I love modern life where I can order anything on Amazon. I mean anything. But Amazon’s just a catalog company, and catalog shopping has existed for generations. The first mail-order catalog meant for the general public was printed by Montgomery Ward 1872.
In the late 1800s, people could buy anything from catalogs, just like we can now. Not only that, when the catalog got old, it could be reused as toilet paper in the outhouse. Can’t do that with Amazon.
Sears sold houses. My sister’s home was built in the 1920s, and she found a description of it in a vintage catalog. How cool is that? Amazon sells houses too – tiny house kits. Nothing has changed.
People awaited shipments from Wells Fargo. Before Wells Fargo was a bank with reputation problems, it was a stagecoach line. There’s a song about the Wells Fargo Wagon, made famous in The Music Man. Click the picture below for the YouTube video.
In the song, people are waiting for these things.
I found them all on Amazon. I can still have them delivered to my home. Well, the cannon is only a tiny replica, but it’s there. I didn’t even know what a mackinaw was, but Amazon did. Apparently, it’s a jacket.
We need a song about the Amazon Truck. Maybe a rap.
Yeah. Yeah. The doorbell rang and the guy didn’t wait. Must be the Amazon truck. Well, the truck’s got a logo now. Moving up. A big brown box with Amazon Prime tape waits for me.
Yeah. Yeah. The automatic vacuum system I forgot I ordered with one click. And the video game my neighbor’s kid slipped in the cart when he borrowed my phone. Thinking of the Amazon truck.
Yeah. Yeah.
Growing up, the best part of Christmas was the fat toy catalog that came in the mail. My sister and I poured over it for hours, circling the items we wanted and writing our initials next to them. We circled something on every page.
Even when my kids were growing up, Toys R Us sent out a big catalog. Hours of fun and dreaming ensued. I’m not sure how kids do it now. Making a wish list on the computer isn’t the same.
I can’t complain. Many times, I scour the mall in search of a specific item, only to be disappointed. Then I order it on my phone, just like the housewife of old. I can sing the Amazon Truck rap while I wait.
Nowadays,the wait is much shorter. Guess I don’t mind living in the now, even if I don’t have a paper catalog. I don’t have an outhouse anyway.
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