It Came from the Sears Catalog is a fun site grabbing up pages from the 1971 catalog. I suspect these honking, heavy catalogs have died out of most American homes, but when I was growing up, we always had several years worth piled up somewhere.
The Christmas catalogs, a.k.a. the Wish Books, were the ones we really loved, but we paged through the non-toy versions anyway. And we were growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, in the suburbs of a major American city, not out on the prairie somewhere where we could only dream of polyester leisure suits and Revereware. I mean, we didn't have the Internet, but we had malls, and yet...there was something about the catalog that just hypnotized a kid.
Some favorites:
"Where on earth does one take a little boy dressed in one of those outfits? Were there bars and discothèques for little boys and girls?"
"Jerry, the forgotten member of the Partridge Family. He was thrown out over creative differences with Danny."
"Why is daddy riding me around the neighborhood, while I wear this ridiculous bunny outfit?"
"This guy has everything; the candles, good suit, soft music, good food, nice dinnerware but he fumbles with the green card table."
"Someone at Sears suggested 5 tone shag but that was too much and that person was fired."
"The Taliban window treatment. Cover most of the window except for a small square."
"One of the children of the damned makes her bed."
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6 comments:
OMG OMG OMG. The Lemon Frog Shop at Sears. And my cousins had those bedspreads of the Children of the Damned. Their dad (a sergeant) used to come in with a ruler to ensure that their bedspread seams were straight.
As you might imagine, all the girls grew up to use comforters.
Hugs to you for the link, Gael.
It makes me so sad to think that entire generations of children wiill grow up without sitting in their grandma's basement, with the Sears catalog, a sheet of paper, and a pencil, making a Christmas list:( I even remember that toys were in the back, and I knew I'd gotten thru all the good stuff when I started to see baby supplies.
And, I know we have the internet and all, but is that how kids make Christmas lists now? Because that seems a lot more labor-intensive to me than sitting down with a book.
I LOVED the Sears catalogue, and spent hours and hours around the holidays making lists with specific page numbers marked. It was bliss, even though I never really got anything from the catalog.
I also remember the Toughskins jeans commericals, where they used the jeans as a trampoline. I really wanted a denim trampoline.
I am pretty sure Bob Greene wrote a column about the last Sears Big Book being published. Which totally makes sense, given that he's BOB GREENE. :)
My boyfriend actually used to have an outfit like the ones the little boys are wearing. His was blue, yellow and white. I think he wore it for his first communion.
I loved "The Lemon Frog Shop" in the Sears catalog when I was a kid. I even recognized the models from one season to the next and had to see what they were wearing. I actually thought I might look like them if I bought the outfits! Where did "The Lemon Frog Shop" go??
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