Cigarettes and gold Dunhill lighters – Smoking was accepted on airplanes until 1988-90 when gradually outlawed in the USA.When the weather turned bad, even the hundreds of phones in the ATL concourses would always be occupied. Pay phones – the ubiquity of airport pay phones is nearly forgotten, a necessary partner to the 800 numbers we all had to phone to make or change airline, rental car, and hotel reservations.Dressing well and being polite and undemanding went a long way toward getting into first class and not getting a center seat in coach. Airport ticket agent and gate agent discretion in seat assignments, including upgrades – It paid to get to know my gate agents, and to charm them if I could.Boarding passes were only issued at gate check-in desks, with seat stickers from a master sheet of the particular airplane’s configuration. Physical tickets were like cash if lost or stolen. Physical tickets & boarding passes (with little seat stickers) – Before e-tickets, I would have been stranded without hard copy ticket stock, either hand-printed or (later) printed by computer.That’s when the brand Hartmann stood for something. For many years until my knees complained I trekked across the world shouldering a Hartmann folding suit bag, and it still functions and looks good. My friend, colleague, and genius mentor Bob Isenhour carried an indestructible Acme leather bag everywhere, so durable I believe it could stop a bullet. Carry-on with shoulder straps (no wheels) – The standard luggage of those early days.One is the classic hinged leather rectangular briefcase reputedly favored by drug dealers now to smuggle cash. Briefcases full of file folders – Ach du lieber! I still have four fine-crafted, hand-stitched briefcases of calf leather and ostrich that will last forever.Shoe polish for every night brush up – Both black and brown polishes were once a standard packing item.If I showed up at an airport wearing what used to be my routine choice of buffed Northhamptonshire leather Goodyear-welted shoes, people would think I was demented. Fine leather business shoes – Just go to HBO MAX and look at Bill Maher’s spit-polished handmade footwear to know what elegance used to adorn every business traveler, myself included.Men dressed well then, and I still have many white and blue 100% Egyptian long-staple cotton business shirts with button-down or straight collars. Cuff links and French cuff shirts – All part of the civility of a bygone era.I bemoan not proudly wearing my Hermes ties with a respectable Nordstrom all-wool black, navy, or gray suit on every flight. Suits and ties – And more’s the pity! People come to fly in tank tops and flip-flops nowadays, and many shouldn’t be out in public that way.Undoubtedly, I’ve only scratched the surface: Out of curiosity, I started a list, and here’s what just an hour yielded. I’ve been musing on six decades of business travel and how many things have changed from the 1970s to now.
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