About a month ago, I received my first unsolicited Christmas catalog--Fingerhut. It seems the items they sell now in Fingerhut are more upscale than the first catalogs I saw about 30 years ago. Well, it was more fodder for trash and recycling. It is just more upscale fodder now.
Then, the KMart catalog came. I loved it. All the toys get me excited about Christmas coming soon. There were toys in there I wish I had gotten. I never got a Barbie. Who could afford $3? The other thing I have really wanted all my adult life is a train. I know that is silly. I can afford neither now.
Walmart stores are alive with toys. They are exciting. I remember how my children loved the Batman figures they received about 1975. The excitement of little children is infectious. One little girl in WM kept squealing "toys, toys, toys" as she was obediently holding onto the cart her mother was pushing. She did not bolt at the sight of the toy aisles! She was fairly dancing on tippy toes as she squealed.
Thankfully, I won't have to be on the toy aisles around Christmas. If I want to see toys, I go in after midnight.
The catalogs are rolling in at the rate of one a day. If a day goes by without a catalog, I get two or three the next day. I do look at them all. Catalogs add to our cultural knowledge. Some are scanned very quickly. Others call for a bit more careful perusing and thought. I tend to critique them. I yell at catalogs like guys yell at the TV during sports. The senders of catalogs depend on our curiosity to tempt us to buy. Well, it won't work with me.
I suppose the catalogs will help keep the Post Office afloat. The postman carries stuff in and the garbage man/recyclers carry it off!
Most of the catalogs warn me that this will be my last catalog if I do not respond. Last? Some catalogs have never ever come here since last year. Some catalogs with warnings have never darkened my door.
That Special Time of the Year--Catalog Season.
There was a time when the Wish Book was the only "catalog" I ever saw. Sears still holds a special place in my heart. my mother had several dozen years of Wish Books when I last looked before she died.
Your turn
Do you look at catalogs out of curiosity? Are you continually amazed at the products available, some new? Some silly? Some weird? What is the most ridiculous, amazing, or wonderful thing you ever saw in a catalog? Did you buy it? Can you be trusted to look at catalogs without ordering?
Since I do only online ordering now, I rarely get seasonal catalogs. Fine with me because they go to the recycling bin unopened.
ReplyDeleteAnne,
DeleteI rarely order online, and when I do, I don't need a catalog. I look through catalogs most of the time before I toss them.
wish book...oh how well I remember ..the Sears catalog..the Monkey Wards catalog and the Penny's catalog..those were always in our house..being a military family we were sometimes in places where they didn't have stores that had credit accounts..and we had to do it on credit..I didn't know that then..but know that now..Daddy got my bike from Sears..I remember that..cause sometimes before Christmas I saw the bill for it..hahahh
ReplyDeletejackiesue,
DeleteIt was Sears all the way for us. That is funny you found the receipt. How old were you then?
I love Sears Wish Book. I want the toy kitchen. Fridge, stove, sink, cupboards and table. I never asked for it--I knew it was too expensive.
ReplyDeletetana50,
DeleteI never asked for things I have now forgotten. Daddy made table, chairs, Hoosier cabinet for me. So, I had all that and do not remember wanting the other kitchen pieces.
There was a catalog that circulated at work. They would only deliver to businesses. All kinds of clever toys, home stuff. Our mail room got the brunt of delivering stacks of boxes. Next year that catalog was banned.
ReplyDeletecarol,
DeleteI have seen that catalog. Mail room must have complained...too bad.
I used to save up lots of the clothing catalogs I received and used them in my more advanced ESL classes to teach colors. We have so many words in English to describe color! Students loved learning that catalogs would call something purple "eggplant," or call a blue item "ocean" or "midnight."
ReplyDeleteWe shopped almost exclusively from catalogs when we were stationed overseas - our exchange carried very few clothing items, or at least in styles that I would consider wearing. I still love looking at the few catalogs that still come, and I buy most of my clothes these days from one store's catalog.
ESL classes can find a use for anything...lol. I never order from catalogs, but I never got in the habit. I just like to look. Where were you stationed?
DeleteI think it is the New Yorker Magazine that had a cartoon of a man and woman dressed in autumn garb looking at a pile of burning leaves, with the punch-line. "Well, there goes the last of the christmas catalogs".
ReplyDeleteUrspo,
DeleteAnd, the pile of leaves were catalogs! Funny.