CUSTOMS
Business deal
protocols have changed drastically, both over the
years and over locations. Back in the teens and twenties
most
business dealings in the Midwest and west were conducted
over a
handshake and asking for a signed document was somewhat
insulting.
Anyone who welshed on one of those handshakes was never
again
trusted in that town. Such deals did have disadvantages
though,
as when Dad found the accounts receivable of the OMB Mining
Co.
largely disappeared when Grandfather died suddenly in 1923,
leaving the company some $80,000 in debt (that's close to $1
M.
in today's dollars). Nevertheless Dad continued that
handshake
practice despite getting burned several times, until WW-2
finally
put an end to such naive trustfulness.