Ontario's vaccine passports aren't new. Remember your bright yellow shot booklet?

D'ArcyPalmer has kept his piercingyellow Ontario immunization booklet by his side for 29 years now.

It'stravelledthe world with him, starting in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and tracking shots he's received inBritish Columbia, Manitoba, Korea and Japan, where he now lives. He considers it his own vaccine passport.

Though going on three decades,it's in surprisingly good shape.

"It says, 'This is your personal immunization record. Do not lose this card. Record all immunizations on this card.' And I've kept to that," he said, proudly waving the booklet.

As Ontarioprepares torollout its own COVID-19proof-of-vaccination systemlater this month, people like Palmer arefeeling nostalgic for those little yellow booklets.

• Details ofOntario's COVID-19 vaccine passport plan

The province haslongused themto track vaccinations for things like tetanus, hepatitis B and polio.The bookletacts as proof of vaccination, particularlyfor children, whomusttypically get certain shots, likemumps, measles and rubella, before going to school.

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Yellow booklet holds a 'special place'

Perhaps yours is tucked away in a junk drawer, but Palmer stillkeeps his booklet updatedreligiously.

"I originally dug it out this summer, in case I needed to have the COVID vaccination record on it," he said. "But then I realized that they were doing a separate thing."

AJ Wray, a doctoral student at Western University in London, Ont., keeps his in a safe, alongside his passport andbirth certificate. "It has a special place in the document levels of importance," he said.

WATCH | Ontario announces its proof-of-vaccination plan:

Wray's booklet is starting to fall apart. There'swear and tear on the corners and a few holes are starting to show. He figures it's from years of being kept in his mom's purse. Some colour remains.

"That yellowI have never seen it anywhere else on any other document. It is just so bright and saturated," he said. "Mine, with age, actually has gotten more orange than anything."

Wrayteaches undergrad students at Western. When he mentions the yellow booklets, many students don't know what he's talking about. But the province's ministry of health said it still makes the booklets.

CBCNews reached out tomore than two dozen Ontario health units, andmost said they hand out the yellow records or give them to family doctors and hospitals to distribute.

Marianne Rock figures her health unit,Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District(HKPR), hands out around 500 booklets every six months.

"We're trying to move more to an electronic realm, but I still think that there is still an appetite for them," saidRock, who is a managerin HKPR'shealth-protection division. "I still use it for my daughter's immunizations."

• Ontario vaccine bookings spike after passport announcement

The province has an online platform, where shots recorded in the yellow booklet can be added,calledImmunization Connect Ontario. Rock says her health unit istrying to push people to self-reportshots there, but it's been tricky.

"Not everyone has access to a computer or a laptop or a phone. For those people, it's important that they have that yellow card."

Booklet can't be used as proof of COVID-19 shot

Rock said she isn't sure if the yellow immunization booklet will ever "die." Out of routine, she still brings hers when she gets regular vaccinations. She's even seen people bring theirbooklets when they've come for their COVID-19 vaccines.

The province told CBCit won't accept a yellow card entry as proof of a COVID-19 shot when the vaccine passport program startsSept. 22. Record of the COVID-19 vaccine is instead stored online.

"They're completely separate things," explained Rock.

Though Wray has clutched onto his shot booklet for all these years, he's ready to let it go for a digital one.

"You think about the invention of online boarding passes I just save it to my [phone] wallet and it's good to go," he said."If it's good enough for airport security, it should be good enough for vaccine security."