He was doing this for many years and knew all the people by their first name on his stops.
He would always compliment the ladies on their new hair do, sometimes when they looked atrocious.
I'm not kidding, you'd have someone like this gal, and he'd say, "Helen, what a gorgeous new hair do." and she'd just beam...
We'd walk to the car, and I'd say, "Dad, that ladies hair looks like crap." and he'd say, "Yeah, I know, but she doesn't think so." 
I try to only recognize when it is truly warranted . . when I was little women still wore dresses and worked hard on their hair and makeup before going to the market or to get the kids. A different world.
MY mom drove home the point that the girls put a lot of effort into looking nice. She also pointed out that if you wife puts out the effort and you haven't got the decency to compliment her for the effort you might spend the night on the couch. Took a few years before I figured out why sleep on the couch with the TV nearby was such a bad deal. Call me naive.