I had started sending money along with box tops from cereal packages to get such things as: a magnifying glass with a whistle in the handle; decoder pins for decoding secret messages sent at the end of radio programs; a "look back" ring which had a tiny mirror that flipped up to enable one to look behind them. It wasn’t exactly a practical ornament, though since I couldn’t get anyone to follow me and I wasn’t exactly paranoid.

The crummiest thing I ever sent for, with the help of my brothers, was during the war. The comic book advertisement promised "50 soldiers in fighting poses, six assorted airplanes (fighters and bombers) a signal sender, two paratroopers with parachutes, and combat vehicles for only 50-cents!" It turned out everything except the parachutes were made out of cardboard, like paper dolls.

After the war, I saw an advertisement in one of my comic books and started hounding Pop to let me send for a gigantic fireworks assortment to a fireworks company in South Dakota. He had resisted several pleas and rubbed my nose into the cardboard soldiers, but I persisted, finally wearing him down. For $10 we were to receive a huge selection of fireworks which would be sent via Railroad Express to Seattle. I had studied the comic book ad, memorizing the quantity and sizes of firecrackers, sky rockets, snakes, Roman candles, cones, pinwheels, fountains, aerial bombs, sparklers and punks. The advertisement guaranteed $50.00 worth (if bought at a fireworks stand) of fireworks. I could hardly wait for it to show up! I wasn’t disappointed, either – in fact I was dumbfounded that it was actually more than I expected. It took me several days to set off all those fireworks, no doubt alienating all the people and animals in our vicinity. The next year I sent off for an even larger assortment; however, it didn’t arrive until the week after the holiday.

Sears & Roebuck had a huge catalogue they would send free to rural addresses, or one could pick up the catalogue from cities or towns where they had stores. It could take months to actually read every ad, but the stuff about clothing, sewing, furniture, etc. could be relegated as outhouse toilet paper, while the good stuff like fishing gear, guns, boating and camping supplies would only take a week or two of study before sending off an order. If I did send for things, I made sure they were small so I didn’t have to pay a lot for postage. Lots of Fox Island folks got all sorts of things from Sears if they couldn't get it from the Trading Post.

THIS STORY’S STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION