I remember when I was a kid. The greatest thing about fall was watching for the mail to come, knowing that eventually there would be something life altering there. I speak, of course, about the Sears and JC Penney Christmas catalogs.
There was no greater thing than to see Mom walk in with the mail and see that the catalog had come. I would grab it as soon as I could and pour tirelessly over the toy displays, dreaming of what I would ask “Santa” for and imagining playing with the toys.
But those days are gone, sort of. Okay, those catalogs have been replaced with Cabela’s catalogs and I still pour through them tirelessly thinking of what I’m going to get. But Sears and Penney’s no longer do the massive catalogs. The little guy wil never get to experience this. Or so I thought.
Enter Mills Fleet Farm. For those of you that don’t know, Fleet Farm stores offer just about everything under the sun and every year around Christmas time, they set up the center of the store and pile the shelves with toys galore. They then send out a special catalog with all the toys offered so parents can plan their buying seasons. Then after a few weeks, they open the Toylands up and mass shopping ensues.
“Daddy, come quick!”
“What is it buddy?”
“Look at all these tractors!”
“Wow, those are cool.”
“Yeah, I need that one.”
“Well maybe Santa will bring it too you.”
“And that one…”
“Well, you’ll just have to see.”
“And that one too…”
“Okay buddy, which one do you like best?”
“Daddy, I don’t like it. I need it.”
“Okay, which one do you need the most?”
With this, the little guy set off to determine which of the toy tractors covering the four pages of toy tractors offered he needed the most. With extreme care, he looked at each toy and you could see the wheels turning.
“Daddy, the combine is my favorite.”
“You need the combine bub?”
“Yes, I need it. I don’t have one and I need it.”
“Just got to have it, huh?”
“Daddy, I have tractors, but I don’t have a combine. How can I farm with no combine?” He had me there.
Later, he came back to me, catalog in hand.
“Daddy, I have a problem.”
“What is it, honey?”
“I looked at all the toys in this book.”
“What’s the problem?” He was pausing, trying to find the words.
“Daddy, I want a lot of the toys in here.”
“I know you do.”
“Well, I know I can’t have them all.”
Wow. He’s four, you know. I didn’t expect that.
“Can you please call grandma and let me tell her which ones I want?”
“You want to tell Grandma?”
“Yeah, if I tell everyone which ones to get me, then I can have them all.”
So Grandma’s… Get ready. He’ll be calling.
I’m just happy that he gets the same amout of joy I did when I was a kid. I’ll sign him up to get the Cabela’s catalogs too. Might as well get an early jump.
Sign him up for the Sportsmen’s Guide catalogues too, they are great!
Comment by John — October 23, 2009 @ 12:52 pm |