America has always had a talent for creating fads that make sense for a moment….and then vanish without a trace. Our traditions are no different. In fact, some are messy & some are silly, but they’re all part of our history. Here are twelve odd traditions that Americans invented that disappeared. Which of these would you like to bring back?
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Ragamuffin Day
As part of Ragamuffin Day, kids in New York went around on Thanksgiving morning, dressed in rags or odd costumes. They’d knock on doors & ask for change or candy. In fact, parades of ragamuffins filled the sidewalks, creating chaos & noise as they went. But Macy’s parade had stolen the spotlight by the 1940s. This meant the ragged outfits disappeared.
Goldfish swallowing
A Harvard student once made ten bucks by gulping down a live goldfish & that single dare turned into a short-lived college craze. Soon enough, campuses across the country counted fish & held bets. Yet the whole thing fizzled out just as quickly as it started, which is probably because the shock wore off. Most students just…moved on.
Soap carving contests
It sounds strange, but kids used to get bars of Ivory soap in art class. They were told to make animals or faces, whatever they could imagine, with them. Procter & Gamble also sponsored contests with prizes & exhibits. But once they stopped pushing it, schools dropped the activity & the bars went back to sinks.
Taxi dance halls
In taxi dance halls, you’d walk in & buy a stack of ten-cent tickets. Then, you’d use one of these tickets to dance with a partner for a single song. It was a popular event from the 1910s through the ’30s, as it gave lonely guys a way onto the dance floor. Yet the system fell out of fashion.
Womanless weddings
Small towns used to throw entire weddings where every part, including the bride, was played by men. These were known as “womanless weddings.” Essentially, they were a kind of fundraising activity that involved locals filling theaters to laugh through the show, with exaggerated costumes & plenty of goofy skits. But the bookings slowed down by the middle of the century.
Shiveree
That’s not all for weddings. In farm towns across the Plains and Midwest, weddings didn’t end at the reception because neighbors sometimes showed up later for the shiveree. They’d bang pots & shoot off guns while making a racket under the couple’s window. Sometimes, they’d even drag the groom out of bed for a joke.
Straw hat smashing season
Who would’ve thought wearing a straw hat could be so dangerous? Doing so past September 15 used to mean packs of kids would chase you down & crush the hat on your head. One of these “hat raids” became a riot in New York in 1922. However, fashion rules later relaxed & nobody bothered keeping score anymore.
Bladderball
Fall weekends at Yale featured students rolling out a giant leather ball & shoving it across campus lawns in wild scrums. Each college would claim victory, no matter what happened. And the whole thing always led to extensive damage, which is why the administration banned the event in the early ‘80s.
Bank Night
During the Great Depression, it was hard for theaters to fill their seats with customers, so they came up with “Bank Night.” Locals could register for free & it worked like a lottery. Anyone whose name was called would win cash, no ticket required, although most people still bought one. It worked for a while. But lawsuits & lottery laws shut the gimmick down.
Halloween cabbage night
New England kids used to have their own version of Mischief Night, called Cabbage Night. The name was rather literal because it involved kids stealing cabbages out of gardens & throwing them at…anything. It didn’t matter if it was houses or unlucky neighbors, both of them were victims. Some towns got hit harder than others.
Turtle derbies
At county fairs across the Midwest, turtle races were a real tradition, and kids would show up with painted numbers on their turtles’ shells. Everyone crowded around a chalk circle before somebody yelled, “Go.” It was so popular that Kentucky had its own annual derby. But by the 1970s, most towns had stopped holding them & they’re a relic of the past now.
Taffy pulls
Families in cold-weather states invited friends over for taffy pulls during the 1800s. How did it work? Well, they boiled sugar & stretched out ropes of candy before eating them together. The night was more of a social hangout since people remembered the gathering more than the candy itself. Sadly, the tradition disappeared after World War II and never really came back.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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