Submitted by Ray Evans
It seems that we lose something with each advancement of technology.
The recent announcement of the closing of the 128 year old Montgomery Ward
chain of stores brought a little sadness to my heart. They were one of the
first companies to publish mail order catalogs and to operate on a policy of
“Satisfaction or Your Money Back.”
When I was growing up in the Oak Hill section of Rockcastle county
during the 1930’s and 40’s, the two most important books in the
family besides the Bible were the Montgomery Ward and Sears & Roebuck
mail order catalogs. These catalogs made accessible modern worldly goods to
the remote mountain areas of Kentucky and the rest of the country. New
catalogs were published twice a year. One would be issued for spring and
summer and one for fall and winter. When the new ones first came out, the
family members took turns looking at them. Our first reliable radio was an
Airline brand dry-battery powered radio from Montomery Ward. My family
enjoyed that radio for a number of years. One could fill out and mail a
simple order blank and order literally thousands of items delivered by the U
S Mail to your mailbox or through Railway Express. Larger items could be
delivered to the nearest railway freight office. For example; everything
from clothes for every family member, baby chickens, Carter family song
books and phonograph records, corsets for grandma, parts for the family car,
parts for farm equipment and even 3 pound packages of honey bees were
available.
About 1940, I thought that I had all the education I would ever need
when I managed to fill out an order blank to order some guitar strings and
song books from Montgomery Ward. There must be a piece of magic about buying
stuff through the mail. I looked forward to delivery of my order everyday
until it arrived. I made the path to the mailbox more evident everyday. It
was like Christmas all over again when my package finally arrived. It was
wrapped in the familiar brown paper with a mailing label attached with my
NAME on it.
Montgomery Ward and Sears & Roebuck both issued a special Christmas
catalog. The boxes of chocolates, candy and fruitcake pictures in these
Christmas catalogs were very well illustrated. They certainly made your
mouth water for a taste of them. My sisters and I did not need to write
letters to Santa because our wishes were very evident in the catalog where
our dirty little fingers had worn a spot pointing to the different toys. I
always wanted one of those fancy cowboy outfits, but never got one.
Of course, the old dog-eared catalogs served a double purpose after the
new ones were issued. The particular use does not deserve much discussion
here, but every out-door toilet in the country with one of those little
crescents of the moon cut in the door had an old torn and tattered catalog
handy. Some people also used the old catalogs to make a colorful cylindrical
shaped doorstop by folding the pages in an accordion style in such a way
that they could be stood on end.
Oh! Sure you can send almost instant Email to your friends halfway
around the world today and you can order about anything on the Internet and
have it delivered by UPS to your door. There are also a number of catalogs
still available. However, with the demise of the Montgomery Ward and Sears
& Roebuck catalogs, we lost something that is not likely ever to come
again.
|
