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Overheard in 1961...

  • "I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's soon going to be impossible to buy a weeks groceries for R15."
  • "They want to call Johanesburg's south western townships Verwoerdstad. But it looks like the name "Partheid Township" will win. The locals call it Soweto but that will never catch on."
  • "Do you think the police will ever catch this Nelson Mandela fellow??"
  • "What's all this about the Russians walling off Berlin?"
  • "I shouldn't have bought this merc, it costs almost R3 to fill it up."
  • "What? Twenty five cents a packet? If they go up any more I'm going to give up smoking."
  • "They're predicting that it is going to cost 3 cents to post a letter next year."
  • "Look at those stupid kids with ducktail haircuts. One day boys will be wearing their hair as long as girls."
  • "I don't believe the bioscope does these kids any good. They now openly say "bloody" and "damn" and kids are bound to follow suit."
  • "Guess what? Amanda's got one of those electric typewriters! I mean, seriously!"
  • "Some of those Wimbledon tennis players are saying they should get at least R500 for playing in the finals."
  • "Have you seen the new Chevy station wagon? R1200! Who's going to pay R1200?"
  • "Its ridiculous. They want R500 for an acre in Bryanston! It'll cost at least another R8000 to put a house on it!"
  • "I'm going to ask for a rise. As a short hand typist I should be getting at least R120 a month."
  • "I Took my wife to a restaurant last night - they wanted R2-50 for 12 queen prawns! I ordered baracuda instead - R1-50. My favourite red wine's gone up to 35c."
  • "Do you know that there are 100 computers in South Africa? and by 1962 they expect another 20! And somebody predicts that NCR's R1 million room sized computer will be down to pocket size by 1985 and sell for R10."
  • "You like it? I paid R3-50 for the blouse and R7-95 for the skirt at Foschini."
  • "Pantihose? what on earth do you think pantihose are?"
  • "Our favourite seaside hotel now wants R20 a week for the 2 of us. We've cancelled of course."
  • "If they think I'll pay 30 cents for a haircut they can forget it."

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