#toilet paper

My wife is on a deep binge watch of Little House of the Prairie. In one episode, Charles Ingalls (Michael Landon) goes to the post office to get his mail. In his mail he gets a mail order catalogue.

I say out loud “The toilet paper has arrived.” To which my wife answers “Been watching Shrek lately?” Now if you aren’t sure of the reference, in the opening to Shrek, he’s reading the fairy tale book to which he states “What a load of crap.” He rips off a few pages and when done he steps out of the outhouse. We are left with the idea that he wiped himself with the ripped pages. Now you might be thinking, what does this have to do with a mail order catalogue from Little House on the Prairie. Read on.

The Sears Roebuck and Co. Catalogue was popular in the U.S. during the late 19th century. In terms to its link with toilet paper? The article Toilet Paper – The History ‘Behind’ It by Steve Silberman from the Plumber.com dated August 1, 2015 states the following:

The material of choice among colonial America was corn cobs. When daily newspapers became commonplace in the 1700’s, paper became the material of choice (I guess that one could say that Gutenberg’s printing press caused the toilet paper revolution)…In the late 19th century, the Sears catalog became popular in rural America. People simply hung it up on a nail and had a free supply of 100’s of pages of absorbent, uncoated paper. Corn cobs were still holding as a strong second place contender, however. Use of the Sears catalog declined in the 1930’s due to the fact that they started printing on glossy, clay-coated paper. Many people complained to Sears about this glossy paper (Can you imagine writing a letter to Sears: Dear Sir, I want to register a complaint about your new glossy catalog paper. It is no longer soft and absorbent…)

So it would seem that once Charles was done perusing the catalogue, the book would be recycled as toilet paper or kindling for the fireplace.

Whatcha think. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

#LittleHouseonthePrairie #SearsCatalogue #SearsRoebuckAndCompany #ToiletPaper #PersonalHygiene #AmericanHistory #USHistory #History #Historia #Histoire #Geschichte #HistorySisco

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