via https://worldyturnings.wordpress.com/blog/
I was lucky enough to have two things going for me as I was growing up: (1) I was raised in Chicago in the 1960s (no better place for a kid, but alas times change) and (2) My Dad worked for Sears and got great employee discounts which made Christmas even more fun – at least in the good years.
Chicago in the 1960s meant all day field trips from school to some of the coolest places on the planet, at least from a young boy’s perspective. Places like the Museum of Science and Industry with all those buttons to push and make things go. Not to mention the underground coal mine and a German U-Boat.
Chicago was also home to Bozo the Clown and the Riverview Amusement Park near the Chicago River. It died in 1967 like so many of the old amusement parks, a result of gangs and crime in and around the park which (unlike Disneyland) had no admission charge.
Although you likely didn’t live in Chicago at that time, one thing I can say for sure is that if you were a kid in the 1960s at one time or another you got your hands on the Sears Christmas Catalog. And, hopefully the catalog arrived a few weeks before Christmas so you could sit on the living room floor and mark your favorites (not so surreptitiously) so your parents would know – or pass along to the guy with the white beard at the Department Store.
In the catalog was nothing less than the lives and dreams of boys and girls during a time when America seemed a little more innocent and more in control if itself, if only the visible part that kids see.
You either got the Christmas Catalog in the stores (of course, you had a Sears store in your town) or in the mail. Now, if you can find one of these old catalogs, they go for good money. Why? It could well be the ultimate source of good times nostalgia for us baby boomers.
So, without further ado, I give you a few trips down memory lane, from the eyes of an old kid:
I did have sisters ……
Yes, a different time, a different place.
Which ones did you mark in the catalog?
Sic Semper Tyrannis
Yes, almost every toy I ever had came from Sears along with my clothes. Bicycles and all. It was fun to go there and get the cashews and the jellied watermelon slices.
As an adult back 40 years ago my appliances and tools as well. I have a lot of Craftsman tools still that were USA made.
It is unbelievable that SEARS has turned into what it has. They owned almost the entire market for almost everything.
Yep, could have been/should have been, what Amazon is today.
As a Boomer, we got the cataloge in the mail. From 6-12 I went first to the toys. From 12 to 16 the first stop was ladies lingerie.
I knew there would be one insouciant pervert owning up to it! Good job! And I totally get the anonymous thing now.
I really liked the repring catalogues from the early 1900’s,you could literally buy a full house kit(many to choose from)firearms and even dynamite! Man,imagine that now with me debit card and a few beers!
The Craftsman when made in US were great tools,I am always happy when I find old Craftsman on home demo’s/yard sales ect.!
I believe that machine guns were sold prior to 1934.
Have you ever walked through a craftsman kit house? Can’t tell the difference between it and a regular house.
Bozo the Clown, there’s a trip in the Wayback Machine. I was on the Bozo Show at 6 years old and got to play the Treasure Chest Game. Lost…oh well. Good life prep, it’s all a clown show now. I do win sometimes though ;-
As Jerry Seinfeld said:
“If you grow up with a name like Bozo …. what else can you do but end up being a clown!”
Lead singer of U2.
Waren. Stop. Stop. Yer killin’ me! Friggin’ LOL!
Coffee snort. Need paper towels.
Great memories. Every day after school, round about late October, I would look for that catalog to arrive in the mailbox. The kids section started at about the middle of the book, and was the stuff of dreams. Santa always had a ‘budget’ which Mom would kindly let us know beforehand, so we at least knew if the stuff we circled was a possibility or not.
Years later, my first wife’s Grampa had been a Sears exec, working in the upper floors of the tower. Although I never met him, we cared for her Gramma for a number of years. It was obvious their whole lives were centered on that company, they really thought the world of it. Like many things, it has been sad to see its downfall and makes me wish for simpler times.
I went to Riverview as a kid, and as a high school student at Lane tech, next door, I walked or road my bike by the old site thousands of times. They still had the remnants of shoot the shoots and other rides. We would check them out when we walked by. Disagree with your thought about Chicago, though. It was always a demonrat shit hole. But a better one than now. I left when I was 20, and never looked back. Heroes was a sandwich place next to Lane, still there. It cost 40 Cents and up for a nice big subway sandwich.
Great memories. Lane Tech class of ’75 here. 6000 kids were going there in the early 70’s. Spent many a day at the Museum of Science and Industry too.
Class of 76. I was the first class that had girls. There were just 1 or 2 in most classes.
My dad graduated from Lane in ’61, I think. Mom called it a fairy school cause it was all boys then.
He was there when lane tech was the only top 10 PUBLIC high school in the country.
That catalog was from 64. We had just moved to the farm about a year before that. First month or so we drew water from a cistern with a bucket and rope. Dad bought a well pump from Sears ( and a LOT of other stuff). The privy was “out back” for a short period of time as well. Think Green Acres without the comedy for the first couple of years. Dad rebuilt everything there in due time. Wish he was still around.
Thanks for the article. Really brought back memories.
LOL, I was born in 1964. A time when about everything was made in America, except for the hot British motorcycles that were popular back then.
Thanks for the memories. My 3 sisters and I would spend hours and hours perusing the Sears and Monkey Ward Christmas catalogs. They were truly dream books.
I recognized several of my Christmas presents as I went through the pages of this spread.
Merry Christmas.
Cool post! I kept scrolling and scrolling and finally some girl toys. I did have a cowboy gun that fired caps because my neighbor always wanted to play cowboys and indians.
Thanks for the memories! My sister and I would spend hours picking stuff. We knew we wouldn’t get most of it but it was fun nonetheless. When we made it to the appliances and tools, we’d turn it over to our parents. Mom wasn’t as excited as dad. Go figure, who wants a new vacuum cleaner for Christmas.
Clothes were boring too.
I walk past the Sears Tower everyday. No matter what they call it, that will always be the Sears Tower.
Thanks again for the memories.
Your mom probably wanted an electric frying pan.
Something like that. Can say that now without ducking.
Why did you leave out the women’s bra and swimsuit sections?
peter,
the poster is gay, that’s why —
Tampa – Not in the Christmas catalog moron. But your favorite section begins on P 365 – that’s the little kids clothes section.
Yeah, we had the long Flying Arrow Sled.
Did Sears have no Tonka cars and trucks in its catalog?
And to think, most if not all of those toys were made in the USA; Mattel, Hasbro, Gilbert, etc. There were chemistry and Erector Sets too. In addition to Sears, we also received JC Penny, Montgomery Ward and occasionally Spiegel catalogs as well. Visited the popular Five and Dime stores too such as Woolworths and WT Grant.
Woolworth always smelled like women’s make-up.
Got the hockey game for Xmas when I was 8.
Also made a wonderful source of emergency toilet paper.
For those that want as much nostalgia as you can handle…Sears Wishbook…25,617 pages archived HERE!!!:
Sears must have been a thing in other parts of the country. Never had a catalog from them. Here JCPenney’s catalog was where it was at. Nice time capsule story though.