1971 Montgomery Ward Catalog
Hi everyone! Some of you, like me, may remember waiting every year, before Christmas, for the Sears or Montgomery Ward catalog to come in the mail. Sometime around September or October, they would arrive, filled with images of every toy imaginable. I would sit for hours perusing those pages and circling to my heart’s content. I’d love to get my hands on one of those old catalogs.
What I have today is unfortunately not a vintage Christmas catalog, but it is a copy of the 1971 Fall and Winter Montgomery Ward catalog, and it’s filled with lots of fun, retro products, including a few pages of “toys.”
Like these drum sets, key board, and guitars. What twelve year old boy wouldn’t want one of these for Christmas?
And bikes–I still remember the banana-seated bike I received one year. And, as Rush pointed out below, the ad calls them “filly” bikes (not “frilly” as my old eyes had read at first). The boys were called “mustang” bike.
I think these toddler outfits may have been the inspiration for some Star Trek uniforms over the years.
Hands down, this is my favorite image in the catalog–the expressions, hair-doos, boots, and ensembles–all of it I just love. I would wear either of these, minus the hair-doos, of course.
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Actually, I think I owned a pair of pants very much like the grey ones on the far right in photo #5, and I wore them with a red turtleneck, too. I loved that outfit. Thanks for the fun walk down memory lane, Diana. xxx ~ Nancy
That is the best plate ever, really quite modern.
I wonder where those two toddlers are now and do they look back and shudder ;0)
Hugs
Such a fun post, Diana! I've been doing much of my shopping online, and was just saying how I've always shopped for Christmas presents by mail…only it used to be the Sears catalog! Christmas 1971, I was a senior in high school and stocking up my hope chest from the catalog, too…I was married a year later!
Wow. I was 26 in 1971 and, unknown to me, was about to become pregnant with our son. We'd been married for nearly four years and were so proud of our first house. What memories. That was the year that female students and teachers were allowed to wear pants to school in our Flint, Michigan, district.
I sometimes think about the catalogues my parents got in the fifties. They were wonderful.
I imagine the Brady Bunch kids may have looked at this particular catalogue! What a fun post, Diana.
Loved looking at the pictures in this post and tripping down memory lane I had a banana seat bike and it was awesome. 1971 I was a sophomore in HS and I wore some wild striped pants like those pictured -along with a long fringed suede vest. LOL.
So fun to take a trip back in time by just looking at that catalog. Great find and in such good condition.
Thanks for sharing.
Audrey Z. @ Timeless Treasures
Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane!
These vintage catalogs are TONS of fun! Several months ago I did a Sears catalog from the 80's. The clothing made me laugh, too!
"Filly", not "frilly". A girl horse is a filly, as opposed to a boy horse, which is a mustang and the name of the bike in the ad for the boys. (See above the ad for a reference to the Mustang.) Silly, yes! On another note: The Pantsuit…what we were "privileged" enough to wear when the girls were finally allowed to wear pants. Somehow, what I wore never looked as cool as the other girls. Couldn't find cool stuff in size 14/16! Finally…no more freezing my tush off when I walked to school in the Ohio cold winters!