For those of you who have not read “The Sweater” by Roch Carrier, or the original version “Le Chandail de Hockey,” it is a must-read. It is a staple for Quebecois and Quebecers. My kids love the story as well.
What does this have to do with Personal Finance? See how the Mother in the story orders clothing in urban Quebec at the time. She uses the Eaton’s Catalog, of course! When I grew up, we waited for the catalogue to come. We especially looked forward to the Christmas catalogue. Now that kind of shopping has returned, except now we use the Internet. It shows up in 2 days, not two months.
The other truth was that when I was a kid, in Montreal, if you wore a Leafs sweater, you didn’t go outside much! The Sweater sums that up quite nicely.
The Sweater, Sheldon Cohen, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
NFB Videos
- How do you make money? The NFB shows you how the mint does it.
- Do you remember the crash of '82? The NFB does. Here is a short, talking about the banking problems then.
- The October Crisis is one of Canadian history's most critical moments, leading to the 1976 Quebec Election.
- Before the October Crisis you had Expo 67 which was a magical time in Montreal.
- How do you stop things that should happen from happening? NFB has some ideas.
- What happens when cars take over? Now that is a possibility.
- A special Mother's Day message from the National Film Board.
- Do you understand the Vastness that is Canada? This NFB short will give you a glimpse.
- After the Axe is about someone getting laid off, which is close to my heart.
- Vimy Ridge some argue is when Canada became a nation, the NFB has a perspective on it.
- Who hasn't felt apprehensive at the thought of starting high school?
- NFB does a Fire Prevention short? Why yes, they did.
- Christmas is a subject the NFB has a lot of shorts about. This one looks at both sides of the holiday.
- Do you want an old box for Christmas? An NFB animation might make you want this
- Toronto Boom Town, which grew even larger with the help of the 1976 Quebec election.
- The Faces montage is another amazing bit of animation.
- Here is hockey, or at least how Hockey was back in the 60's!
- Paddle to the Sea is one of my favourite shorts from the NFB
- The NFB does create some of the most beautiful Christmas Cards.
- The Sweater is another of my favourite NFB shorts, a story that tugs at my heartstrings.
We still get the Wishbook, Lorraine, so maybe you could get a copy if you call around for it. We don’t have a Sears store in town, so maybe that’s why we get the catalogue. There are several Sears “outlets” here where we can arrange to have orders from the catalogue delivered.
I would suggest you go to sears.ca and check where you can have orders delivered, and call those outlets to inquire about getting catalogues. We get all the catalogues, but the only interesting one is the Wishbook.
I really miss the “Wishbook”. I remember spending every weekend leading up to Christmas dogearing pages and circling things, then dutifully writing down the details and page numbers for Santa. It had marvelous magical toys I had never even heard of (growing up in Northern Quebec). I wish there was something like that for my little one so his list didn’t default to “Lego” “Starwars” and “Mariokart”.