Claire was out a few days ago and the phone rang \u2014 it rings a lot in our house. I pretty much never answer the phone \u2014 I figure if it\u2019s important they\u2019ll leave a message. But the ID that came up was someone we know, so for some reason I answered it\u2026. of course it was a telemarketer. I hung up on him. I was rude. I told him I had more MasterCards than I knew what to do with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, that got me to thinking about the \u2018old\u2019 days when I was growing up \u2014 of course there were no telemarketers then. The door-to-door salesman was the marketing man of his day \u2014 and \u2014 I don\u2019t remember him ever coming during dinner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, when someone knocks on our door, I usually check to see who it is \u2014 if I don\u2019t recognize them, I usually don\u2019t answer. But when I was a kid, seems like someone was always knocking on our front door\u2026 one of the neighborhood kids wanting to play, a neighbor wanting to borrow a cup of sugar, or very often, a door-to-door salesman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back then, door-to-door salesmen weren\u2019t a bad thing and my mother and especially my grandmother patronized these salesmen.
Maysville, didn\u2019t have a department store, or a convenience store, so these salesmen offered goods that weren\u2019t readily available locally. When I was a kid, the Sears catalog was the \u201cgo to\u201d place for shopping for things beyond the staples.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So my mom and grandmother did their at-home shopping with door-to-door salesmen. These salesmen filled a need in those days. Almost no family had two cars, my mom stayed home, and my dad drove the only car to work, so these salesmen made it easy to shop at the kitchen table. Things were simpler and trust among people existed back then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember door-to-door salesmen coming to our door selling vacuum cleaners, scissors, encyclopedias, Bibles, dishes, magazines, and whatever. But I remember my grandmother always bought things from the Watkins man that came regularly to her house. I don\u2019t know if Watkins products still exist, but they consisted of laundry soap (I think my grandmother referred to it as \u201cwashin’ powder,\u201d) salves, camphor, vanilla, etc. Their number one best seller at gramma\u2019s house was liniment \u2014 she was convinced that it would cure whatever ailed you. Grandma always made sure she had enough liniment to last until the Watkins man came again.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other regular at our house was the Fuller Brush guy \u2014 I always liked him. He came to the door dressed in a coat and tie, carrying a big briefcase and usually a couple of mops and brooms under his arm. I was always fascinated when he opened his briefcase, at all the brushes and little cleaning tools he had available \u2014 he always had one for whatever my mother or grandmother needed to clean. I think they almost always bought something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These days, the only person that comes to the door delivering items is the UPS person or the Amazon guy. We order online and they deliver the goods. Occasionally, we have children come to the door because they were sent out by their teachers, scout leaders, sports groups or others to raise money for various causes. Girl Scouts used to come to the door selling cookies, but now they hang out at supermarkets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what happened to those door-to-door salesmen? They\u2019ve been replaced by those irritating telemarketers who call during dinner \u2014 they\u2019ve replaced an entire culture of marketeers that we didn\u2019t mind seeing at our front door.\u00a0
The end of an era \u2014 just memories of days gone by\u2026. and I guess so are the days of always knowing your neighbors.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Claire was out a few days ago and the phone rang \u2014 it rings a lot in our house. I pretty much never answer the phone \u2014 I figure if it\u2019s important they\u2019ll leave a message. But the ID that … Continue reading