7. How people interacted with each other
In films from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, aspects of everyday life appeared which seem quaint in modern times, though some have returned in the 21st century. Grocers, druggists, and liquor stores, all delivered to their customers, many on credit accounts. The service recently regained popularity after fading away in the 1960s. Watching people making long-distance phone calls, which required the assistance of operators using switchboards, is unthinkable for those born in the age of cellular phones. So is the concept of actually dialing a rotary telephone. Films present milk being delivered by dairies to the door, left on porches or in a vanished piece of Americana, the milk box.
Those arriving at homes to repair washing machines, read meters, or provide some other service went to the back or service door, rather than the front door. During the 1950s and 60s television reflected the practice, also depicted in many films of the time. Gasoline stations were known as service stations, and films record the common practice of having station personnel pumping gasoline, checking tires, batteries, and water, as well as the oil in customers’ cars. They were called pump jockeys, a term that vanished from the American version of the English language, though they were once ubiquitous across the country.