A post from Kelli–
As a new mom, I have found that the best way to stretch the dollars after having a baby is to be okay with getting or finding things used, recycled, or handed down. I honestly think that I have bought a few outfits (mostly newborn clothes) brand new, but that is really about it. Once I was pregnant, I started looking for stuff and so has mom and Jason’s mom too! I’ve also been super fortunate to have been on the receiving end of lots of baby clothes and equipment!
While perusing the isles at the our thrift store recently, I found this and it took me back to my childhood days!
The JC Penny’s Seasonal Catalog! It was mine and my sister Kayla’s favorite thing in the world growing up!
This was seriously the highlight of our 2nd and 3rd grade lives! Mom would bring it home and we would lay on the floor for hours and hours, just looking at the pages…and the outfits…and the toys…and the luggage….and the EVERYTHING!
Our favorite game to play was to pick a 2 page spread and we had to pick our favorite thing on the 2 page spread. If it was business clothes, pretty soon we would have stories about how we were going to grow up and need suits and we picked out which ones we were going to wear.
If it was toys, we looked and decided which one we would want. Often times with dolls or sets of something, we would decided which one we would get and then which set would be the best set to go with the original item. In theory we were perfectly fine with sharing so that we could attempt to get mom to buy it for us….in real life though, that was a completely different story.
If it was luggage, we would pick out the perfect set and end up creating stories about how we were going to travel the world. As an adult, I’m not to the point that I do best with a over the shoulder bag because I rarely go any further than mom’s. The stories were literally never ending and got more and more elaborate every time we turned the page!
This is one of those things that I’m kind of sad has been replaced by technology. We seriously had just the best time in the world with that old catalog. It also made me giggle and realize that it really is the small stuff….or maybe just a big catalog….that made us the happiest!
Oh, Kelli, your Penney’s catalog post brought back so many funny memories of raising my three sons. When that JC Penney Christmas catalog hit the mailbox, it was utter mayhem. I now wonder why I just didn’t go to the store and buy two more catalogs, so each child had his own copy. That catalog was the most read book in our household. Thanks!
I loved the catalog too. As a new wife and mother it was my favorite place to “shop”. I would order things and go pick them up at the catalog center. It was so much easier than shopping in the store. When Sears and Penney’s stopped sending catalogs, I stopped buying much from their stores. I do shop on the internet now but quickly glancing through a catalog and marking the page for future reference was so much easier than clicking several times to see what I am shopping for.
The Sears catalog was my absolute favorite thing growing up. I sometimes wish we could go back to simpler times.
I am older than your mother and can remember when the Sears catalog included dogs! Now that’s a memory…as a little girl I wanted a dog more than anything. Finally got my first dog at the age of 16…best gift I ever got from my parents!
Oh Kelli, thanks for the memories. If I would have seen that at the resale shop I would have to pick it up. Dreams were what got me through my childhood and dream I did, through the JC Penney and Sears catalogs. My favorite sections were bedding and furniture. My future mansions were built with pages of purchases listed in a spiral notebook. Gosh, I had forgotten all about that.
Kelli,
Such sweet memories. Thanks for sharing.
Sears Christmas Wish Book was the big thing at our house! My sisters and I spent hours looking at it. But we also loved the Montgomery Wards and Penney’s catalog too!
My sis and I would get the Sears catalog and we would play going on a big trip where we would shop for luggage and fill it up. As 10 and 12 year olds, why we would even think of going on a big trip like that was interesting. We had never been anywhere except to grandma’s. Must have been the movies, if we even saw any. Like Three Coins in a Fountain or something like that.
You really hit the spot with that post, Kelli, lots of catalog lovers here. What my sister and I did was cut out the models, then cut out a wardrobe leaving tabs at the top to fit each character, a whole family was created. After that, we cut furniture and completed a home, rooms marked off with strips of paper. Paper dolls, hours of fun!!
I remember looking through the catalog to pick out my first day of school outfit. I was usually allowed to buy a new outfit for that day. And of course we enjoyed looking for what we wanted for Christmas.
I did all the things listed above but as an only daughter in the family. Another thing I used the catalogs for was as a booster seat at the dining Room table for my children. The main catalogs would get them up about 3″ so they could see over the top the table at least. I used a catalog on the floor under my desk to prop my feet on for more comfortable sitting.
I was ‘all about’ the Sears Wishbook! It would come out in September and the pages would be pretty dog-eared by Christmas. My two daughters would fight over it, so I always saved the previous year’s catalogue… the younger one didn’t know the difference, so everyone was happy. Oh, the Christmas wish lists that were created from those pages (including my own … I didn’t skip a page)! Thanks for the memories!