Admit it, now. The morose 30-ish guy with a frozen pizza and a six-pack on a Friday night--no wedding ring (yes, you checked that, too). The elderly lady buying 30 tins of King Oscar sardines (the pricey, extra-nummy ones), a giant bag of cat kibble, and a jar of pickles (true recent example). The middle-aged beer-belly guy buying a rack of ribs, 3 packs of hot dogs, buns, mustard, mayo, paper plates, chips, coleslaw, pop, a case of Bud Lite, BBQ sauce....and a jar of artichoke hearts. It's all you can do not to turn to him and say,
"OK, I see what you're doing, there, but--I have to know--what's with the artichoke hearts?!"
Or is Dusty D the only one who snoops like this? Hey, I'm interested in my fellow man--and I need to know what he's gonna do with those artichoke hearts. I need to know.
If you're like me, take a look at the 1913 grocery receipt below and see what conclusions you can draw about Ypsilantian J. H. Wortley.
In January of 1913, Wortley ran this month-long tab at longtime Michigan Ave. grocer Charles King's. Every shopper ran a tab. King's kept a big account book, wrote down your purchases when you stopped in, and you paid at month's end. Dusty D. has deliberately not done any research on J. H. Wortley. Was he single? Married? Children? Wealthy or poor? I have no idea. We'll look at each week of purchases in turn and I'll add my transcription below each one. What conclusions can you draw about J. H. Wortley based on his January 1913 grocery tab? And what's with the celery?!New Year's began on Wednesday in 1913. Here's the week of purchases from Wednesday, January 1 to Sunday, January 5.
Transcription:
Hey, Quaker Oats! Hm, on the 3rd Wortley's (guess): wife or servant buys lettuce...in January. And three celeries on the 4th--the first of many. Yummy oysters, too. Coconut and raisins?!...rather odd items, that. And seemingly fancy?
Since this list is so gigantic, we'll break it up into weekly posts. On to week 2!
I'm reading this backwards, from last entry to first (sorry) and so I have to guess, looking at all of the posts, this was a rather well-off person who regularly had celery as a winter vegetable, as well as oranges, coconut, lettuce, sardines and oysters. Says wealth to me and a very tony table. Lard would be used in pies and pastries, also speaks of a cook with time to create fine meals, probably a paid one.
ReplyDeleteLisele: Those are very interesting conclusions. I thought the same...all that tender lettuce, in January! I'll have to check up on J. H. Wortley and see if we're right.
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