You Wish

Before there was online shopping, even before there was the Internet there was the Sears Christmas Wishbook. Thick with potential, its arrival sparked a frisson of excitement among us Webbwood Estates snipes. I’d pore over those still-cold pages with the discerning eye of a Harrod’s merchandiser, nodding over the artistically back-lit dinosaur and Hot Wheels dioramas. I’d submit my list—with purchase order codes—in plenty of time. I rarely got anything I asked for, but disappointment never dampened my enthusiasm each year, when I could nestle that catalogue on my chubby little lap and pretend we had money.

Inspired by Virtual Therapy. Picture of the much coveted but never possessed Easy Bake Oven, from the Sears Wishbook, 1972.