Easter Parade of 1966 Grocery Ads

Have you thought about your Easter menu yet?

I'm not sure what I'm doing this year. Last year I ordered a Honey Baked Ham online. But when I went to the low budget 'seasonal' store at (what's left of) Midway Mall, they said, "Sorry, Charlie – no ham for you!" They pointed out that I should have taken a squint at the fine print – that there was something that said they reserve the right to sell my ham to someone else. That literally left a bad taste in my mouth.

Sixty years ago you might have been perusing the grocery ads in the Journal while trying to decide what to serve on Easter Sunday, such as ham vs. kielbasa. (I know a lot of people who served ham for Thanksgiving, so maybe they're stuffing a turkey for Easter.)

Anyway, here's a not-so-ample sample of supermarket ads, all from the Journal of April 6, 1966. They include IGA, Pick-n-Pay, Fisher's, Food Fair and A&P. Most of the ads have some great Easter clip art. And it's fun to compare ham prices.

You hear a lot about food anxiety these days. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot of it in Lorain County right now. In Lorain, the Apples store on Meister Road (Mom's favorite) closed last year, and the brand new Grocery Outlet on Leavitt Road that opened last fall is already shuttered. In Oberlin, the IGA on State Route 511 near my place of employment closed as well. So there are fewer choices than ever. 

I go to a lot of places for particular things – Marc's, Giant Eagle, Walmart, Meijer and even Drug Mart. Once in a while I would go into Lorain to the Apple's and get some of their chicken tenders, which I thought were better than Raising Cane's.