Oct. 13, 2001 - 19:54 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

U.S. Out-back Shopping

In the 30's when Grandma moved from Albuquerque to Questa, New Mexico the roads in and out were all gravel roads, some mediocre and some worse. Taos was about the nearest town of any size at all and shopping opportunities for needed things in that artist / tourist town was just about zilch.

Back in those days about her only recourse was Monkey Ward's and Sears catalogues and Mail Order.

She and Grandpa Steve would drive up to Jaroso, Colorado over a dusty gravel road to the rail station there. Monkey and Sears shipped by rail to her and the nearest place to pick up her stuff was there. I'm not sure but I think that they were narrow guage rails to there back then.

So, it had to be a Saturday for them to go up after her stuff. She would order so that the shipment would be at the station in nice weather. Needless to say in Depression years their trips up to Southern Colorado were few as possible.

Sounds like a perfect drag, up through the dry, dusty, flat land of the San Luis valley and back. You know, look in the wish book, order along with a check by mail, wait, go up and pick the stuff up and go home.

But that was only the beginning for her. Grandma had a running battle with both Mail Order houses. No matter how carefully she filled out her order form, checked and double checked, what she got often had no resemblance to what she had ordered. Wrong color, wrong size, damaged goods, or something weird that was in no way related to what she had ordered.

Then would come the repeated exchanges of mail between Grandma and the big houses of whatever. Sometimes many letters would go back and forth over one shipment. Sometimes a refund would be made, but only after she and the biggies would settle who was going to pay the return freight and even so it would entail another trip for them to Jaroso to ship the damned stuff back. So, anything she needed from Denver she would need it and want it pretty bad before she would order anything again from the frustrating houses of postal / rail madness.

In her letters to Mom she would relate the latest absurdities regarding her dealings with the merchants of obfuscation and excuses. Sometimes it seemed that it would take about a year for her to get what she wanted.

My Grandma, that crusty, hard working woman of Scotch descent from the hill country could have decimated whole departments if they had been close enough. Grandpa Steve had his gripes with them too.

I remember during those years going with Mom and Dad to Ward's or Sears here in Denver, shopping for something and often finding just what they wanted but couldn't get any sales person to take time from their rag chewing with other employees to write up their order. Usually Mom and Dad would go to the Denver Dry Goods, or Joslin's downtown or Davis and Shaw Furniture Company to get similar merchandise at a slightly higher price.

Many years later I heard that during the depression employees of both companies were people who owned stock in the company and didn't feel they had to lower themselves to wait on the hoi polloi. Maybe it was not the truth, maybe just a rumor, but we were ignored nevertheless. People in other businesses were eager to help a customer then.

Grandma might as well have lived in Alice Springs, Australia, and might have received better service from Australian companies than what she received in her U.S. efforts to get stuff shipped to her in her postal efforts in her New Mexican - - -U.S. Out-back Shopping . . . . . . .

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