WHEN IT GOES WELL, cultural evolution works like biological evolution: the strongest things survive, while flaws, weaknesses, and superfluities disappear.
Unfortunately, the progression of culture doesn’t follow such a linear arc. Sometimes the societal pendulum swings simply because of boredom; technological innovations push current practices into obsolescence before we’ve considered what might be lost without them; new traditions seem superior to the old, until they don’t – and by then they’ve faded beyond return.
These entries haven’t been chosen based on pure nostalgia, nor the viability of their comebacks. Rather these are simply things that it would genuinely be nice to see revived – additions that would make for richer and more varied lives. Even if they may never make it back into the societal mainstream, they could be worth adopting into your individual life, family’s culture, and local community.
Progressive/walking dinners
Progressive dinners – where each course is served at a different house – used to be a staple of neighbourhood life. You’d get an appetizer at one person’s place, the main entree at another, and dessert somewhere down the street. By the end of the night, you were full, but more importantly, you knew your neighbours a little better and your street felt a little more like home.
Acquaintances
Words should mean something. Some, like “friend,” should practically be sacred. Unfortunately, friend has been bastardized by influencers who use it to describe their followers, by companies that cheerily apply it to anonymous customers, and by people who use the label for someone they say hello to in passing at church, a neighbour they borrowed a ladder from once, or the parent of their kid’s classmate they’ve only chatted with at school pickup. In regards to those latter situations, we do actually have a word for people you know, but not very well: it’s not friend, it’s acquaintance.
Carrying cash
Most people now walk around with nothing but a debit or credit card and the hope that every situation in life comes with a chip reader. But there are times and places where cash still comes in handy: a school gala, the bait shop in the middle of nowhere, the after-hours campground fee box, the waitress who deserves more than a muttered thank you. A few notes folded in your wallet is one of those small, old-school habits that still comes in handy.
Eating sardines
Sardines used to be a Grandpa staple. He’d pop open a tin, splash on a little hot sauce, and lunch was served. Well, Grandpa was on to something. Sardines are convenient, full of protein, and packed with omega-3s (without the heavy metals you find in tuna and other big fish). Plus, they’re inexpensive and last a very long time. Puts hair on your chest, too!
Barbershop shaves
The barbershop razor shave is the facial for manly men. Nothing beats a hot towel on your face or the fragrance of shaving cream to sap the stress right out of your body. It’s also a little dangerous: letting another man hold a razor-sharp piece of metal to your neck reminds you that you’re alive.
Eccentricity
There’s lots of evidence that people, on the whole, are getting less weird. Less deviant, less creative, less inclined to divert from the standard societal lockstep. It seems like we have fewer eccentrics than we used to – those oddballs who dressed differently, read strange books, and didn’t care if anyone understood them. Algorithms have flattened the culture, nudging us toward the same tastes and the same safe personalities. A little harmless oddity reminds us there are other ways to be human.
Dressing up for special occasions
In a world that’s become blandly casual, dressing up for special occasions like weddings, parties, and nice restaurants gives life a little more texture. It makes an event not only feel more special for you, but by contributing to the overall atmosphere, more special for others as well. Dressing up is an act of service.
Paper maps
GPS may be efficient and convenient, but paper maps force you to really understand where you are and where you’re going. You spread one out on the bonnet of the car, trace a route with your finger, and suddenly the whole landscape makes sense. They don’t buffer, they don’t die at 3%, and they don’t reroute you into a lake. A good map turns getting somewhere into a small adventure instead of another task handed over to an order-barking algorithm.
Penmanship
If we’re going to bring back writing things by hand, it’s worth writing them nicely. Because we’re out of practice these days, our handwriting tends to be sloppy. But good penmanship has value: it makes your writing legible and aesthetically pleasing, and it’s simply satisfying to produce. It’s particularly rewarding to master cursive – a skill that’s especially endangered, not only in regard to writing it, but even reading it.
Record players + vinyl records
In a world of endless, algorithmically curated streaming playlists, listening to music on a record player makes music listening feel like an event, not just background hum. The friction of having to pick out a record and delicately putting the needle on the vinyl slows things down and makes you appreciate what you’re listening to.
Hosting and entertaining in your home
In the 1970s, most households had friends over at least once a month. Since then, that kind of at-home socializing – dinners, game nights, parties – has fallen by more than half. Somewhere along the way, we got out of practice with hospitality, decided it required an unattainable standard of perfect lighting and gourmet food, got less comfortable with the intimacy of having people over, and succumbed to the inertia that avoids any fun that requires effort. But hosting something like a dinner party is a skill you can get good at with practice, brings people closer than any kind of outsourced entertainment can, and adds real zing and satisfaction to life.
Colourful insults
Modern insults are pretty boring – mostly the same set of expletive-laden put-downs. The 19th century did it better. Their insults had personality. They were clever. An unmannered youth might be called an “unlicked cub,” a lazy person a “slug-a-bed,” and a habitual complainer a “grumbletonian.” Check out our website for 50 more colourful old-fashioned insults worth bringing back.
Door-to-door knife sharpeners
You’ve heard of door-to-door salesmen, but did you know there used to be door-to-door knife sharpeners? While the former were annoying, I feel like I would have welcomed the latter. A guy with a whetstone would knock on your door, take your dull blades, hone them on the spot, and hand them back to you all sharpened up. It’s a perfect service, because who can remember to sharpen their knives? And if you do, who wants to schlep them over to a shop? While house-call-making knife sharpeners have mostly disappeared, they might be making a comeback; I’ve employed a young man here in Tulsa who runs a mobile sharpening service, and it’s awesome!
Physical photo albums
Most of us take photos on our phone. And that’s where those pictures usually stay – in an overwhelming, unwieldy archive perhaps thousands of photos deep. The lack of easy browsability makes it rare for us to go back and look at them. A physical photo album fixes that. Filled only with the best, intentionally curated shots, it invites you to pick it up, flip through its pages, and travel back in time.
Reading aloud to kids
The number of parents who read aloud to their children has been dropping for decades. That’s a loss for everyone. Reading books aloud is one of the best ways to connect with your kid and increase their affinity for literature. It becomes a comforting family ritual that they’ll look back on fondly for the rest of their lives.
Love letters
As handwritten correspondence has declined, it seems that penning any kind of note – even the kind you leave on a nightstand instead of mailing – has too. That includes love letters. We’ve traded the convenience of communicative immediacy for occasionally writing out something more meaningful and heartfelt. But none of those “Love you!” texts will end up in a shoebox or get reread when you’re old. A proper love letter gives you the chance to express your feelings more ardently than you do on a day-to-day basis and is a surefire way to rekindle the sparks of romance.
Wood-burning fireplaces
Most fireplaces now run on gas. Flip a switch and you get some instant heat and ambiance. It’s convenient, for sure, but it’s not the same. Building a wood fire takes time and a little know-how, and there’s real satisfaction in getting the logs stacked just right and coaxing the first spark into a steady blaze. The smell of smoke, the crackle of the wood, the pleasure of giving the embers a poke – you can’t get any of that from a gas fire.
ART OF MANLINESS IS A ONE-STOP RESOURCE FOR ACTIONABLE ADVICE THAT COVERS EVERY ASPECT OF A MAN’S LIFE … YOU CAN FIND THIS ORIGNAL ARTICLE – 57 THINGS WE SHOULD BRING BACK – AND ALL ITS LINKS ON WWW.ARTOFMANLINESS.COM
