For a snapshot of grocery prices in 1957, this ad for Thorofare Super Markets appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 17, 1957.  The prices look like bargains, but according to this online inflation calculator, a dollar in 1957 equates to $11.23 in 2024 money.  So the Swanson TV Dinner for 69 cents was actually equivalent to $7.75 today.

If you were shopping for dinner for the Class of 1957, what would you buy?  And since you now have that song stuck in your head anyway: