Christmas 1958, A Sears Blunder Creates a Holiday Extravaganza.
By Mike Fak
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[December 23, 2010]
Ten
years old is a pretty good age to be. At least it was for me back in
1958. I had finally mastered my multiplication tables and could
spell most normal words, so school was starting to be less trying,
especially when I showed up for it
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I was
also at an age where toys were still important but I had shucked the
simple "kiddy" toys and was now into the serious "good stuff" kind
of toys that just came on the market in 1958.
At ten I knew that I still wasn't expected to buy much of anything
for my parents, or God knows my little sister Mary Ellen just yet.
Oh, I had Herald American and Chicago Daily News paper routes but
the eight bucks a month went just so far when a kid had bills to pay
such as baseball cards and those comic books that had just gone up
to 12 cents apiece.
Being ten, I was now old enough to ask for those super toys like a
wood burning set that carried stories of kids burning their fingers
and that new, metal Alamo play set that all the stories were saying
were cutting the fingers off of youngsters. I was still young enough
however to not realize my decision to be a major league baseball
player was a long shot at best. Like I said, ten years old was a
great age to be.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2010/Nov/04/images/ads/current/hearing_aid_center_sda102210.png)
I recall sitting on the floor as mom and dad went through the Sears
catalogue picking out things for my five-year-old sister as the
holiday neared. From time to time I would pop up and show them
something really neat that if they could afford it would make a
great gift for me. No doubt I jumped up a few dozen times that
night.
The Sears book was the way millions of Americans did their holiday
shopping back then. Just pick out what you need, call in the order
and answer the door when the Sears delivery man showed up.
As with all Christmases before or after 1958, my dad had his way
with me. Every time I mentioned something I could really use, he
replied I wasn't getting crap for Christmas. It came to be that when
dad said those words I could chalk that toy up as a given under the
Christmas tree that year.
Little did I know that this Christmas, because of a blunder by Sears
I was about to have the all-time best Christmas in the history of
ten-year-olds.
After mom and dad decided what stuff to buy my sister and me for
Christmas, mom ordered it all the next day on the phone as I was at
school. No doubt a real person operator told my mom it would be
arriving on or before the 22nd of December.
Mom never could keep a secret and although I had to promise not to
look in the shipping boxes, I was told the delivery of my
materialistic Yule-tide cheer was coming on the 22nd of December. I
recall waiting for the truck to pull up to the apartment building on
Sheffield and for a Sears delivery man to bounce extreme tonnage of
toys up the three flights of stairs. Nothing happened all day.
School was now out for the holiday and I recall sitting on the front
steps with my friends the next day telling them I didn't want to
stray too far less I wasn't there to "buzz" the Sears man in with my
plethora of toys. No one came that day either.
I recall that night my mom and dad expressing concern about the
failure of the arrival of all the stuff they had ordered and mom got
on the phone and called Sears. I remember mom going uhhu, uhhu, over
and over again and then hanging up the phone with a look on her face
like she just found out a family member died. I recall her taking
dad quietly into the next room to relay her conversation with Sears
and I distinctly recall my father yelling out in that grandiose
vocabulary he had mastered about things not being exactly the way
they should be.
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Without a pause, my dad put on his coat and promising out loud to
never use Sears again, left the apartment as mom came back to tell
me the terrible news.
It seems Sears had lost or misplaced a truck load of deliveries and
the one for us was included in this debacle. Mom explained dad had
gone out to see what he could find to replace all the good stuff
they had ordered for me and Mary Ellen.
I remember a not very happy father coming back later that night with
armfuls of packages but he wasn't pleased with his purchases. "The
stores don't have s--- left" dad yelled at mom. I knew with those
words the Alamo set was history as well as the wood burner set and
the Wilson A2000 baseball mitt.
Dad
told me at dinner he was sorry but many of the things I had asked
for were sold out and he did the best he could. Although young and
far too materialistic I remember telling dad I understood and that
it wasn't his or mom's fault that I was going to have a miserable
Christmas.
That all changed about 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve when the apartment
buzzer rang. Pressing the buzzer, I went to the door as mom was busy
in the kitchen. To my elation, a young man in a blue Sears' delivery
uniform was banging a wheeled cart full of presents up the stairs.
Yelling at mom to come quick and that a miracle had happened, I saw
my mom pensively look at the young man. It hadn't dawned on my young
mind that my parents couldn't afford two batches of toys for their
kids. As my mom explained to the young man she had already purchased
alternative items, he shook his head and told my mom not to worry
and that the packages were being sent without charge. Something
about Sears valuing their customers and wanting to make amends for a
shipment lost and then found meant the boxes carried no demand for
C.O.D. With that news, mom whisked the young man into the apartment
and gave him a cup of hot cocoa.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2010/Dec/22/images/ads/current/vonderleith_bch120310.png)
Yes that was a very special Christmas in 1958. I not only got the
all metal Alamo play set and a wood burning set but I got last years
hot toy, the all-metal Fort Apache as well and a whole bunch of
trivial toys that were just heaped in a pile as I worked furiously
to open and play with my double dose of Christmas materialism.
I recall with fondness going back to school with blisters on two
fingers and band aids protecting cuts on the other eight. Yes, ten
years old was a great age to be. Thanks to a blunder by Sears.
[MIKE
FAK] |