The Vermont Country Store - Back in the Day is Today

My mother loved catalogues. In fact, she was addicted to them. Beginning in August, she would get stacks of catalogues delivered daily much to the chagrin of the post office. On a light day, she would get ten in the mail. I won’t tell you how many on a heavy day. And she would buy something from almost all of them, which in turn resulted in more catalogues sent to her. As she got older, I would stop to visit her and literally move the catalogues from her mail box to my car to my trash can at home. It was a little scary.

I am not a catalogue shopper except for food. I love food. But what is delivered never matches what is pictured and very expensive. So I threw what few catalogues I got out…except for one.

Tucked midst the naked, writhing bodies of Abercrombie and Fitch and the glitz of the Neiman Marcus Christmas was an innocuous little catalogue with a different print and paper quality. Sometimes it would even be in black and white. It came from the Vermont Country Store and rapidly became my catalogue of choice.

The Vermont Country Store is a long time family operation based in…you guessed it…Vermont. And it specializes in basic, well made stuff of all sorts from gadgets to clothing to food to beauty and health supplies. You can buy a warm flannel robe or flannel pajamas. You can buy supp-hose. You can buy fade cream. You can buy Clove gum. It is a combination of your grandmother’s clothing, your mother’s toiletries, your father’s aftershave, and food you can remember from your childhood.

Although you can buy all sorts of things from the catalogue, new and old, Vermont Country Store’s specialty is finding hard to get brands from the past. In the food category, you can find such delights as Ralston Purina hot cereal, B + M Brown Bread in a can, Walnettos, Cherry Mash, Original Dentyne Gum, as well as Beemans, Clove and Black Jack. Don’t forget Necco’s and Chiclets! There is also a wide variety of canned food that will bring you right back to the 1940’s and 50’s. My mother fed us canned peas and canned corn until the mid 60’s. One of the biggest surprises of my life is when I discovered I actually liked peas and corn...when frozen.

You can buy an old fashioned whistling tea kettle, a wind up alarm clock with the big bells, cobalt blue and ruby red glassware, and jelly glasses. Leaf a few pages further and you will find typewriters, record players, princess telephones, and heavy duty steel canister vacuum cleaners.

The clothing is beyond the pale. I have purchased some of these things myself and Victoria Secret they are not. But on a cold winter’s night, you will be glad to own those night clothes that kept your parents and grandparents warm while the wind was howling outside. The snuggy has nothing on some of this stuff.

But the real hoot is in the health and beauty section, both for women and men. Guys…when was the last time you used Bay Rum and Clubman Aftershave. For the ladies, promise her anything but give her Arpege; or Evening in Paris; or any number of scents by Coty. If that doesn’t work, how about Tangee or Tabu lipsticks.

The women’s hair section is a hoot. My wife used to have one of those cover all hair dryers that would go over the big rollers…all of which you can still buy at the Vermont County Store, along with old timey bed coverings and pillows…and plastic rain caps and hair nets. It’s back to the future back in the day all mixed up into one. Oh ya….don’t forget the Your Hair Smells Terrific and Lemon Up shampoos after you shower with your Lifebuoy Deodorant Soap, if you have any skin left.

Here is the link to the Vermont Country Store website. But do yourself a favor, order something and request a catalogue. Each issue is a trip down memory lane of what was yesterday’s state of the art. When you are stressed out at night, turn of the television and enjoy some quiet browse time.

Now that I’m 61, I think I will try some of that fade cream. Do you think it would fade away about fifty pounds?