Memorial Day, 1966

     We think that all discoveries made in the pages of our used books are interesting, though not all in the same way.  Some are historical and rare, some poignant, some humorous, while others are just plain quirky.  This week’s find falls somewhere between the realms of the historical and quirky, all tied into one.

     Hidden inside a 1950 hardcover copy of a classic, “The Scarlet Letter,” was a Mobil Oil Company gas receipt purchased by a man in Exeter, NH, on May 30, 1966.  This date was Memorial Day during that year and while we don’t know where he was going that day, we did some research to find out what he may have been thinking about as he watched the scenery speed by his car window 51 years ago. 

     Memorial Day always seems to illicit a mix of emotions from people, and in addition to these feelings, we surmise that the man may have been concerned about the 300 U.S. airplanes that were bombing Vietnam, or anxious to see if NASA’s robotic spacecraft, Surveyor 1, would actually land on the moon to gather the data needed to launch the upcoming Apollo missions (after all, President Kennedy had set a goal for the U.S. to land a man on the moon by 1970).  Or, perhaps he was feeling a little lighter as the day took shape because the weather was a promising 62 degrees and sunny.  Such buoyancy may have found him listening on his car radio to the Indianapolis 500 race when driver Graham Hill crossed the finish line in first place.

     Whatever the destination or mood, we do know that the customer who bought the gas for his car that day was a NH resident and he purchased his fuel for a total of $3.20.  Today, that would mean that he bought less than two gallons of gas.  Guess how many gallons he bought in May of 1966?  You are going to sigh when we reveal it, but we must.  The answer is: 10.  Yep, you got it: the NH man bought 10 gallons of gas for a total of roughly .32 cents a gallon.  Things have changed just a little since then, huh?

     The 1950 copy of “The Scarlet Letter” (including the receipt) it is for sale here at Bayswater for the price of $15.00.  To catch up with our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can always check us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in Center Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!