Other Obsolete Customs

To add to my list of obsolete customs that I posted the other day, let's include:

Thank You Notes.
I hate it, but we've come to this.  Once upon a time, it was considered not merely polite but necessary to write a note of thanks to someone who gave you a gift.  Of course, if the giver were present, all that was necessary was to give a heartfelt verbal message, but if the gift was opened away from the giver, a note was required.  Why?  Because someone cared enough about you to go to the trouble of buying and sending you a gift, however small.  The LEAST you can do is acknowledge that the gift was received and appreciated.  And, if not appreciated, a simple "Thank you for thinking of me" would work.  Parents used to plunk their children down at a table with notecards and make them write thank you notes to benefactors.  Unfortunately, the custom is fading out with my generation.  A few years ago, I spent a couple of hundred dollars on a wedding gift for the child of a dear friend of mine.  I heard not a word thereafter.  Look--I don't give gifts for the thanks and undying gratitude, but I do think it's a shame that people forget to do this and that we have raised a generation of people who think it isn't necessary!

The Bedroom Chair.
I didn't experience this nor figure it out until I was an adult, but it used to be customary to have a chair in each bedroom for people to sit on as they were dressing...so they wouldn't sit on the bed and break down the corners of the mattress!  Beds now are just so much furniture.  Oh well!

More as I think about it...