Detecting season change is all about reading the signs. When it comes to fall, forget about the date of the Autumnal Equinox. Same goes for the first cool evenings or falling leaves. If you want to know when autumn has arrived, look in your mailbox. See any catalogues? Yes? Then, fall is here.
In this world of instant information, I have felt compelled upon receiving the first catalogue in the mail to run through the streets like a modern-day Paul Revere yelling, “Fall is here! The catalogues have arrived!” It has been with great effort that, thus far, I have been able to restrain myself.
Catalogues were the first virtual shopping experience. Way before the internet, they allowed you to see all the things waiting to make your life better without having to fight someone for a parking space to do it. They also allowed you to time-shift your shopping. Not everyone has the time to shop during the day. Work, school, parenting all get in the way of retail therapy. But with catalogues you can shop anytime you want. It sure beats breaking into a store after hours, finding what you want, and leaving the money on the counter before being arrested. Of course, for those in remote locations, they were and still are about the best way to get what you want.
You would think that in this day of online shopping that these printed purveyors of conspicuous consumption would have gone the way of the laser disc player. While some have stopped mailing out their catalogues (Sears is a good example), there are still a goodly number of retailers making sure the U.S. Postal Service stays busy. In fact, if you feel neglected because you don’t get enough catalogue love, you can order them online. The site Catalogues from A-Z is just one example (www.cataloguesfroma-z.com).
Back in the day (you know you’re old when you can legitimately say that), the Sears Christmas catalogue, the “Wish Book” to those in the know, was my favorite. It was always filled with the things that made a young boy’s dreams come true: Tonka. My goal was to be the king of the sandbox. Tonka trucks and earthmovers were exactly what I needed to ascend the throne. Besides, we had a cat that viewed my kingdom as a litterbox, so the toys acted as my department of sanitation. Face it, if you can’t scoop the poop out of the streets, you’ll have a revolt on your hands. It’s the first rule of staying in power.
Of course, you can no longer find the Wish Book in your mailbox. Sears began mailing catalogues in 1888 and stopped in 1993 according to Ancestry.com. However, if you want to relive your childhood, there are websites that feature old catalogues. One such site is www.wishbookweb.com, where you’ll not only find the catalogues from Sears, but other retailers including J.C. Penny which was another popular tome at our house.
I’m not one who wants to live in the past. I know that things change. It’s the way the world works. But there’s something to be said for catalogue shopping over online shopping, especially as a kid at Christmas. Sure the website lets you read reviews and see the object of your desire from several angles, but you can’t tear out the page from the web and stuff it in your letter to Santa. You know the one you wrote with crayon and drew a stamp on it because you didn’t have a real one? You’d stuff it in the mail box and hope that the big guy up north would get it in time. Hopefully he would overlook some of your shortcomings of the past year…especially when you sneaked treats from your mom’s box of Valentine’s candy and blamed it on your brother only to be caught on camera in the act! I’m not sure, but I think that’s how TMZ got started. You hoped against all hope that Santa’s elves would fill the order and he would deliver it with the help of his sleigh and eight tiny reindeer…make that nine…I forgot about Rudolf.
These days I worry that if you were to ask a child how Santa delivers toys he would likely say “Amazon”.
