Saturday Thoughts... Catalogs


 Sue and I were talking about the 7 catalogs I got in one day’s mail at coffeetime. With the Pandemic shopping in person has not been as easy and ordering on-line seems to be the trend now.

 The catalogs are nice as you can sit and browse through them when you have time and then go on line better prepared with catalog numbers and the information to quickly get the order placed.

Back in the day, we could hardly wait for the TOY catalogs to come. Yes, they had adult items for Christmas gifts also but OH THE TOYS! We were then allowed to pick out and mark the gifts we really liked knowing full well that we would not get close to what we marked but it was so much fun looking. We tried to pick at least one or two that all three of us could play with as that would not count as one of our gifts. 

 They carried craft items and books beside the toys and books were my favorite but the craft items came a close second. 

 I enjoy looking at catalogs now and wonder if we won’t see more of them in the coming years. I do wish they still had the large kind of catalog that came out twice a year from Sears and Montgomery Ward and JC Penny’s. They were nice because you could order almost anything you wanted and keep up on all the fashion trends. They were our version of ordering from Amazon just through the mail.  

Sue says when she and John were in Europe at his duty station in the '60's and '70's she ordered many of her clothes and baby clothes too from the American catalogs because she could pay just stateside shipping and the selection in the PX was limited.

 Some of the older times I really don’t miss but this is one I do. 



11 comments:

  1. Those were wonderful times marking the Christmas catalog for the toys that we wanted. I also remember the plaid little school dresses that my mom would order for us every September.

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    1. I had forgotten about the plaid dresses. Our Grandmother usually sewed ours.

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  2. Oh, yes, the Christmas catalogs from the big companies were where we ordered (or marked the ones we really, truly wanted!) our presents from. The hours spent pouring over and over those pages and narrowing my choices down to one or two. Such a hard decision!

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  3. Replies
    1. They were always neat looking so that you were tempted to buy,

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  4. I remember marking the Sears catalog in the '80s with my sister. It was so much fun! My kids mark the catalogs now... Amazon, Walmart, and Target send out toy catalogs and my children have just as much fun as I did. Of course, these catalogs are nowhere near the size of the old Sears catalog. That thing was thick and heavy!

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    1. Dyonia, I didn't know that they sent out toy catalogs. What fun for your kids, and nice that the tradition lives on.

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  5. This really took me back. As a kid in the 60s I loved these catalogs and not only marked what I wanted (it trended to clothes as I got older) but turned down the page edge so it wouldn't be overlooked. 😄🎄

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    1. We turned down the corners also. Sometimes left a bookmark for something we really liked.

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  6. Such good memories!! Many, many hours were spent w JC Penney catolog! I would pretend that I was allowed to choose one thing from each double page spread to fill a new home and outfit my family. I can still recall the smell of the catologs.

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