the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old man's hat.
I have no idea what that means. But it leads me to Christmas catalogs.
Ah, those Christmas catalogs. I looked forward to them when I was younger. I'd wait, not so patiently, for the J.C. Penny Christmas catalog to come in the mail. When it finally did arrive, I'm pretty sure I didn't get it right away. Mom had first dibs. When she finally allowed us (my brothers and me) to look at it, we took our time paging through, looking at all the options. We'd talk about what we liked and what we wanted.
But it didn't stop there. Oh no. Some of us were a bit obsessive about things like that. I would take that catalog, paper and a pencil and set up shop at the dining room table. I would go very slowly through the toy section (the rest of the catalog, all the clothes and other stuff, was wasted paper as far as I was concerned) and make my list. This list was not short, nor was it unclear. I included the page number, item number, item name, cost and probably anything else the catalog said about that item. And if we got a competitor's catalog, I probably had price comparisons. Just trying to save time for the parents.
I'm pretty sure Mom dreaded the day I finished my list. I don't remember if I gave it to her or not. I probably did. Did I get everything on that list? Of course not. Did I get anything on that list? Probably. Did I expect everything on the list? No. I knew better. We couldn't afford the thousands of dollars of toys I listed. It was wishful thinking on my part. I think it was more fun to consider what I could do with whatever the toy was.
But it was fun to dream.
I don't get many/any Christmas catalogs these days. I don't know if the major retailers even send them out any more. But they were fun. I kind of miss them.
