Sears before Roebuck

A trip to a local museum brings a reality that I do not often think of – that history does not begin with my parents. I found it difficult to realize the wealth that abounded in the USA by the time my parents wed. Displays in the East Benton County Museum dated 1880s (before the birth of my parents) included fancy dinnerware, table settings, furniture, elaborate toys, and exotic clothing. Very stunning. An immigrant and a farmer's daughter, who were my parents, did not participate in that life style so it was beyond me (still is). I was aware that big cities like New York and Pittsburgh and others had indoor plumbing and some form of lighting, but that was not a part of my life in rural Minnesota.
Carrying drinking water by the pails full from a neighbor's well and carrying wash water from the pond was the extent of our running water – and we all took turns in running for it. In the little house with the hole in the seat, Sears catalog was the paper of choice in the 1930s and not for papering the walls.
The museum had a table model of a cream separator but not a milk pail or milk stool in sight. Unfortunately there were machines and other items that had already lost meaning. The museum curators could not name them. They put forth a constant plea for help. Support your local museum! Future anthropologists will be totally stumped if all they have to look at is stuff we throw into landfills, unless the labels survive. But then what meaning will there be in the words: Reebok, Sampson, Martha Stewart, Pampers, or Sears?
Naomi Sherer