The December
Catalog for our national department store Timothy Eaton's, later called Eaton to aid francophones, was an important book for
Canadian children.
This
book showcased all the best Christmas Gift Ideas, and no child in
their right mind was interested in
mittens, pyjamas, or undershirts. Only the toy pages interested, with a
possibility
of the sports pages - sleds,
bicycles, and hockey skates.
Commonplace
dolls did not catch the
eye. Dolls needsd s special selling
point to stand out. A doll that had a suitcase and came with a
complete wardrobe.
A doll that could talk a little, if
you pulled a cord on her back. A doll that stood on her toes, and could
do a few
ballet poses.
From these books I managed to learn about:
Gloria, the flying ballerina
foll
Julia, the Miss Canada doll
Betsy McCall
doll, from America
Shirley Temple doll, from America
Maggie, my doll with pony tails and a red
dress
Grace, the doll that looked like my mom
Dennis the Menace, a misbehaving boy doll
Pumpkinhead,
a Canadian teddy bear
Baby Pumpkinhead, a smaller
Pumpkinhead
Susan Bear, an outsized teddy bear
The
greatest frustration with these Toy
Pages was that there was never enough of them. The Eaton's Department
Store people did
not know what a good thing they had
going in those days when a whole country of children looked forward to
their catalog.
But
why was that surprising?
For none of the rest of us knew what a good thing we had
going in our country,
the country of Canada.
