One of the most joyous occasions in yeshiva for many folks including myself was when I got something in the mail. I wasn’t cool enough to get letters from girls (which would be opened by the secretary and read aloud by the Rosh Yeshiva to you) nor was I cool enough to get birthday presents from wealthy relatives – the only mail I ever got was the occasional $40 from my dad (he sent cash in the mail) or a catalog.
I wasn’t one to subscribe to magazines, but when I realized that catalogs were free, sometimes included stickers, posters and most of the time provided just as much reading material as many magazines – I jumped at the opportunity to receive as many catalogs as possible.
The first catalogs that I got were of the outdoors and biking variety, I would get a card from the back of Mens Journal and check off every single choice for “information” and then 2 weeks later I was loaded up with Peru vacation guides and mountain biking catalogs.
Naturally I wasn’t the only one that did this, and the yeshiva mail room was constantly filled to capacity with hundreds of different catalogs, I do wonder what on earth these companies thought when 10 people ordered the same catalog.
The Edge Company is probably the most “yeshivish” catalog in the world. It is the catalog yeshiva guys in my school and I have heard countless others would prize and actually order things out of it. The Edge Company catalog has almost everything a yeshiva guy could want, samurai swords, cross bows and bb guns were amongst the most sought after and bought items. I myself bought a really crappy cross bow from the edge company catalog and I had a ball with my first weapon – every yeshiva guy loves a good weapon.
Other yeshivish catalogs were Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas which were both huge hunting, fishing and camping catalogs with loads of cool gear to make your stay at camp more enjoyable – because every yeshiva guy needs an emergency shovel and flair kit. In my yeshiva we were obsessed with army surplus stuff and these catalogs for anyone that has ever received a Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops catalog knows that they are as big as books. You could buy ATV’s and boats from the catalogs as well as beef jerky or freeze dried venison.
Other popular catalogs including the Eastbay shoe outlet, Sierra Trading Post, those black and white Campmor pamphlets and let us not forget the Sportsman Guide which had several catalogs with great deals on shoes, hunting supplies, clothing and outdoors gear – these were the best catalogs and had the best deals – I had to google to figure out what they were called and I just got myself some subscriptions.
Stop coasting in the status quo. Move forward with ego.com
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We just subscribed to any thing that said bill me later. Poor mailman had to come with a dolly to shlep our mail everyday, he said we received more mail than city hall (doesn’t mean much, we were in Troy NY). What the heck we subscribed to horse grooming and cat care for, don’t ask. I was the only guy getting bassmasters, field and stream and a slew of other fishing mags. Other got “People” and that sort of trash, every got SI, except for when the DC took all the swimsuit issues away.
Oh yeh I remember the good old days in grade school when we ordered CD’s from BMG and Columbia house and never paid – that was so 5th grade though and in yeshiva we couldn’t have CD’s
How about Smokey Mountain Knife works catalog?? ooogling over the thousands of knifes and swords.. also those police tactical gear catalogs … tazer guns, flak jackets, and fold out battons… perfect…
Hesh,
Small world, I still have a bunch of the CD’s as well. These companies were to stupid to figure out that the were 50 Michael Jordans and Wayne Gretzky’s living at the same address in a small hicktown.
Only thing anyone ever came after us for was some stupid collector’s item ceramic doll some idiot ordered just because it said free.
Bass fishing porno!
Just shows I should be Dan LeKaf Zchut. I was sure you were going to say you ordered Victoria’s Secret catalogs.
In Telz Cleveland we would get tons of Troy-built catalogs. No one needed a roto-tiller. I don’t know why we’d get them though. Funny thing is that we would not get tzedakah solicitations. I’ve since made up for that omission in my adulthood. And, yes, you can thank us for the candles and dehydrated charoses.
How did you like the Victoria’s Secret catalog?
heshy – you only looked at playgirl and you know it.