It is not a large Sears Roebuck catalogue, like most people used to order many of their clothes, home furnishings and Christmas toys from. Sears no longer exists, nor does Spiegel. It is sad to lose so many trusted names, such as Belk’s, JC Penney, Tapp’s, Efird’s and others that lined Main Street in Columbia in the past. Even before all the local stores,people depended on catalogues for their shopping.,
Those names were trusted and I suppose everyone thought they would be here forever. We were wrong! But, there are still some old reliable companies in business and that is where my “wish book” is from!
My Holiday Gift Book is much smaller than those old Sears catalogues were, but it is full of a wonderful assortment of clothing, bedding , candles, cosmetics and much more!
The company called, The Vermont Country Store, was started in 1946 by Vrest and Mildred Orton. They mailed a catalog to 1,000 people on their Christmas card list. They are still going strong and their popularity has spread many times over.
When I received my Halloween (Fall) catalogue, I checked to see what’s was in it that might be of interest to me. There on page 23 was a picture of a gadget like my Grandmother McInnis used to have! There were three apple trees in the back yard of the house where we lived in North Carolina. And yes, it was in the “dark ages” when people canned much of their food. Grandmother had a little device she attached to the kitchen table to peel and core apples from the trees in the yard. She would let me turn the crank. The peeling came off in a long strip and the core and seeds were also removed. It was a neat way to save time when making preserves or an apple pie. The cost is $24.95, plus tax. Just seeing a picture of it was worth that!
The catalogue is full of so many things: bedspreads, clothing, food stuff like fruit cakes, candies and so much more! They sell the highest quality merchandise and guarantee everything! Postage is free if you spend over a certain amount.
To put “icing on the cake” was when I found the page with cosmetics…and there was Tangee lipstick! Back when I was a teenager, my very first tube of lipstick was Tangee. It is still being produced. It is a clear light orange color that changes color on your lips. I was excited to see this product! Back in my day, it came in a small plastic container and the cost was maybe 10 cents or not over a quarter.The price today is $15.95. This is for very nice case and a much larger amount.
Also, I saw Mother’s favorite fragrance, Evening in Paris, in the navy blue bottle. My brother gave Mother some of that from time to time. I still have some of what she had at the time of her death.
It would take so much space to write about all the “memories” that surface every time I get a new catalogue from the Vermont Country Store! It gives me a warm feeling of pride to know there are companies like this! They have the latest styles in clothing, yet they have so many things from the kinder, gentler years for the older generation to look at.
At this stage of life I am trying to reduce the number of things I have saved through the years, but it would not surprise me if I filled out an order form and added a few more “memories” from the good old days to bring some joy to the uncertain times of today !
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