Remember when you got a free 'church key' with every 6 pack?

[trof]

And EVERY restaurant had a box of advertising paper matchbooks at the cashier's counter?

Airlines put a complimentary 4 pack of Winston cigarettes on your meal tray.
And you got a meal in coach too.

[Laelth]

1. I remember the matches.

I remember getting a free pack of playing cards on airline flights too, but I am too young for all the other perks boomers used to get.

-Laelth

[Midnight Writer]

2. As a 12yo, played Crazy Ball at the County Fair. I won 15 cartons of cigarettes.

Didn't know what to do with them, so I handed them out to my friends.

[angstlessk]

3. Or walking over the tarmac to ascend the stairs to the plane

[Jamastiene]

4. I still have an empty matchbook from a restaurant

from Raleigh back in January 1987 when I went to see Joan Jett in concert. We ate at the restaurant near the club and they had the free matchbooks. My aunt said to grab some to remember that night. I'm glad I did. I will always remember that night anyhow, but having the matchbook is special too.

[Marcuse]

5. Visiting a Travel Agent who types something on a computer machine to plan your trip.

[barbtries]

6. some of that goes back even further than i do.

i remember the matches. i still have some.

[mobeau69]

7. Party lines unless your family could splurge on a private line. You pick up the phone

and one of your neighbors was using the line so you had to hang up and try again later. You weren’t supposed to listen in and could only interrupt if you had an emergency. LOL.

[trof]

8. But you DID listen in.

Our ring was 2 longs.
The other party was a long and a short.

[Lord Ludd]

32. As a kid I pitied the folks on our party line

My mom could talk for hours at a time on our phone (rented from AT&T for $2/month just like everyone else).

[mobeau69]

9. Had to dial 0 and talk to an operator to make a long distance call. You could

request person to person and collect calls.

[tblue37]

10. And everyone in the house had to be sooo quiet during a long distance call so you could

hear the person on the other end? It was as though they had to help across the distance!

[mobeau69]

13. LOL. Yep, and it was such a big deal.

[trof]

22. YUUUUGE! And you could game the system.

If your mom wanted to know if you'd arrived safely at your destination you called her collect and she refused the charges.

Long distance were hideously expensive then.

[tblue37]

23. And expensive. Remember waiting until 7:00 p.m. to get the reduced rates? nt

[mobeau69]

26. Oh yeah! Forgot about that.

[Ohiogal]

11. Cigarettes used to be sold in vending machines

in bars and restaurants. It was a common sight to see a man give his kid some $ to go buy him a pack from the vending machine.

[mobeau69]

15. 25 cents a pack.

[trof]

24. 23 cents and 2 pennies in the bottom of the pack cellophane.

[mobeau69]

12. You got your milk delivered and had a galvanized, supposedly insulated milkbox sitting on your front

Porch. There was a clip on the inside of the lid where you put a card with your order on it. The milk bottles were all glass and all half gallons. You sent an empty one on top so the milk man could see from the road that you had an order inside for him.

[OAITW r.2.0]

19. Remember the printed line on the glass bottles-

"They came to visit, not to stay. Return your bottles every day."

[Ferrets are Cool]

14. Or call collect and ask for Mickey Mouse

to let your family know you arrived at your destination safely....so there would be no long distance charges.

[mobeau69]

16. Yep. We use to call Grandma and Grandpa and let it ring twice to signal we were home from their

place safe and sound!

[Ferrets are Cool]

17. Yup!!

[bluedigger]

18. You're older than you think.

[mobeau69]

20. Cloth diapers that eventually made great rags to wash the car with.

[trof]

25. Oh HELL no. DISHCLOTHS!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. The matches lasted a very long time. Into the 80s at least

for some restaurants.

Airlines stopped giving away cigarettes at least by 1968.

[mobeau69]

27. You knew all of your friend's phone numbers by heart.

[mobeau69]

28. Your family doctor made house calls.

[packman]

29. I remember a free tie when you bought a suit

Last edited Mon Aug 3, 2020, 11:23 AM - Edit history (1)

And a tank full of gas when you bought a new car.

[moonscape]

30. I collected match covers, well, at first it was the

whole thing. Then, my parents were alarmed when I reached a couple trashcans full (from all over, European travels, US, etc) and talked me in to removing the matches from them as a fire hazzard.

There were some I wouldn't remove, like the ones that went an extra mile by having wide matches with advertising on each match. Those were super cool!

I think it was 10 years ago or so that I finally, in a declutter whirlwind, decided their time had come and tossed them. But not before looking at each one and reliving the memories, such that I could

[No Vested Interest]

31. I liked the little rectangular boxes that held small wooden matches.

Of course, there were the large boxes that held large-size wooden matches, used to light some stoves and ovens, and other things, (I guess- part of the mysterious adult world at that time.)

Enjoyed seeing the wooden matches burn.

[mobeau69]

33. Ohio Blue Tip! We called them kitchen matches.