By Jo Grey of Badin

For my brothers and me, the Christmas season during the late 1950s arrived in the mail with the Sears & Roebuck catalog.

As best as I can remember, the dictionary sized, hefty fall edition was soon followed by the slimmed-down specialty Christmas version.

Hundreds of thin paper pages of technicolor pictures were like the forerunner to Instagram. Page after page meant hours of simple entertainment, list-making and over-the-top expectations for us kids — oblivious to the panic and fear overtaking our parents.