I was sitting with my grandparents the other day, and I started asking them questions about life back then. I wasn’t inquiring about history, I was asking about their day to day. The little things you don’t really think about.
And do you know what happened? They just started talking and it was heartwarming to see the impact that these simple day-to-day things had on their lives. Here are the customs they miss that are never coming back.
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.
Grocery stores giving out “free samples” as daily routine
Sample offerings in grocery stores were more common in the mid-1900s. Clerks would often cut off a chunk of cheese, dispense a cube of ham or hand over an orange.
It was less about sampling a brand and more the store’s way of being hospitable and encouraging return visits. Boomers recall it as a routine, ongoing part of shopping. Samples now are event-like, reserved for large campaigns and lack the casual warmth.
Wedding and funeral guest books
Guest books at ceremonies were small, yet powerful. Signing your name or writing a short message left a physical record of who was there. Many boomers still hold on to these books.
The custom has been all but replaced by online RSVPs and check-ins. My grandma mentioned, “It felt like leaving a piece of yourself in someone else’s memory.”
Trading recipes on handwritten cards
“There were recipe boxes in every house,” Grandma said, smiling at the memory.
The cards were not pristine, edges bent or stained with butter, but that was their beauty. Neighbors passed them like little notes, a pie recipe here, a casserole there.
Polishing shoes on Sunday evenings
They kept recalling tales about shoes and giving them fresh life every Sunday night. The polish stained your hands, the smell permeated the kitchen.
Pride swelled as they gleamed once more. For my grandparents it represents a forgotten lesson about discipline and care which shaped their early years.
Drive-in bank tellers with pneumatic tubes
Wait, there used to be drive-thru banking before ATMs? “Yeah, there were these pneumatic tubes,” says my grandpa.
“You’d drop your check or cash in the tube, send it, and hear the ‘whoosh’ as the teller at the other end got it.” He even called it “oddly playful.” These tubes still exist but mostly are a memory.
Handwritten letters from faraway relatives
They recall slowly opening the envelope, and the act of reading, and noticing the little doodles or fancy script that spoke of a human touch. “It was like somebody was stretching out and touching you.”
Listening to a full record without skipping tracks
If you bought a record in the past, you had no choice but to sit through all of its songs.
My grandpa remembers listening to songs he hated to get to the ones he wanted. The lost art of simply listening taught patience and a musical discipline that’s rare now.
Standing phone booths with phone books attached
In most public phone booths you could expect to see a telephone directory (sometimes a full city book, sometimes a smaller, thinner edition) clipped to the booth with a metal chain so no one could walk off with it.
They were used constantly to look up numbers, especially in the days before 411 directory assistance became widespread.
Collecting restaurant and hotel matchbooks
There was a time when it felt almost indecent to leave a hotel or restaurant without a matchbook. They were there for the taking, on display.
Best of all, they had the logo of the place you had visited on them. Non-smokers collected them, too. Once smoking bans took effect, matchbooks stopped being distributed, leading to the decline of the habit.
Saving bottle caps for prizes
Soda bottle caps were like mini-lotteries back then. Coca-Cola and Pepsi offered unique promotions that transformed every soda purchase into an exciting adventure. My grandpa recalls times when he and his buddies gathered big piles of soda bottle caps and opened the liners eagerly to see what they would find.
They usually found a free drink, but sometimes there were larger prizes. No matter they found something or not, it was the excitement that counted and kids were trading caps like jewels around the neighborhood.
Like our content? Be sure to follow us.
