Need to do some last minute shopping? Here's the FAO Schwartz Catalog - From 1911

[OmahaBlueDog]

https://archive.org/stream/Reviewspringsum00FAOS#page/n0/mode/2up

[Joe Shlabotnik]

1. I found archery sets, and air rifles,

but no lawn darts.

[angstlessk]

2. It seems kids were more spoiled then???

A fifty dollar gift in 1911 would be $1,219.51 in 2012 dollars...

[IrishAyes]

3. You have no idea how much I enjoyed that!

Having studied the era rather more than average, I have no illusions about alleged 'good old days'. But there was a certain charm, at least from a safe distance. My home was built a hundred years ago, and I try to decorate/renovate as period compatible as possible. All my adult life I've collected old photographs of people who resemble each other physically, and I like to hang them in old frames and make up 'life histories' for each. You'd never believe what they've been up to!

[No Vested Interest]

4. This reminded me of what my father (born 1905) and mother (born 1908) would have

played with a children.

My Dad's mother died of sepsis of age twenty-one, when he was one month old, so his young father took him and his sister back to the family house, where several young aunts undoubtedly doted on them, though I have no reason to believe that toys and other material goods were showered on them. It didn't occur to me until after he died how normal he turned out, considering he didn't have a mother's love while growing up.

My Mom was the middle of three sisters. Though, again, I have no reason to think that toys, etc. were lavished on them, the sisters were trained in the arts, my mother being an accomplished pianist.

Thanks for sending me back to this period.