Sears.Catalog.Breckinridge.HISTORY-OtherFrom: KyArchives 
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Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 5:11 PM
To: Ky-Footsteps
Subject: Sears.Catalog.Breckinridge.HISTORY-Other


Sears Catalog  
Breckinridge County KyArchives History Other 
Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past 
Besides the main use of the catalog, it was very useful in the outhouse, it 
made a pretty book to study all of those pretty pictures, plus this was the 
days before the days of Charmin. 
It was the main play toy of the little girls who would cut out and make paper 
dolls.  Some would mix flour and water and paste them on cardboard and stand up 
like people.  Some people would roll up a page about the size of a lead pencil 
and keep a glass full setting on the mantle and use one to light the coal oil 
lamp from the open fireplace. 
They also made some kind of proper opener to hold the door open.  They were 
real pretty. 
Quite a few rooms were papered with their pages. 
Also to clean the lamp chimney a page was taken from the catalog wadded up and 
after blowing ones breath in the chimney it was wiped clean with the paper. 
There was a judge who kept a Sears on his desk and in fining the prisoner, he 
would open the catalog at random and the first price he would see, that was the 
amount of the fine.  Sometimes like a pair of shoes was about $2.00, but if it 
happened to be a manure spreader, it would be 30 or 40 dollars. 
Many children would make an airplane like toy out of the pages and had a game 
to see who could sail their plane the farthest. 
No doubt the Sears was a very important thing back then.  It would be in the 
same class as carrying a rabbits foot or buckeye in your pocket or having 
wormseed candy for your blood, or raising house-leak for your boils and sores. 
I bet a lot of young people don't know what wormseed candy or near beer or a 
buckeye is.  Ask your grandparents and you will start an interesting 
conversation. 
Submitted by: Dana Brown 
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 



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