# Did COVID kill Kissing Booths at fairs? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 5, 2024, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113 "2024-02-05T02:24:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/41 "2024-02-06T13:45:25Z")
Turning 70 next month, never seen an actual kissing booth. Not at the local county fair, not at the Plant City Strawberry Festival. > [@Andy\_L](#): > > 2018! The article isn’t specific, but the couple pictured in the kissing booth share a last name, so my WAG is that it’s a booth where a couple can have their picture taken in the booth while kissing each other. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/42 "2024-02-06T13:57:57Z")
I, too, have never seen one. I always assumed that they were a thing from The Old Days, well before I was born. A Wikipedia link directed me to this set of newspaper ads and articles mentioning kissing booths: > **[Search Results « Chronicling America « Library of Congress](https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?state=&date1=1777&date2=1963&proxtext=%22kissing%2Bbooth%22&x=0&y=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&rows=20&searchType=basic)** > > Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. At least on the first couple of pages, all the examples are from the 1900’s through the 1950’s. (There’s one from 1963, but it’s a comic strip.) ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/43 "2024-02-06T18:02:58Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Umm. I’m gonna say it was hard to find women to work them. Since I don’t know, the 50s? What about Sadie Hawkins Day? Did you chase Mr Wreck down? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/44 "2024-02-07T00:54:25Z")
Hadn’t thought of that. Good point. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/45 "2024-02-07T01:00:03Z")
Here’s a kissing booth story from 1994 - though it is about a hypothetical future event. The quotes do claim that kissing booths were real at some point in the past. > **[A dying tradition may get mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-20-cb-52387-story.html)** > > KISSING COMEBACK: A wave of communicable diseases long ago spoiled the fun of kissing booths, a fund-raising gimmick common to clubs and county fairs a few decades ago. > “It could very well be that they get the candy one,” said Lois Moore, junior past president of the post’s auxiliary group and an organizer of the event. “We haven’t finalized it yet.” > **The group has had kissing booths in the past, though not for about 10 years. Moore said event organizers might bring back the custom “so we don’t fall in a rut all the time.”** > If the auxiliary decides on the real thing, it must round up volunteers of each gender. “We don’t know who the designated (kissing) people are right now,” Moore said. It’s possible that the whole thing is a legend that always happened “about a decade back” but I suspect there were a few real ones here and there. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/46 "2024-02-07T01:19:24Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I, too, have never seen one. I always assumed that they were a thing from The Old Days, well before I was born. Same here. Back when I was of the age to be fascinated by such topics (mid teenage years, in the late '80s and early '90s) I assumed it was the sort of thing that was popular back in the '50s. If they were ever a thing in South Texas, they were no longer a thing by the late '80s. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/47 "2024-02-07T01:22:29Z")
[Here](http://archives.kdl.org/Suburban/1958/08-21-1958.pdf) (last page) is a scan of a 1958 local weekly announcing a planned charity “street carnival” with a kissing booth. It seems to have been quite unremarkable back then. The following isn’t an example of the pay-to-play kissing booth, but… I remember participating (in the 1970s) in a junior-high-ish 4H Club party with games that included passing a LifeSaver from player to player via toothpicks held in the lips, as well as “no-hands” passing an orange from player to player while holding it wedged between the chin and shoulder, corded-telephone-receiver-style. Those were planned party games supervised by one of the adult organizers, not clandestine teenage spin-the-bottle shenanigans. I was too naive at the time to realize that the setup was meant to be a bit daring and flirty with the occasional face and lip contact, but it dawned on me afterwards. Just another example of the way that publicly performed mildly sexualized physical contact between random young people used to be considered normal good fun. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/48 "2024-02-07T01:48:32Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I remember participating (in the 1970s) in a junior-high-ish 4H Club party with games that included passing a LifeSaver from player to player via toothpicks held in the lips, as well as “no-hands” passing an orange from player to player while holding it wedged between the chin and shoulder, corded-telephone-receiver-style That kind of thing was done on college campuses as part of Freshman icebreaking into the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/49 "2024-02-09T06:56:07Z")
The kissing booths disappeared when AIDS made its appearance. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/50 "2024-02-09T07:02:12Z")
No, it was Herpes. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/51 "2024-02-10T23:10:08Z")
I’ve seen one, but it was during an improv show. For like 30 seconds audience members could run up, donate a dollar, and get a peck on the cheek. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/52 "2024-02-12T13:16:26Z")
My first experience with the French custom of kissing (Saint Martin French side) the woman cracked up laughing because I had actually kissed her cheeks. She explained how to do it and I’ve done it correctly dozens/hundreds of times since. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2024, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/53 "2024-02-14T14:44:13Z")
[![](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/C243rusLZyy-png__700.jpg) ](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/C243rusLZyy-png__700.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/54 "2024-02-14T14:56:04Z")
Is this the booth where you get your face scratched instead of kissed? ---
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2024, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113/55 "2024-02-14T21:12:12Z")
Ive never heard of kissing booths in my country [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-covid-kill-kissing-booths-at-fairs/997113.md?page=2)