Yesterday I spoke to the NCSU Osher Lifelong Learning Institute about Sears, Roebuck and Company. While I educated the group, I was in turn educated by several attendees. One person had worked in the Sears Tower in Chicago in an IT role and said the employees looking forward to the new catalogs every year because Cheryl Tiegs was the featured swim suit model. I didn’t know that. The ad below was in the 1984 Sears Catalog.
Another attendee was a stamp collector and told how Sears used pre-cancelled stamps to save the post office the time and expense of cancelling the stamps. The precancelled stamps had two lines across the face of the stamp, the mailing location, and the initials of the mailing firm (SRC for Sears, Roebuck and Company) and the time period in which the stamp was valid. He said some collectors specialize in these types of stamps.
So I often learn a good bit from the audience.
