The Hobby Hall mail order catalogue, 2007
Leafing trough old mail order catalogues is a great way to learn about eras long gone. Today we examine a fascinating vintage Hobby Hall catalogue dating from 2007.
The first impression we get from the cover is that people seemed to have a lot more time on their hands than they do today. Hence it was not uncommon for couples to just sit around and play “video games” all day long wearing “blue jeans”. Men were typically blond and chirpy while women were dark and mysterious. Pillows were made out of silver.
Yes, these were primitive times. After playing “the Playstation” for a while the male and the female would then look at each other, utter the words “let’s get changed into something more comfortable” and then slip into a kind of animal print bathrobe made out of polyester. This would bring out the animal attraction in them.
They would then proceed to mate on a “virtual savannah” (this time made out of cotton to avoid static electricity) and then go and play some more “playstation”.
The people of 2007 would have their own furniture made out of tubular steel and chipboard for their chunky television sets which were attached to the “Playstation”. Sometime they would abbreviate the word “television” to “TV” to save time – which was of course highly unnecessary since they had all the time in the world.
Chipboard would also be used to build intricate structures which function remains a mystery to this day. “CD towers” would however be integrated into these structures which might seem funny to us today, but was an absolute necessity in it’s day.
The people of 2007 would also keep “cats” and dogs” as “pets”. Owning a cat meant you had to build complex structures out of twine and fluffy polyester in order to keep your “cats” happy – otherways they might claw your eyes while you were sleeping.
“Dogs” were not trusted at all, so they were kept in steel cages.
You and I might keep our clothes on a shelf or in a cupboard, but this was not the case in 2007. Back then clothes were vacuum packed in plastic bags and stowed away under furniture. This practise was discontinued as late as 2010.
Some extremely forward thinking individuals also kept their clothes in big Tupperware boxes, but this practise didn’t really catch on until much later.
Beer was not widely available in 2007, so people used to brew their own. They also used to cook their own food at home.
Talking about food; isn’t it mind blowing to look into an refrigerator of 2007? People used to eat the darnest things like “eggs” and “juice”. And for dessert they might have a “frozen pizza”. Imagine that happening today!
With nothing else on their minds than rest, eat and wearing animal print clothing the people of 2007 would of course soon get offspring. It’s interesting to note how gender conscious they were though; girls would wear “Nice girl” sweaters while boys would claim to be part of the “Working boys construction crew”.
(The letter T would for some reason also be swithced for the number 7 in written text, possibly out of superstition.)
Also, instead of having beds available in several unisex colours they would have two strictly dedicated colours for male and female children. Buying the wrong colour appearantly meant bad luck for 7 years. (Sometimes written “T” years.)
These beds would then have bed linens with pictures of prostitutes and reptiles on them. The former were aimed as role models for female children, and latter for male.
But then we have to remember children growing up during this time could only hope to become two things when grown up; either a princess or a pirate. Naturally this was mirrored in the kind of backpacks they would choose.
Yes, the year 2007 sure was a funny time. But then we guess things have changed quite a bit since.
