The Way of the Dinosaur

I just saw something on Facebook which triggered a trip down memory lane for me, so I am going to share it for all you who will also remember this relic from the past:

It was always a big day at our house when I was a kid and the mail-order catalogs arrived in the mail. We used to get the Sears, Roebuck catalog, Montgomery Ward, J.C. Penney and a small catalog called Alden's. These catalogs were full of wonderful items that could potentially be owed by me. Pages and pages of colored pictures with descriptions of the item.

I seem to remember that we got about 3 catalogs each year from each of these companies, the Fall/Winter catalog, the Christmas catalog, and the Spring/Summer catalog.

Late each summer we scoured the fall/winter catalogs for our school clothes, dresses of course, plus sock, slips, underwear and shoes! We made our choices, Mom monitored the choices and made out the order. Viola, in about a week our purchases arrived in the post office and we were dressed for school. 

The arrival of the Christmas catalog was almost as exciting as Christmas itself. It was so much fun to look and dream and make my Christmas list from the latest in cool toys.

Then from the spring/summer catalog we ordered our Easter dresses, shoes and summer wardrobe.

In later years, after we were married, I spent time looking at a different part of the catalog, the household items. I ordered many a set of sheets, comforters and curtains by mail order. Obviously, this was before Walmart and Amazon!

I can't exactly remember when we received our last mail order catalog, but I think it was sometime after 2000. Sadly, Mike's grandmother Blanche had asked me to get her a Sears catalog so she could shop for curtains, but, alas, there were no more mail order catalogs to get. I tried to get on the internet, which was the new option, to help her but, it just wasn't the same for her. She gave up and never got new curtains because she couldn't wrap her mind around internet shopping.

Now Amazon seems to be my online mail order catalog, but it's not the same as the paper catalog. As I think about how times have changed, I am just the slightest bit sad. Not sure any of my kids even remember the catalogs, and most likely they will never get to experience the thrill of shopping via paper catalogs. 

The one thing that amazes me, even with all the new technology, is that it takes the exact same amount of time to get an order from Amazon where your order is received by the company instantly, if you live in rural Nebraska, as it used to take to send the order via mail, have it filled and returned via mail from the mail order company. So much for Amazon's two-day Prime!

It made me sad for Grandma Blanche that times had passed her by and left her with no way to order that she could feel comfortable with. As time went by, there were a lot of these situations where she was out of her league and required the help of family members to navigate her business. The burning question in my mind, is this: When will I be in the same situation? I can't begin to image how things will change, but even right now I find myself struggling to understand how these online things work. Better stay on good terms with my grandkids because I'm probably going to need their help in the coming years!