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I don’t know if it was more great marketing or youthful excitement, but there was something magical about the JCPenney Wish Book.

In the orange recliner in my family’s living room, I would spend countless hours lost in the catalog’s hundreds of slick pages. Toys, clothes, Santa, fun-looking people — it all meant Christmas and happiness to me.

The headline crushed me last month. The JCPenney Wish Book is dead. As usual, the Internet killed it.

My immediate reaction was to head to eBay and snatch up an old copy from my 1980s childhood. I thought I could relive and preserve the excitement that way.

But then reality set in. I’ve learned from experience that you can’t go back. The difference between seeing something through a child’s eyes and an adult’s eyes is huge.

I first learned this at age 18. At the time, I hadn’t been to Worlds of Fun since I was in elementary school. In those younger days, the amusement park seemed like a Disney movie, full of wonder.

At 18, I was devastated to discover the place was hot, crowded and full of kid entertainment.

I made the same mistake a couple of months ago. Smithville Middle School was having its annual book fair. The memory of finally getting my hands on the glossy cover of the latest adolescent craze and the new-book smell came rushing back.

I headed to the book fair in hopes of capturing just a hint of that rush. Instead, I found books for middle schoolers.

I should have known better, shouldn’t have

had such unrealistic

and ridiculous expectations.

Recently, I discovered the secret to rekindling the childhood flame. You can step foot in the door, but you can’t go in all the way.

For about a year, I couldn’t quite place the automated voice recording that navigated me through the prescription refill process when I called my pharmacy.

Then one day, it hit me: The voice was identical to the Speak & Spell voice. When I was a child, the orange and yellow electronic was the iPhone of its day. Not only did a voice help you learn to read, you could hold it in your hands, making it quite the technology miracle.

There were times when it really seemed like a guy was inside of that machine. But I know that if I found one today, it would seem like nothing more than an extremely outdated device. So I won’t go there.

The pharmacy voice tease did the trick. The cherished memory came back, but I didn’t try to submerge it in today’s adult reality.

The Speak & Spell — just like the JCPenney Wish Book, Worlds of Fun and book fairs — thrives best in its original place — tucked away inside my childhood memories.

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written by Bruce Herring, December 23, 2009

I dare say that I predate you by a few years because my dream books came from Montgomery Wards and Sears, but I do share your sentiments. Imagine what kids did back then without computers or video games. Oh, I remember, we went outside and played.

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