In my youth, emoticons didn’t really exist apart from the original smiley. That said, flirting through body language was mostly confined to smiling, staring at each other, or winking at most – with just any eye. A few generations back, however, people used rather sophisticated sign language, or indeed languages, for such purposes, with just anything they could lay their hands on. Really, anything could come in handy, from the obvious handkerschiefs and gloves, through hats, fans and parasols, to tableware and even postage stamps. Of course, good old eye language was also used, and again, it was much more sophisticated than today. Thus passes the glory of the world.
