Catalogs and Computers

One of the things we had to deal with once we got home is our long lost mail.  This year our mail seemed to have a bit of trouble finding us.  In other years, I would go to the post office, fill out a form and it would all be forwarded to the farmhouse.  This year, they apparently forgot where Nova Scotia was or decided they no longer forward to a foreign country.  Whatever happened, we had a lot of mail when we got home and the occasional envelope in our mailbox at the shore that was actually forwarded from the states.  There is no explaining the postal service!

One of the main things that greeted me at home were all of the fall cataloges. Remember them?  I love cataloges.  I have loved them ever since I was a kid.  I don't get as many as I used to ever since the Internet was invented!  Now I get emails from my favorite stores which I ususally delete unless I am looking for something or am very bored.  But to have a real printed cataloge is still a treat for me. So imagine my delight when I had several waiting for me when I got home.  Small things people!

Remember this catalog?

 I  remember a time when catalogs would hang around on my coffee table or in my bathroom and I would look at them over and over.  I would pick out tops, bottoms, favorite looks, dream pieces and imagine what they would look like on me.  Every time I looked at the same catalog I would find different things to love or hate.  In those days my clothing budget was limited... very limited.  So dreaming of clothes was a luxury I could afford.  On the good side, I had a body that resembled the ones in the catalog closer than the one I have now.  The looks in the book had a remote chance of looking similar on me back then!

My point is that those catalogs gave me such pleasure and provided me with delayed gratification.  Something there is a shortage of these days.  If there was something in the book that I became obsessed with or just couldn't live without I would look at it over and over and finally order the prized item.  I would wait weeks for it to arrive and sometimes be thrilled with it and others be sadly disappointed by the fit or quality and mail it back.  I bought my first pair of Reebok shoes out of a catalog before they were even sold in stores.  I just knew they were the perfect shoes for me to wear when I taught aerobics.  Yes, I was right there with Jane Fonda herself in the '80s teaching aerobics four times a week in my Reebok shoes, leg warmers and leotards!

I loved my Reeboks!

I just don't get the same pleasure out of a website on the computer.  I don't go back over and over and dream of certain things.  It just isn't the same.....so I am totally enjoying my fall catalogs!