Creepy

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned my dislike of Halloween, but now I have. I don’t know if it’s because of a long standing grudge that my brother’s birthday is on Halloween, and we always had to do birthday stuff before trick or treating, or if it’s because of my hatred of figuring out costumes for my kids. I call Halloween “the holiday for uncreative parents,” because yeah, I was always on the struggle bus about it. Plus, I just hate creepy things in general, so that adds to my general October angst.

Recently, I came into possession of a number of Spiegel, Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs, from the 40s to the 70s. They are really cool. Did you know that you could buy a pig through the Spiegel catalog in the 40s? You could literally buy anything. I’ve been posting these catalogs in my eBay store recently, and came across this horrifying one:

Just look at that. Apparently, women were in short supply as models during the war years, so they just used these terrifying mannequins? That’s my guess. Here’s another one.

I don’t know if it’s better or worse when they are juxtaposed with real models, but it’s got a super Stepford Wives feel to it, doesn’t it? Not all of the photos are like this — it seems that it’s only women’s clothing, but still. CREEPY.

Happy October, and if you are interested in the catalog, you can buy it here. I kinda want it out of my house.