catalogs

I grew up in the days of catalogs; after the days when they were used in outhouses but before the days when they gave way to shopping malls and now internet. We still get catalogs from time to time, but they don’t carry the same excitement as they did back then. My cousin (just 3 years older) and I loved to get the old catalogs when the new ones arrived, they were great fun. One game we played with them was much like paper dolls. Each of us would go through the pages and cut out pictures to make a family, furnishings for their home and everything they would need to play a sort of paper doll “house” which we laid out all over the living room floor. It would keep us happy for hours, even days.

We invented another game that we called simply “the catalog game” and I have to admit I still like to play it. These are the rules: For one or two players. For two players, sit next to each other with the catalog open on both laps. Open the catalog to the first page. The left page is the playing page for the left player, the right page is the playing page for the right player. (When playing alone, both pages are your playing pages). Taking turns, you must choose one item from your page to “purchase” (all pretend, of course) and tell why. You can purchase something for yourself or for someone else, you must state for whom you purchase is. When both players have finished their shopping on that page, turn the page and shop another item. You may not purchase more than one item per page, and you may not skip a page, you have to choose something for someone on each page. There is no spending limit. Play continues as time permits or until the end of the catalog.

It is a very exciting game, actually, for who doesn’t like to shop (well, I’m really not much of a shopper—I visit the mall about once a year). It is the thrill of the shopping without the driving and parking, spending, or putting things away. It satisfies the need to acquire things without the burden of having things. And somehow, although I don’t quite understand this part, it makes me very happy and satisfied with what I already have; after playing the game I can set the catalog aside, totally convinced that there is nothing in it that I need or want.

More on this tomorrow, I hear a catalog calling my name…