Oops, didn’t mean to get you too excited about the prospect of fresh strawberries! The following cash account list from the 1930s was found in the back of a church minute book from Fox Harbour, associated with Three Harbours Pastoral Charge in Truro Presbytery. In the days when paper was more expensive, it was not uncommon for books to serve several purposes. In this case, the book contained session minutes, Study Club minutes, and apparently grocery lists too. You will note that 16 boxes of strawberries came to a grand total of $1.60 or 10 cents per box. One of my co-workers figured that even with inflation, that would translate to a cost of $1.50 per box today. 45 cents would net you 3 packages of tobacco and 40 pounds of barley came to a grand total of $2.52.
In case you haven’t heard of some of the items before, Rinso was a soap powder for washing clothes; Zig Zag was a brand of cigarette papers; and the item listed as “Old Vergenia” most likely refers to Old Virginia, which was a brand of tobacco.
