Thursday 4 February 2010

C is for Catalogues and Choirs


The letter we have reached in the Alphabe-Thursday Challenge is C
C is for catalogues (or, for my friends across the pond, catalogs) and choirs Do you remember the excitement of going through the mail order catalogue when it came, just to see what you might want to buy? Maybe you still do it. I used to go down to my Aunt's and sit with her and her daughter and scour the pages for something to spend my money on - those were the days eh? I particularly remember some awful polyester trousers in garish colours, with polyester jumpers that matched. This was when I had an allowance from my parents that I had to make do for all my personal needs, good training for money management. Then after I started work I ran two catalogues myself and made quite a nice little bit of money from them.
The first thing I bought from a catalogue was in 1969. It was a black evening dress, shirt style top, ankle length sunray pleated skirt and little diamante buttons and buckle to the belt. I paid £4 19s 11d over 20 weeks. Does this require translation? In 1969 we had not yet gone decimal in our coinage so you say that "Fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and eleven pence" And that was very expensive. The reason I bought it was that I needed a full length black dress to sing in my first proper choir. I had been in the school choir and as my voice was quite low I used to sing tenor sometimes (all girls you see) but started off as a soprano so I could sit with my mum when I joined the Billericay Choral Society aged 14. The first work we sang was Medelssohn's Elijah. It was a choir that sang oratorio most of the time and I loved it. I soon found my confidence and switched to the altos. Then imagine my delight when a few years later my first love (another C for Clive - he looked a lot like Hank Marvin) took over as accompanist. He had been my piano teacher until he went to college. My passion was not reciprocated by the way, poor Clive, these days I would probably have been arrested for being a teenage stalker.
Sorry if I find it difficult to stick to one subject, some letters bring so many things to mind. If you have time, please read my Mission Statement (link in my profile)as it is something I feel very strongly about at the moment
And if you would like to see some other bloggers take on "C" go HERE

18 comments:

  1. I do remember when catalogs were a thrill! It didn't matter that I had no money of my own when I was little, I'd spend hours paging through them, imagining I owned all the different things.

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  2. I do remember those catalogues, Littlewoods??
    Nowadays we call it mail order and pay for the goods straight away.
    Living in rural Normandy, as I do, I order from Lands End & Artigiano for many things.
    ~Maggie~

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  3. I remember the old catalogs...like the one from Sears. Now we get those skinny little catalogs in the mail...many come before Christmas, but it's not quite the same.

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  4. I loved being in choir all through school. :-)

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  5. Oh...the magic of the Christmas catalog. I still remember that particular joy. On Thanksgiving my sisters and I would always sit and make our "lists"...which was always kind of funny because we never got anything on them...but, hey, a kid can dream, right?

    Thanks for a great post...I read your Mission statement and wrote a short novel there as well!

    A+

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  6. I was in the choir when I was in high school. For some reason I was a soprano. I don't think I would be one now. I didn't shop much from catalogs until I was older. I used to love to get them but now not so much.

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  7. I still love catalogues but mostly online these days! Thanks for sharing! Pop on over and visit me when you have a chance.
    And be sure to ENTER MY GIVEAWAY!
    Happy Alphabet Day!
    C is for Coralie

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  8. I loved the big fat Christmas catalog from Sears! We would put our initials by things we wanted. Or I would play "what's the best thing on this page" game with my sister.

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  9. Catalogs are fun. I especially enjoy seed catalogs these days :) .

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  10. Oh I still remember Sears "Wish Book". And I remember wishing I was a boy when I was little - my brother got to order his clothes out of the Sears catalogue and my sister and I had to go to the department store and try things on - sheer torture. Come to think of it, it still is! Kathy

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  11. Funny that most of the catalogs I receive these days go into the reycyle bin, but I still like to flip through the pages and see what's offered.
    Thanks for sharing....

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  12. I've always enjoyed catalogs and still do. I'm not sure if my mailperson likes delivering them all to me.

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  13. oh, i never catalogue shopped :D

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  14. I still enjoy real catalogs, but I always end up buying from the company's website! I do remember flipping through every single page of the Penney's, Sears, and Spiegel catalogs each fall to check out the new fashions!

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  15. i remember the sears christmas catalogue ... spending hours and hours with friends looking at all of the gorgeous dolls and dollhouses and all things girly!

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  16. I still love catalogs. Right now my coffee table is stacked high with seed catalogs. So many of my favorites have changed from paper to online catalogs. As for choirs, I cannot hold a note. I only sing in church where everyone else drowns me out or in the car with the radio blaring. Great post!

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  17. As a little girl I would pour over the JC Penney catalog and pick out nursery items for my future children!

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  18. I used to L-O-V-E looking through my great aunt's Sears catalogs. I would spend hours sitting at her kitchen table pouring over the pictures and sometimes I'd even try to draw the things I saw there. Thank you for bringing that memory back for me this morning.

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