A Loaf of Bread Was 9 Cents: What the World Looked Like When Our Residents Were Born

The average age of a Summerset resident is 83, which means most of the people who call our communities home were born right around 1943. It’s a fun bit of math that opens the door to something we don’t talk about nearly enough: just how different the world looked the year they arrived in it, and how much history our residents in Reno, Rancho Cordova, and Lincoln have lived through, not just read about.

Here’s a snapshot of what things cost the year many of our residents were born:

• A loaf of bread: 9 cents
• A quart of milk: 15 cents
• A dozen eggs: 45 cents
• A gallon of gas: 20 cents
• A movie ticket: 25 cents
• A new car: about $900
• A new house: about $3,600
• Average yearly income: about $2,000

Take a second with that last one. A house cost less than two years of the average salary. Try explaining that to a grandchild house-hunting today.

But prices are just the opening line. What really makes this fun is what was happening in the towns our residents grew up in and around because Reno, NV Rancho Cordova, CA and Lincoln, CA were each becoming the places we know today right as our residents were becoming who they are.

Reno: The Biggest Little City Comes Alive

When our Reno residents were children, downtown Reno was in the middle of transforming into one of the most famous small cities in America. In 1935, a young Raymond “Pappy” Smith opened Harold’s Club with his brother and by the time our residents were teenagers, it had grown into what was reportedly the largest casino operation in the world, bigger than anything in Las Vegas at the time. Add in Reno’s reputation as the place people came for a quick, no-questions-asked divorce, and you’ve got a downtown that was buzzing with neon, out-of-towners, and stories long before the Riverwalk we know today ever existed.

If you grew up in Reno in the 1940s and ’50s, chances are you remember a downtown that felt like the center of the universe, even if a movie ticket only cost a quarter.

Rancho Cordova: From Orchard Land to Rocket Town

Rancho Cordova’s transformation might be the most dramatic of the three. In 1951, when our residents were just entering grade school, a company called Aerojet arrived and began turning quiet ranch and orchard land east of Sacramento into a rocket-testing operation. It grew fast by 1963, Aerojet employed 34,000 people, and the booms from rocket engine tests were reportedly felt as far away as Davis and Placerville. For a generation of kids who grew up nearby, the sound of the ground shaking wasn’t a mystery, it was just Tuesday.

It’s a wild thing to think about: some of our Rancho Cordova residents watched their hometown go from fruit orchards to the literal Space Race in the span of a childhood.

Lincoln: A Town Built on Clay

Lincoln’s story is quieter, but no less proud. Since 1875, the Gladding, McBean pottery works had been the heartbeat of the town. For generations, you either worked at the factory or knew someone who did. By the time our residents were growing up, the company’s Franciscan dinnerware line (introduced in 1934) was already a household name, later even finding its way onto Air Force One. The workers built their own ballpark, McBean Stadium, and their own swimming pool. It was the kind of hometown pride you don’t see manufactured today, it was earned, brick by clay brick.

We Want to Hear Your Story

This is just the opening chapter. The real stories: the drive-in theaters, the first jobs, the school dances, the moment gas prices felt shocking, belong to our residents, not a history page. If you’re a resident, a family member, or a friend of Summerset with a memory of growing up in Reno, Rancho Cordova, or Lincoln, we’d love to feature it in a future post (and yes, photos are very welcome).

Stop by your Summerset community and share your story with our activities team or bring it up next time you visit you might just end up as our next feature.