Once upon a time, people smoked cigarettes.
Not everyone — but pretty close.
News anchors smoked on TV. Doctors recommended their favorite brands, in ads.
There were “smoking sections” on planes.
And everywhere, there were matches. After all, those cigarettes didn’t light themselves.
You picked them up at restaurants, stores and banks. They were free — and free marketing for businesses.
Some people collected matchbook covers. Most are long gone.
But not Peggy Lehn’s.
She kept them, all these years. They’re from all over the world.
Recently, she shared them with me. The matchbooks from Daytona, San Francisco and Hong Kong were interesting.
The ones from Westport were much more intriguing.
Some advertised memorable restaurants. There’s a hometown bank, a drugstore — and 3 places that are still around.
Do these memories “light up” your day? Click “Comments” below.
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Oh, that Westport Bank & Trust sailboat makes me nostalgic. It was also printed on the Compo Beach tide table the bank handed out every year, which my mother always taped inside a kitchen cabinet.
Oh, Danny – thanks for reminding me of each of these places. It’s always humbling when my generation is the subject of a “Friday Flashback” post. In fact, Peggy Lehn and I were in the same class at Staples.
I have a friend who has a similar collection. He framed them in a shadowbox and it looks really cool hanging on his wall!
The Matchbooks bring back lots of memories. I never smoked but both my parents as part of the WWII generation smoked like chimneys! We have saved match books and really don’t remember why. I’ll look to see if we have any form Westport.
Dan
I pick up trash in Norwalk and Westport daily, and Plenty of people are still smoking,I find hundreds of butts a day!
Nice collection, Peggy! I like vintage matchbooks too. They’re cultural artifacts from a time and place which has mostly vanished. Here are a few of my local favs: Stauffer Chemicals (inside, each match is printed with the name of a scary sounding agricultural chemical the company produced – oy, don’t around that stuff!); The Clam Box (“Recommended by Gourmet and AAA”); Connolly’s Seafood & Steakhouse (I don’t recall this fact but the matchbook assures that the salad bar is “famous”; The Peppermill (they use the old school – and much cooler – abbreviation for our state: Conn.); Chez Pierre (tel. CA 7-5295); Elwood’s Drive In (“Famous Lobster Pulls” – I never went there but I imagine this was a menu item and not a countertop crustacean cage match).
I just sent Dan a picture of the matchbook from Pearl’s on Riverside (I don’t think I can post a pic).
Still can get ’em at Harvest Wine Bar…as well as some of the best meals in town and the friendliest servers on the planet.
Have been inside at least 8 of these place in during the 90s/00s, thanks for sharing.