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CHRISTMAS SPIRIT: A catalogue of memories

Website reveals more than a few favourite toys from the past
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The cover of the Simpsons Sears Christmas Wishbook of 1970

SURREY — The pages of an old Christmas catalogue can spark nostalgia like nothing else.

Tom Saunders (PICTURED) found some of those pages online and posted them last week in a Facebook group called “I Grew Up In South Surrey /White Rock/Langley/Cloverdale/Crescent Beach.”

The Sears catalogue images seen below are from the years 1966 to 1972.

With a tip from Michael Roberds, Saunders found them on a website called Wishbookweb.com.

“There are dozens of catalogue images on that site,” Saunders noted. “Somebody has, insanely, scanned these pages going back to the ’30s, right up until the 1980s.”

Saunders, a musician and author, had an award-winning book in 2013 with “I Want to Go the Moon,” named B.C.’s Best Picture Book at the Chocolate Lily Book Awards.

Every year, Saunders writes fresh, topical lyrics for “The Wonderful Year We Fell in Love,” sung with great tradition in the pantomime play staged by White Rock Players’ Club. “This is my 19th year of doing that, I believe,” he said of the current production, “Cinderella.”

In the old catalogue pages he posted online, Saunders thrills mostly in the images from 1964 to 1968, “when I can remember specific toys and stuff, going through those pages.

“It’s funny when I look back now,” he continued, “but there’s nothing I remember going, ‘I need that!’ But I remember look at the sets of toys with castles and farms, whatever, where they had a thousand pieces. I always thought they looked pretty cool to have. And the road race sets and the hockey games. It’s overwhelming, like it’s all yours, when you’re looking through there. And those bikes with the banana seats, I remember loving those.”

Scroll down to see images from old catalogues.

tom.zillich@thenownewspaper.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Tom Zillich

About the Author: Tom Zillich

I cover entertainment, sports and news stories for the Surrey Now-Leader, where I've worked for more than half of my 30-plus years in the newspaper business.
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