When we would buy our groceries 'on the book'

                  Each of the half-dozen Philadelphia residential neighborhoods where I grew up in the 1930s and early '40s had many things in common.  Within walking distance of every home, there was a trolley car line, two or more drug stores, a few penny-candy and magazine stores, a few small bakeries and at least a half dozen movie theaters.
                  A ride on the trolley was 8 cents.  Magazines sold for a nickel or a dime.  Most candies cost a penny, with the larger candy bars selling for a nickel.  Admission to a movie was 10 cents for youngsters and about 15 cents for adults.  A seat in the bleachers at a Phillies or A's baseball game was 25 cents, and a grandstand seat was 50 cents.
                  At the local soda fountains, double-decker ice cream cones and ice cream sodas were a nickel, sundaes were a dime, and milkshakes 15 cents.  At local diners or at the lunch counters at Woolworth's Five and Ten Cent Stores, a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate was a nickel, and a hamburger or just about any other type of sandwich was a dime or 15 cents.
                 A quart of milk or a loaf of bread was a dime, and was delivered to your doorstep on a daily basis.
                Occasionally, local hucksters would drive through the streets (mostly in horse-drawn wagons) hawking fresh vegetables and fruits by loudly calling out their wares.  A pound of tomatoes, a dozen bananas (when available), or a dozen ears of corn cost a dime.  A quart of fresh strawberries was 15 cents.
                Yet the most important sources of food for a hungry populace during those darkest days of the Great Depression were the hundreds of grocery stores that dotted the city.  It was a rare street corner where no grocery store could be found.
               Back then, with most large supermarkets still far in the future, the bulk of food shopping was done at the corner grocery stores.
               There, a chicken, a pound of steak, ground beef, sliced ham or several pork chops could be had for about 50 cents.  A box of Wheaties (or some other breakfast cereal) and most cans of fruits or vegetables sold for about 10 cents.  A pack of Tastykake cupcakes or Krimpets was a nickel, as was a 12-ounce bottle of Pepsi-Cola.
               Since it was at the peak of the Depression, pennies to buy food items were scarce.  For those individuals lucky enough to find employment, a salary of $20 or $25 a week was considered a decent income.  Anyone making $100 a week was considered rich.
               It was also a time long before credit or debit cards would come into use, and just about every working-class family was struggling to live from payday to payday.  This, combined with the low wages of that era, generally posed a severe problem for the average family when it came to putting the proper amount of food on the table.
              Fortunately, the problem was partially solved when, in nearly every city neighborhood in most of these grocery stores, a system of credit slowly evolved.
             Known as "buying on the book," the system allowed families who were cash-strapped to purchase a high percentage of the food necessary to sustain their families.
            Individuals would shop at the corner grocery stores for their food or other household necessities, usually on a daily basis.  But instead of the customer paying cash, the store owner would jot down and total up the amounts for each item using a pencil and writing on the side of a paper shopping bag.  He would then enter that total under the customer's name in a small notebook, thus the term "buying on the book."
           There were no credit checks, and the only guarantee the grocer had that he would be paid was the word of his customers, most of whom he knew as neighbors.
           At the end of each week-------usually Friday or Saturday------- after the customer had received his weekly pay, he would stop in the store and settle his account.
          Another form of this activity was called "buying on the card."  It worked essentially the same way as "buying on the book," except that instead of having names and purchases entered in a notebook, the grocer would use a small card for each individual, and the individual purchases would be entered on the card.  The cards would be then be filed alphabetically by name in a small box (generally a cigar box), or something similar.
          While the average weekly family food bill run-up in this manner was usually less than 10 dollars, there were all too many times when the family's breadwinner had been laid off from his job, or his hours of employment had been cut back, and he was unable to come up with the full amount owed.
          In many cases, the grocer would continue to carry the customer for another week, or sometimes even longer.
          Fortunately, most of those "on the book" or "on the card" were honest, and when their financial situation improved, they would usually pay what they owed.
         Between the earliest years of the Depression and the end of World War II, there were legions of local grocers who provided these humanitarian services.
        They were all part of the GReat Depression's unsung heroes, and it's hard to imagine how most of the city's population would have survived those somber days without them.