Rest in peace, Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Nostalgia is one of the most powerful (and most irrational) of emotions. Thus it was with both a little sadness and happy remembrance that I read of Sears latest financial struggles, as the CEO gradually sells off the assets and likely closes down the company.

The sadness is the disappearance of an icon in retailing. Sears, Roebuck & Co. was a great innovator, beginning in the late 19th century with catalog sales, and extending even to the advent of shopping malls, as it built large retail stores. But ultimately Sears fell victim to other innovators (the big box stores such as Wal-Mart) and later of course the (now internet giants) Amazon, eBay and others.

The remembrance (bringing back happy memories) is of the once omnipresence Sears catalogs. As a child growing up in a very rural area, where retail opportunities were limited, both the 'Big Book” and the Christmas catalog were eagerly awaited.

The big book had scads of things to appeal to a grade schooler. As a farm family, camping had no appeal to our middle-aged parents (why camp out when we were already in the country my father would say). So the camping equipment looked all the more appealing to me. In my mind, I envisioned acquiring the tents, lanterns, portable cook stoves and so on pictured in the catalog, and camping out in high style in the creek.

My father also saw no need for garden tractors. We grew a fairly large garden and cultivated it (weeded) with sharpened hoes. No need for anything else. So I lusted after the cool looking garden tractors with the tiny plows, cultivators, and harrows.

My sisters and I also looked forward to the clothing in the Big Book. Except for the occasional trip to a 'metropolis” of 20,000 people (even stop lights!), we rarely saw any clothes more stylish than those in the local J.C. Penney or McDonalds clothing (no, not the fast food) stores. The Sears clothes were (to us) the epitome of fashions.

However, the Big Book, interesting though it was, took a back seat to the almost endless (and endlessly interesting) Sears Christmas catalog! We also looked at, though with less avidity, the catalog from competitor Montgomery Ward. In the 1910s through the 1940s Ward was a strong competitor. But it had begun to fade by the time I was a child.

My younger sister was entranced by various dolls and a little later by the Easy Bake ovens and toy refrigerators shown in the Christmas book. An older sister mostly wanted the winter weight sweaters and slacks.

I campaigned several years unsuccessfully for a model train, especially for one with a Santa Fe locomotive. Finally, one Christmas I got one. Unfortunately it didn't work and my parents returned it, exchanging it instead for a small pool table. (They later came to regret that choice as I whiled away time during high school at the local pool hall).

So RIP Sears. Hopefully the pictures displayed from Amazon and other internetors on the computer screens will generate as much excitement for grandchildren as the catalogs did for me and my siblings. RIP and know that you were a not insignificant part of the culture of the early Boomers, the silent generation and those earlier generations.

' Gary Maydew of Ames is a retired accounting professor at Iowa State University. Comments: glmaydew@hotmail.com