Long ago, before there was an Internet or Fed EX or Amazon, shopping was done via the telephone and a catalog. Growing up, my parents would give us the Sears "Wish Book" catalog to peruse to make up our list for Santa.
As a young mother, I relied on the Spiegel catalog for gift ideas and purchases.
(As luck would have it, back in the mid 1980's, I was able to order three Cabbage Patch dolls from Spiegel, just as the craze was taking hold and emptying all stores of the coveted dolls. They arrived in plenty of time for Easter that year.)
I had a wonderful assistant in helping me maintain the secrecy of all the gift items I would order:
Ted - the UPS guy.
Ted took great care in keeping an eye out for any of my daughters when he would back his UPS van up the driveway, so they wouldn't see what he was delivering. If he was concerned they were within earshot, he would spell out the names of companies marked on the return labels of packages, so as to alert me to what needed to be quickly put aside. One time, among several boxes he had on the truck for me, was a large package with photos of the enclosed toy all over the outside of the box. Since no one was home to receive the drop off, Ted made sure to hide the packages behind some bushes near the garage door. He left me a note, explaining what he had done. I really appreciated his efforts in trying to prolong the mystery of "Santa."
These days, there are no tiny eyes eagerly searching to see what's coming up the driveway. When we do get a delivery, it seems there are several different drivers who arrive, either from UPS or Fed EX. But I will always remember Ted with gratitude for his ready smile and help.
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