RIP Sears! A Big Piece of American Dreams

‘The Big Book’  (1893-1993) R.I.P.

Recognizing one of this country’s greatest teachers.   By JB Blocker

The Millennials don’t know about this. Much of the GenX Generation don’t either. As an immigrant from the ‘60’s, the Sears and Roebuck catalogue was one of my best friends. It taught me America!

  The first true Sears catalogue was produced and distributed in 1893. Many others were to follow. It became an iconic lifeline of what people wanted and needed across America. If you had a mailing address, you could own anything in those pages.

  Clothing, toys, guns, farm tools, kitchen, living room, garage items, even houses, and cars stirred the imagination of families from the city streets to farms, fields, and newly discovered parts of this growing country.

  I remember in the early ‘70s listening to some old cowboys at the local pool hall in my panhandle farming community. They got into a discussion about the new Christmas catalog at the Montgomery Ward’s one day. 
  The talk started over the price of things. But the discussion moved to how they had been making their wish list from those catalogs most of their lives. Those pictures of what the world looked like outside of their world gave them reasons to save their money.

  Studying catalogs allowed America to become aware of the choices they never had before and how much money they would need to save.

  A few of those senior citizens also talked about the catalogs as a teaching tool. You could learn how to read while you were learning the value of all those items available from the pages of pictures, descriptions, and prices.

My Crash Course

Their volunteers are real heros.

You Too Can Bring Change

Ezekiel Elliot didn't seek out that Salvation Army bucket. It was right there in front of him and he didn't run around it nor did he try to avoid it. He jumped in feet first. In that one moment, he changed the perception of thousands of people who also jumped in to motivate hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.  

By J.B. Blocker

  I used to feel uncomfortable about passing Salvation Amy ‘Bell Ringers’ everywhere I would go during the holidays.     It’s not that I am ambivalent about giving. But I am discerning about who I am giving to and how the money will be used. And one other thing… I feel that giving is not seasonal.

  That all changed when I answered the call and found myself working in the ‘Red Zone’ of Ground Zero on September 24^th as a Disaster Recovery Supervisor.