I do a lot of shopping online. You can browse thousands of items, pay online, and have it delivered right to your doorstep. But I also remember the thud-factor Sears catalogs mom used to get every year, filled with the latest styles and clothing trends.

These are replicas of 1908 Sears Roebuck and 1895 Montgomery Ward catalogs. As you flip through the pages, you can find anything you want: tools, household items, clothes, furniture, appliances, dishes, carriages, stoves (as in cooking ovens), guns, knives and even a 6-room cottage package selling for $725 (build, paint and ready to live in = 6 months). Items were delivered through regular mail, and I’m sure they didn’t have overnight priority mail.

(However, I did find that UPS started in 1907 as a private messenger and delivery service company. What an interesting history on how the company got started.)

If you can find an original copy of one of these catalogs, it would be worth buk-o bucks. Why? Because when the catalog was outdated, it was carried to the outhouse to be reused as toilet paper. No joke. I guess they also didn’t know what double-ply was!

Until we walk again …