Store. While you were downtown, a penny would buy gum from the gum ball machines located near the front door of many of the businesses. Today, that same gum costs anywhere from a nickel to a quarter.

On Sunday, a family of four could dine on the Chicken-in-A-Basket Special (one-half chicken, fries, cole slaw and hot roles) for $1.25 each.

Time has brought many changes since then. The dime no longer has a dime's worth of silver in it. The same for the quarter. Inflation has taken its toll on "small change" so that the dollar is worth far less than it was 30-40 years ago. But even in the '90s, as long as there are children, there will always be a place in our world for "small change."