A Nickel Still Buys a Cup of Coffee in Josie’s Cafe, Heimdal, N.D.

Remember when coffee was a nickel a cup?

That was a long time ago--when candy bars, cigars and five-stick packs of chewing gum also cost 5 cents.

Coffee is still a nickel a cup at Josie’s Cafe in Heimdal, a tiny town on the North Dakota prairie at the end of a seldom-traveled narrow country road, with a population of 40 people, two dogs and 25 cats.

Josie Georgeson, 75, a loquacious widow, has owned and operated Josie’s Cafe on her front porch since 1954.

Never Raised Price

She has never upped the price of coffee. It was a nickel a cup the day she opened her cafe 31 years ago and it is still a nickel a cup today.

“I’m not goin’ broke. As long as I come out even on it I’ll never raise the price,” she said.

Breakfast at Josie’s Cafe is a cup of coffee and a homemade carmel roll or coffee cake. She charges 15 cents for the roll and 15 cents for a piece of her coffee cake.

“Josie ought to go to work for Reagan and get the deficit straightened out,” mused Norman Heintz, 55, while munching on a carmel roll.

“Something’s wrong when she can sell coffee for a nickel and he pays $500 for a hammer.”

Lunch at the cafe is 95 cents--homemade soup, sandwich and coffee.

“At night I just cook for myself. Everybody in town eats supper at home,” she explained.

Her customers are local farmers who come from miles around and section crews from the Burlington-Northern Railroad.

“This is a gathering place. Everybody can find out what everybody else is doing,” said Georgeson between pours of hot java.

The people of Heimdal don’t have a newspaper. They don’t need one with Josie’s Cafe.

There is one child in Heimdal, Kristy Duffey, 10, a fourth-grader who goes to Fessenden School, 10 miles down the road. The rest of the townspeople average 70 in age.

Georgeson is mayor, police chief, fire chief, the whole works in the tiny town. Except postmaster.

The post office is next door. “Is the postmaster in here all the time for coffee?” the friendly front-porch cafe owner is asked.

“He has never been in the cafe,” Georgeson replied.

Art Lindgren, 75, has been Heimdal’s postmaster for 36 years. “Do you ever go over to Josie’s place?” he is asked.

“Never. I’m too busy. I don’t get around much,” Lindgren said as he excused himself to return to his work in the post office in the living room of his house.