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On the date

Thursday, July 22, 1920

From the day

Perspective: The Anxious Local · Tactile

I grip my rough, beaded silk purse a little tighter as I eye the grocer; eleven cents for a single loaf of bread is enough to make a girl’s head spin. Between the sky falling on those poor observers in that dirigible and the price of everything rising, I’m half-convinced some city thug is trying to bump off my savings entirely. As I pass the shop window, the soft, wooly limbs of a Raggedy Andy doll look far more comforting than the scratchy rayon of my own stiff dress. I pull my cloche hat down low against the summer heat, wishing for a simpler time before everything became so dangerously expensive and loud.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

Eight Yacht Observers in Dirigible Hurled Into Sea as Bag Collapses; One Reporter Sends Out Bulletins by Wireless While the Navy Blimp Falls--Another Tells of Thrilling Ten-Mile Straggle After the Rescue.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

Whispering

John Schonberger

The must-have

Raggedy Andy

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

applesaucebaloneycheaterscrush

Flapper

bee's kneescat's pajamasgiggle watershebahotsy-totsy

Gangster

big cheesebump offstool pigeongatfall guy

Catchphrases of 1920

  • Return to normalcy

Tech Check

Commercial Radio Stations (KDKA), Hair Dryer & Band-Aid.

Style of 1920

Silhouette: Straight and drop-waisted (Flapper)

Material: Beaded silk and rayon

  • Bobbed hair
  • Cloche hats
  • T-strap heels

Cost of Living (1920)

Loaf of Bread

$0.11

Gallon of Gas

$0.30

Average Home

$6,296

New Car

$575

Meanwhile

  • Post-WWI RecessionSevere deflation and collapse of agricultural prices.

Time Elapsed

38,669 days ago

(105 years, 344 days)