Shopping and ordering through SEARS in the 70's/80's.

[Mrs-M]

Mighty Frugal. I asked my mom about Eaton's, and her response to me was, "remember when we used to visit aunt so and so on the Island, and we'd stay over a night or two in Vancouver and shop downtown, i.e. Eaton's, and go up and down on the escalators in all the big department stores"? Then I remembered. Eaton's was a big city store.

The statue sounds extraordinaire. I think that's what triggers all of the old-fashionedness in me and my love of all things vintage and retro, the classy way things used to be in the old days. IMO, nothing compares to those good old days. P.S. I'm so jealous over the 1960 Eaton's catalogue you bought! Would LOVE to page through an old catalogue like that.

Jemima. Oh, thanks for bringing up Bon Ton! I remember it, or maybe by my time is was just called The Bon. But like yourself, Woolworth's still is and will always be my most remembered and loved store!!! LOVED Woolworth's! It's like, you weren't a kid unless you experienced Woolworth's. P.S. The links you posted are awesome!!! Thanks so much for that.

Shalom. So many great memories you remind me of! Everything (when I think about it), related to my childhood, seems so surreal now, that due in part to the countless years that have come and gone since. Each day (every day) was an adventure. P.S. I remember those doctor/nurse kits! Hahahahaha!!! Made playing house that much more real.

Wildflower. Your post reminded me of the excitement that would run through my body on Christmas morning, wondering if the wishes I made for that special little something would come true and be waiting under the tree for me! I remember how I'd open some presents slowly and methodically, not wanting to spoil the suspense. Never were we kids disappointed.

Float On. So funny about what you Re: those old double swinging doors! I always wanted to pass through those doors just to see what was back there. My imagination told me all sorts of things related to exactly what was behind those old doors. In my mind it was a world unto itself. Anyhow, mom would always say to us kids, "if you go through those doors you might get lost forever". Her words kept us away, but we never missed watching all the employees going in and out of them, like toy soldiers. So mechanical.

Thanks so much everybody for a wonderful fun-filled, memory-filled thread! So many great stories and reminders!

[pony mom]

I never heard of Bon Ton until I moved to NW NJ. I also miss the old Woolworth's stores. The one in the town where I grew up was on the old Main St. and it had creeky, uneven wooden floors. And, of course, the little cafe, with the white plates with beige trim.

In Easton PA is a furniture store housed in an old Boscov's store. I don't know if that's a store only known in PA or if it's a chain. However, the building is really cool and old fashioned inside, with an old elevator. It reminds me of Grace Bros. (Britcom fans will know what I mean).

[boss mare]

Growing up in the suburbs, the coolest thing about Sears was that they carried horse supplies! Saddles, pads, brushes and bridles. Square dance clothes too, if you were into that sort of thing.

For a short time I boarded my horse at an older farm and the house on the property was ordered from Sears Roebuck way way back. There were a few others on the same street, but this was the only one that hadn't been added on to or had the exterior updated.

OMG My first saddle was from Sears.. The black one with the red seat... very used but at least it was a saddle.. I still envied my friends whose parents bought them Simco's or Circle Y's that had the buckstitching Back then that was the "in" thing LOL

[Mrs-M]

Pony mom. Like the one on, Are You Being Served? I love that old look! If it was possible to transport myself back in time, I'd place myself right in the very thick of the 1960's! That, or the early 70's...

Boss mare. The stuff good old memories are made of!

[Mrs-M]

Bump!

Thought this thread would make for a timely read, seeing how Christmas is right upon us!

[Square Peg]

JCPenney, Sears, and Montgomery Ward every year although I don't think my mom ordered through them.
I always had to move quickly past the page with the scary ventriloquist dummy shudder and then would pore over every single other page. I so wanted an electric race track that went upside down and a fancy doctor set, but every year, I did not get them

[ctg492]

:Sears and Roebuck or Simpson Sears in Canada( I lived on the border). I bought a pair of cowboy boots there in 1975, 9th grade. I remember it perfectly. In 1984 I worked the Hardware and Paint dept. The "old timers" the last of the full-time people were still there. The stories they told of the chickens being sold there in the spring of 1950 and how they got loose one day. The wonderful people I worked with at the Port Huron Downtown store( the second store as the original had moved from Military 30 years before). They gave me a surprise baby shower. From there I transferred to the Keys and Engraving and merchandising.
Sadly I remember telling my husband's grandfather that Sears in Port Huron would not be there long the way it was, business was not doing well. Grandpa got angry at me and told me Sears and the Catalog were a mainstay of the USA and I did not know what I was talking about! How times change. The Sears in the town I live in now closed last year.

[SteveinMN]

I remember many hours spent "wishing" over the Sears Christmas catalog. I know Penney had one, too, but it always played second fiddle to Sears. And we didn't have Montgomery Wards at all, so nothing to look at there.

Sadly, Sears everywhere likely soon will be seen only in textbooks, illustrating how not to run a business.

[Kestrel]

Love catalogs, and remember Mother (she wanted to be called Mother, not Mom or Mommy) ordering a lot of stuff from them. Of course she sewed a lot of my clothes too, with fabric, I believe, from Penney's. I think we only had Wards and Sears catalog stores. Early in DH's career we lived 22 years in the boonies, town of about 700 and an hour and a half on twistey-windey mountain roads roads from "the big town", so catalogs were very important. I still like ordering from catalogs, or online from Amazon or the like, and waiting excitedly for the packages to arrive!! As I am, even as I speak ...

[Mrs-M]

Really enjoying everyone's stories!

Square Peg. Your post Re: not getting the upside-down race car track and fancy doctor set you wanted, made me sad. Did you keep on asking for both, year, after year, after year? Keeping them at the top of your Santa list, Christmas after Christmas? I'm just trying to make myself feel better knowing you were short-changed.

My baby brother wanted a race car track set for years and years, but they were always out of mom and dads league (cost wise), and it was only after grandma and grandpa kicked-in some extra Christmas money one year, that baby brother's wish came true. We'd all lay on our stomachs around the track, to get a real (live) view of the cars racing around.