06/02/2026
Gather 'round the campfire, children, to kick off Father's Day month with a story of ye olden days.
This image is me and Big Ray, and what you see is how we used to work. Catalogs from hundreds of promo suppliers. We drove around with them in file boxes in the back of the truck, along with boxes of samples. Sitting across the desk talking with a customer. We entered the chat with some new ideas and educated-guesses but there would be a point where we'd hop back out to the truck for a handful of catalogs and a few samples for show and tell based on where the conversation went. And we liked it.
It was around 2001-2. I'd been in promo sales for about 3 years, Dad for closer to 10. My granddad, Ray Sr., spent about 20 yrs in promo sales but had recently retired and passed away shortly thereafter.
It doesn't sound so long ago, but...
Google exists, but not Gmail, and Yahoo! Is the #1 internet page.
AOL is still sending out CDs via USPS..
I have customers young enough that they won't know what that means...but I also have some who used to do business with my Granddad.
I asked new contacts, "Do you have an email address **THAT YOU USE**"...because I learned that having an email address (then) didn't actually make it a reliable point of contact.
I was receiving faxes.
My cell phone lets me call, text, and maybe play that little snake game. But texts are like $0.10 ea and calls charge by the minute if you go over your allotment. The iPhone is still 5-6 years away.
Primarily, art for a promo order is transferred as a slick and glossy sheet in an envelope, with a page for each color involved, and not via email. I do have an early version of CorelDraw and can make that work for some art with some factories but it's a sketchy, on your own, wild west sort of situation if you want to risk it.
Things have changed. Some better, some maybe not so much.
Anyway, I found this pic and I miss my Dad. And my Granddad.
