It's true, so true. They built their business on mail order. People got a Sears catalog in the mail (and you can bet the letter carrier loved the day THEY came out; each one was as thick as a twenty-dollar steak, and just about every family got a copy) and looked through the "wish book."Dad could order stuff for the yard or garage, Mom could get what she wanted for the living room or kitchen. Or vice versa! Bud could get a magneto for that hot rod he'd been doing shade-tree mechanic stuff to, and Sis could get a full-on doll house and dolls to staff it. Sears didn't care who bought what for where. In fact, African-Americans in the deep South, used to shoddy treatment in general stores when they went to purchase items, soon found out that no one cared about their race when they ordered clothing or whatnot from The Big Book. The only color that mattered to Sears was the color of your money, just as it should have been.
And yes, America was a very different place in 1975. Having just survived 1.5 terms of the Nixon Era, we took a deep breath as cardigan-clad Jerry Ford moved into the White House, and when the Fall and Winter '75 catalog came out, everyone was all agog over the guy who came to be known as "The Man On Page 602." Click on the link to hear the song about this mini-brou-haha, as sung by the immortal Zoot Fenster.The whole commotion was caused by improper reproductions of a photo of a guy wearing boxer shorts, photo faults which made it appear that the man was...large and in charge. They thought he had BDE long before Pete Davidson made that a thing.
The pandemonium over his...size...lasted but a short time, as it were. That's how things were in 1975...we didn't have cable news and cheesy online "news" sites, so our tumults lasted but briefly.
Besides, we had to prepare for the arrival of the Pet Rock later that year!
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