Drive...for your Sunday Dinner

August 11, 1928, Appleton Post-Crescent

Here at the blog, we often look askance at historical ads, commenting on prices and menu items which, though proper for the time, are taken out of context to the present day, and seem extremely inexpensive or unbelievably out of fashion.   Case in point- this Hotel Menasha ad.  $1.00 per plate seems rather affordable, wouldn't you say?  Even for 1928.  What amazes me is the command to "Drive to Hotel Menasha for your Sunday Dinner."  Perhaps this appealed to the more genteel crowd in Appleton who might find it exotic to drive down to Menasha in their Hupmobiles.  Did very many folks own cars in 1928? Especially in the Fox Valley?  I know we were in that transitioning phase when mass transit (the interurban) had just been phased out in favor of motor cars and buses, but I find it hard to believe everybody had a car in 1928.  Still, trends are to be followed in the retail and service industry games, so a call for car owners to drive to downtown Menasha might have been just the ticket.  Census statistics for the era show 24 million car registrations across the US and the trend would only increase, until the Great Depression years of the early 1930's caused a decrease.