Sharon Kennedy: Waiting for the Ward’s and Penney’s Christmas catalogs
In the old days, long before the Internet, online shopping, credit cards, letters to Santa and parents purchasing a $1,000 worth of toys, kids looked forward to the Christmas catalogs from Montgomery Ward and J.C. Penney. The anticipation was almost unbearable as we waited and watched for the catalogs to appear in the stores. When we were a little older, we checked the mailbox for the brown wrapper covering the gigantic book we knew would contain beautiful toys.
Oh, what a joy it was when our mother handed us the catalog and it was finally our turn to thumb through the pages. Nobody cared about clothes or gave a moment’s thought to the latest styles. We wanted to see what the newest toy was. For my sister it might have been a set of Chinese checkers or some other board game. My brother would have searched for plastic cowboys or soldiers. By now you know I was only interested in dolls and all the stuff that came with them.
If we had spent as much time in the World Book Encyclopedia as we spent in those catalogs, we would have been scholars. Within two weeks, pages were dog-eared and toys were circled then crossed out when something better caught our eye. Item and page numbers were memorized. Descriptions were embedded in our memory bank. If anyone dared tear out a page and hide it, the hunt was on to find it and squabbles ensued with accusations flying left and right.
We loved everything about those catalogs. From the smell to the slippery pages to the colorful descriptions of each and every toy, our fascination never wavered. No matter how many times we looked at our favorite item, we never tired of examining it again and again in case we had missed something the first 35 times we checked it out. After we got home from school, changed into our old clothes, did our chores and homework, ate supper and washed up before we went to bed, we sat at the kitchen table and pored over the pages that had become as familiar to us as our names.
We were allowed to pick out two gifts. I have no idea what the price limit was but I’m sure it didn’t exceed one dollar each. That’s why it was imperative to re-examine our choices. We had to get the best bang for our bucks so to speak. If one toy cost 25 cents and another was 75 cents, we would pick something else to get to the two dollar maximum. It would have been unthinkable not to spend all we were allotted. It was pointless to try and negotiate three gifts if we had money left over.
What we didn’t know until Christmas morning was that Mom had been keeping a sharp eye on what we coveted most but couldn’t afford. “Santa” usually brought the gift we desired but lacked the funds to purchase. The surprise and sheer delight of finding that special toy underneath the tree was like heaven. We didn’t know then what we know now: Parents want to give their children everything they ask for, but realize one special, unexpected gift will tell them how much they are loved. No need to spend a fortune on a mountain of junk.
Much has changed since I was young but the need for a parent’s love remains constant.
To contact Sharon Kennedy, send her an email at sharonkennedy1947@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Sharon Kennedy: Waiting for the Ward’s and Penney’s Christmas catalogs
