The mail comes routinely at 4:30pm every afternoon. And no matter where we are in the house both Helen & I can hear the mailperson deposit the daily delivery through the mail slot; which then is quickly followed by the sound of each item slidding across the top of the still present 1950’s milk-box, before they then cascade in a stream onto the floor below. The clink-clunk of the brass mail-slot cover closing behind the mayhem, now puddled all together, is a call for us to discover what has been left for us today. Somehow though, when Cuppycake is home, he never hears any of this. (Hello???)
At some point in time, I believe around the mid 1980’s, I became the unofficial unsolicited poster child for: Catalog Queen! Oh, lucky me!! I know there must be some perpetual list out there where my name may never be removed. Truly….it is as if I am at the top of every catalog distribution list. And if it were ever to be permanently erased I do believe a complete collapse of Catolog distribution would occur. TRUST ME! No matter how many times we have moved…the catalogs follow me. Phone calls and on-line opt-outs help for a period of time to slow down the delivery traffic; however, some anxious, antsy, higher-catalog-power relents under pressure and I am somehow back on the distribution list once more, so that balance may be restored.
I always feel sorry for our mail delivery person too and frequently find myself apologizing for the large bundle they must lug around in their mail sack until they at last approach our door. I’ve left Massage Therapy gift cards as a means of Care & Concern. I absolutely hide on the day the thick enormous Restoration Catalog is delivered!! Some days they relent by rubber-banding the large pile together to be left lumped outside on the ground below the slot or have, on occassion, opened the exterior door to the milk-box & slid the 8 inch high pile inside. (It only took a 3 day supply to fill the box!)
I am sure you are curiously wondering, “Do you look through all these many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many catalogs each day???”
No.
Well…not all of them.
Just a few.
Especially the thin ones. It’s easy to flip through those while I’m standing over the pile and Helen is sniffing through the puddle, sorting them for me down below. OCCASSIONALLY, in one of those flipping through moments, my attention is caught. I may put that catolog aside & dog-ear the page to look at more closely another day. And then of course there are those times, where as I am flipping through, suddenly….the world stops spinning for just a brief second…and everyone can hear my squeal of delight!
I’m sure you ALL heard that moment when it happened yesterday, right? Please, oh please, I pray at least my Cuppycake did! (Hello????)
This would be the moment I discovered, in one of these cursed Catlogues, that…
LONG JEAN JACKETS are COMING BACK in Style!!!!
The most PERFECT gift for someone turning 50 this year, don’t you think!!!
The long jean-jacket was my most coveted piece of clothing in my late teens! I worked 3 retail jobs when I first became of working age. Most of my earnings went to savings, gas for my beloved rust-bucket car, and auto-insurance. But I will never forget the day while working my shift at a popular clothing store in our local Millcreek Mall, Foxmoor’s, when I was unwrapping the day’s inventory boxes which contained…the Long Jean Jacket(s)!!!! I had never seen anything so cool and chic! I wanted one sooooo badly. I knew with some over-time at one of my other jobs and some penny pinching in other areas I could manage (what was for me,) a splurge-purchase. My retail manager gave permission to put one in my size aside and it took me 3 pay periods, with the little I could put aside at a time, to finally pay it in full so that at last…I could wear it home. Magically, (I believed) it went with EVERYTHING!!
Who knew the fashion world would come full circle to spread that same
long-jean-jacket-designer-magic again?
And I’d have never discovered this…unless a pesty-little catalog company hadn’t persited in continuing to spill through my mail-slot, despite my annoyance.
Now I just have to hopity-hope….“Cuppycake…are you listening?” (Hello????)
hugs n’ happy surprise blessings to everyone who is listening!!!!
hugsnblessings 