It’s (almost) like being a kid again.
I finally got around to looking at a
pre-Black Friday catalog Target had sent me, and was quite intrigued when I saw it contained a
special insert devoted solely to toys. Now I don’t know about you,
but back when I was a kid (you know, back in the late 1800s), the one
way I knew Christmas was coming was with the annual arrival of the
holiday J.C. Penney and Sears catalogs. You may remember them--paper behemoths full of everything under the sun, from those boring
items like clothes, appliances, and tools to the 50 or 60 pages of
the stuff that really counted--
The toys.
As a kid, I would pour through those
pages, trying to decide what I should put on my Christmas list. I’d
make a list of everything I wanted, and then tried to figure out
which items I had the most realistic chance of getting. Those would
make the final cut of the list, along with one or two flights of
fancy I’d hope to get but knew I wouldn’t (those days, probably a
battery-operated toy space station). These days, I ask for something
easier to attain, like world peace). After submitting my list to
Santa, I’d keep going through the books, wondering which of the
toys I’d get and wondering if, perhaps, I should’ve asked for the
walking moonwalker (complete with batteries) instead of the 3-foot
high model of the Saturn Five.
(And in case you’ve haven't noticed...yes,
I WAS just a little space-obsessed as a kid).
Anyway, I thought about all that as I
looked through the Target toy flier. I sure that if I was a kid
today, I’d do the same thing as I did way back when, only instead
of obsessing over space junk, I’d probably be obsessing over the
video games, Transformer figures, or digital cameras (specially made
for 7-year old hands) that I saw in the modern-day catalog. I also
have to admit to a small bit of surprise when I saw a few things in
Target catalog that I saw in the long-ago Penneys or Sears book. I’m
glad to see that kids still play with Hot Wheels and Easy-Bake ovens;
I wasn’t even surprised that the Easy-Bake now looks like a
microwave instead of a regular oven.
After all, kids can be picky consumers,
right?
I have no idea, but do they even have
those big honking’ store catalogs any more? I would be highly
surprised if they did; after all, why pay for paper, printing, and
shipping when you have the Internet, right? I am, however, guessing
that kids engage in the same kind of activity that I engaged in way
back when, only now, they’re drooling over their computer
screens instead of a 42-pound catalog.
Time, I guess, marches on!
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