I read where one of the Posts mentioned both Sears and Montgomery Ward. Well, instantly I was back in the Fifties and my childhood. The Sears Catalogue and Montgomery Ward one, were Staples in our house. Memories surged up from the basement of my mind like adults fleeing from a flooded basement.

The Christmas Book was every child's favorite! I was from a double digit sibling family...so most toys were out...too expensive. But a kid could dream! And boy did we ever. I remember my five best friends in Grade School: Roderick Hamilton, Billy Spring, Michael Perriandri, Nick Pavelachk, and Elaine Wallington. Gathering around that Christmas Book and drooling over all the toys. Elaine looked at dolls too, but oh well, that's what happens when one of your best buddies at ten years of age...is a girl. And we had to admit, some of the doll houses were pretty cool.

I remember when we moved out to the Suburbs (middle of sixth grade) and met the two people who would be the most important for my teen years: Eddie and his sister Debbie. And those two ordered their school clothes from Montgomery Ward two months before school started. I was amazed. How organized that was, and planning two months in advance? In my house, we usually surprised my Mom the day we needed something- something that the school had told us about a month earlier. She was always playing catch up.

And this may make you blush, but for us just hitting puberty boys, the underwear section for women, especially the "bra section" was carefully studied. We didn't have Playboy, but Sears and Montgomery Ward gave us an "R- rated" version for free!

One of my buddies bough his bike from the Catalogue. And my Uncle bought his pool table that way too. When I got my History Degree in Charlotte NC, I did a research paper on the : "Sears Modern Home Book". Yep. Sears sold houses from a Catalogue too. From 1902 until 1942, when all the materials were sent for the War effort and Civilian home building stopped.

You could buy the complete home for $640 before the Depression. The most expensive (before the Depression) was the "Magnolia Home" and that sucker would set you back "$3,345 dollars back in 1922. Believe me, that was a chunk of change back then.

And so it goes, from toys, to furniture, to bikes and houses, with a bit of prepubescent hormonal awakening shots , Sears had it all!