Paradise regained
A long time ago, if you wanted to buy hunting supplies or fishing supplies or lord knows what else, you got the Herter’s catalog from the top of the toilet tank, and you ordered them.
I had stacks of them, and I loved to go through them. You could buy a complete hot bluink kit for $4. You could get a large ring mauser for $90 in a number of calibers- this was the precursor of my own Zastava made Mark X. Duck calls before the Dynasty was born. And all other manner of stuff. I loved them, and my ex tossed out the pile of them.
I bought one on Ebay, and it arrived last night. I drifted off to sleep, dreaming of barreled actions in wildcat calibers Buying a whole fly tying kit for $11. Getting a genuine Herter’s fly reel for $3, or a Hudson’s bay point blanket for $14.
If chocolate is comfort food to me, the Herter’s catalog is comfort reading. No, the world wasn’t necessarily any better then, but it was simpler.
There used to be a Herter’s store in Tacoma, WA about 35 miles South of me. My favorite (insane) uncle would take me down there and give me $10 to spend IF- ain’t there always an IF? I had cut his lawn or washed his ’49 Chevy pickup to his satisfaction. I damn near washed the paint off that wreck and mowed that lawn to where it looked like he pastured sheep on it. I also got a trip to Herter’s once a month with enough cash in my pocket to make all those trips seem like trips to heaven. I miss that crazy old man, I really do. He was a Seattle Policeman and took me to the Police Range so I could shoot my favorite firearm, an M2 Carbine. Heaven on Earth.
Gerry N.
Yes, I think things were some what better back then. The big city problems stayed there and we in the out lands thought life was pretty sweet. I do remember that those catalogs took about as big of bite out of the budget as they do now. Inflation…What a rip off.
I used to spend evening looking through the sears or wards catalogs. What you could buy with a phone call.
We will never see that again.
Warshawsky’s. Loved looking through that. Even after it was called JC Whitney, the old man called it the “warshawsky’s.” I actually put one of their barefoot accelerator pedals in my first car- a 1971 Pinto.
YES!!! And they’re still around. I stop by everytime im in the neighborhood and pick up one of each of their catalogs.
And now http://www.herters.com redirects straight to all the Herter’s brand stuff at Cabela’s.