Sears

[Scott]

One time, my brother-in-law's father was in town. He had been an executive at Sears a couple of decades earlier.

"Did you know Sears used to sell cars?" my brother-in-law said.

I thought for a moment, and yes, I did know that! The Sears Allstate made by Kaiser.

His father was talking about it. Said the engine was too small and it slowed down going uphill.

I don't know how I should feel about Sears' bankruptcy. They're being killed off by Amazon, but Sears was itself the Amazon of its day what with their catalog. It's like when Netflix killed off Blockbuster and Hollywood video after those two killed off the local video stores. And think of Alvah Roebuck who sold his share of the company to Sears for $20,000 and wound up a hapless employee.

I knew a guy who worked at Sears in the paint department. Years earlier, he had worked as a busboy at a restaurant at Lake Tahoe and he spilled coffee on Natalie Wood.

[Scott]

"Is that a real poncho or that a Sears poncho?"

--Frank Zappa

But in Sears' defense, Jeffery St Clair wrote: "With the bankruptcy of Sears, it’s worth remembering that many blues and country musicians started out playing guitars, harmonicas, banjos, fiddles and drums bought through the Sears catalogues…"