Sears stores: retail stories fit for retelling
Sears, RIP in bankruptcy, was such a mainstay for so long for so many of us, it’s no surprise my trip down memory lane last week prompted some of you to take your own.
• From Bill Moore, Oklahoma City:
“Hi, Richard, I connected with your story about Sears in the Saturday Oklahoman.
Here’s one of my memories:
“Growing up in the ’60s, I instinctively knew that the Sears Christmas Catalog arrived in the mail during the month of September. So right after school began, I would start watching the mailbox for the catalog.
“When it arrived, it was sheer excitement! I would lay down on the floor with it and look at every page. Next I would get notebook paper out and start making my list.
“My birthday is the day after Christmas, so some years if I wanted something fairly expensive, I could ask for it as a double gift. That garnered me a Sears film projector one year and a Sears B&W portable television in 1968. With that TV I watched all of the moonwalks from 1969 to 1972, no matter if it was day or night. “Great memories!”
A “double gift.” Genius! Thanks, Bill!
• From Jimmie Marrs, Oklahoma City:
“After reading your article about Sears memories I wanted to send you mine. I grew up in a Sears, Roebuck house on a farm 3 miles east of Wayne, OK. My grandfather was a carpenter who helped build it for a friend. It was shipped by rail to Wayne, then taken to the location by wagon and put together.
“When I was a freshman in High School my father bought that farm and we moved there in 1943. I lived in that house until I was grown and went to college at OU.
“After my father passed away, mother sold it to a friend and built a house in Wayne. Many years ago it was auctioned and moved to Pauls Valley. We had an outhouse on the back side of the garden quite a long way from the house which always had a Sears catalog for wishing and other purposes. I still treasure the memories
from growing up in that era.
“When I was married we always had Kenmore washers, dryers and refrigerators. My refrigerator before this Kenmore was 47 years old, still running but the ice maker could not be fixed as they no longer made the parts. We put it out to the curb and it was gone in no time.”
Yes! Sears sold house kits. So did Montgomery Ward. (Google it, young people.) Thanks, Jimmie!
• From John Gunter:
“My favorite Sears memory comes from the old TV series ‘The Brady Bunch.’ Whenever the family had a big event to celebrate, Carol and Mike would say, “Hey kids, you know what that means! We’re going to Sears!” Then Mike, Carol, Alice, and all the kids would load into the family station wagon and head to Sears for the day, riding the escalator up and down while singing “Sunshine Day.”
Well, something like that was in “The Brady Bunch Movie” (1995). Great scene! Great series! Great store! Thanks, John!
“I worked part time at Sears in Manhattan, Kansas, during the ’60s in the catalog department (yes, people returned everything, worn out or not!). When we were ready to move on, I used my discount and bought the first side-by-side Kenmore refrigerator.
“We moved several more times and in 1999 when we came back to OKC we went right over to Sears and bought a new one. The old one worked fine but we replaced the appliances. It should have gone to the Kenmore history museum.”
There should be a museum. In the meantime, check out this Kenmore history page online: www.kenmore.com/history/. Thanks, Nancy!