Books of Matches

 

They used to be everywhere.  You could get them anywhere, mostly for free.  They advertised restaurants, stores, and almost any brand.  We had some made some made with the letter G on them and had them at our wedding.  If you didn’t have any, you would ask almost anyone, “Got a light” and they would most like have some in their pocket or purse.   Most folks had them around their house on counters or in drawers. 

Of course, if the title or the photo had not given it away, I am talking about the humble book of matches.  Wikipedia eloquently describes them:

A matchbook is a small paperboard folder (known as a matchcover) enclosing a quantity of matches and having a coarse striking surface on the exterior. The folder is opened to access the matches, which are attached in a comb-like arrangement and must be torn away before use in contrast to a matchbox where the matches are loosely packed in the interior tray.

In my last post, A First Real Day of Spring, my buddy Gian and I almost did not smoke cigars because there were no matches or lighters to be found.  It made me realize,

Back in the 70s and 80s in Detroit, our band, The Johnites, used to play for a lot of weddings.  Every wedding we went to I would take a book or two of matches with the bride and grooms names with the date of the wedding.  I had the idea to keep them as a memento and record of all hundred or so weddings we played for.  I bought a poster board and dutifully mounted like ten match book covers… and then lost interest.  I probably should have just thrown them all in a jar or kept a log book.  I kind of wish I had kept up with my poster, it would be a nice memento to look at and reminisce.  The memories will have to do.

Others I know did keep all the matchbooks of the restaurants they went to in large brandy snifter glasses.  It was usually on a coffee table and, even more so, on a bar in the finished basement or rec room.  I don’t recall seeing that in anybody’s home in, probably in decades.

Nowadays, if you ask someone for a light, you will probably hear “Sorry…”  If they have a light, they will probably offer up a throwaway lighter or, if cigar smoking is involved, one of those welding torch butane lighters that are de riguer with cigar smokers.

A search on Amazon revealed that the common book of matches is still available and reasonably priced.  100 plain white match books can be had for $7.85.  If you want color and custom printing (mostly wedding themed), 50 match books could had for $50.  If I were ever, in a fit of nostalgia, buy match books, I would go for the 100 for $7.85 and decorate them with Sharpies.

I suppose I could blog about ash trays and how virtually no one has them in their homes these days.  But it would read very much like this one that we can easily file under the “Blog About Nothing” category.