To the Editor:
About 70+ years ago, I was a big fan of Christmas. School was out and we took our sleds to the park, ice skated on a frozen pond, and thumbed through the new Sears Winter Catalog on the dining room table. It was my link to the outside world and it offered me everything I ever wanted in life. But my, oh my, how times have changed.
Sears has since gone the way of the now-extinct local newspaper ads, the downtown department stores, and the dodo bird. However, today’s Santa is the reincarnation of Sears disguised in the form of Amazon.com which serves to fulfill our wants and needs just like that of its ancestral retail giant, but without the burden of a physical presence. I have fond memories of Christmas the old way, and I don’t think it’s all due to dementia or a sentimental longing for the so-called good old days. Most things are better today than 70 years ago, but some are not. The loss of our Christmas traditions greatly affects who we’ve become, be it for better or worse. I can’t help but believe we have lost something of value, and I’m pretty sure the dodo bird will return long before we ever recapture the things we once held dear. I suspect life has always been this way. Perhaps that’s a good thing, but I seriously doubt it.
So, if you see some poor old geezer with four fingers staring blankly out a window longing for Xmas past, that’s me, begging to be rescued from today’s Christmas piffle and the mind-numbing dreck served upby the fine folks at the Hallmark Channel. I’ll be happy when Tuesday arrives and the remnants of another faux-Christmas are neatly piled up next to the curb.
Gary Hetherington
Springfield, Illinois
The 1971 Sears Catalog can be browsed here.
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