Catalog the Catalog

In the course of the season I inventory my personal catalog of Christmas memories. My "snippets of the ages", memories that cover childhood to young adulthood to parenthood to life now in the middle-ages, is stamped with the promise that "some day i'll migrate that catalog to a medium 'less prone'" to deterioration".

(It is unfortunate that only one "road" is designated to be paved with good intentions. If other roads could be paved with good intentions, our paths would assuredly be flawless.)

Like many, my catalog of Christmas memories includes a catalog. The Sears and Roebuck Christmas Catalog was a magic cornucopia of goodies. It was a treasure trove of Christmas bounty. My dad worked at the "brick and mortar" Sears Store mere blocks from our house. The toy department of that store did not hold as much magic as the annual Sears and Roebuck Christmas Catalog.

While "us kids" were never mindful of the exact date "The Catalog" would arrive, the child lucky enough to discover it in the mailbox became a sort of prize winner. First, the "Prize Winner" was awarded a "head start" in Christmas discovery.

Every child in our cohort possessed the skill to rapidly and proficiently digest the massive amount of information about: a) what items "The Catalog" contained and b) the pertinent facts about the items. It was then that the "Prize Winner" became the possessor of highly valuable and relevant intelligence.

This intelligence became part of the prize. After all, it would likely be a while until "your turn" at "The Catalog". The possessor of such intelligence would immediately ascend to the top of everyone's popularity list. This put the "Prize Winner" in the honored position of dispensing the treasured intelligence.

A CIA analyst could not be more effective assimilating valuable intel and then disseminating that intel to the the most effective agent than did the "Prize Winner" of "The Catalog" on his or her first perusal of the season. The "Prize Winner" was awarded with the satisfaction of being the "dispense-or". The "dispensee" usually was grateful for any morsel not matter how incomplete or tainted.

Most of us who had our turn at being the "Prize Winner" today would likely be labeled a tyrannical despot. If one of our cohort might be brave enough to exhibit resistance to being "dispense-ed", then the "dispense-or" would in all likelihood load the disrespecting-of-popularity-non-conformist with the entire load of intel that personally pertained to them, thus completely impotent their attempt at delay of satisfaction.

A page from the toy section of the 1962 Sears Christmas Catalog

Thoughts of Christmas past flooded my mind when my sister forwarded the following link to

The Bees Knees Daily

You'll see the catalog page above is from this site. It's been a wonderful few days to reclaim memories surrounding Christmas. May the joy and peace of the Christ of Christmas be with you.

Blessings!