SEARS Miss Revolving Charge 1970

Little Becky was the youngest of eight children.  With three “Beckies" on our hall we had designated them by size.  One was very tall, Tall Becky, one was very skinny, Skinny Becky and the third was very short.  At about four foot ten inches, she had the personality of a girl ten feet tall. When she spoke, it was with authority, no one questioned her.   Although only a  college freshman, as were we all, she seemed to have a knowledge of how living in the dorm worked.  She had taken control of the sixth floor of Stangel Hall.  The  rest of us were fumbling our way through this new way of life but Little Becky somehow had it all figured out.

Little Becky was the only one on our hallway with a car.  Her resources being limited, she had figured out how to make that work as well.  While the rest of us were dreaming of owning a new or even a used Mustang, Little Becky was perfectly content with her pink 1958 Mercury.  It was a long as a city block and almost as wide.  Nine girls fit in it a bit crowded and eight fit perfectly.  With gasoline around twenty cents a gallon, five dollars would easily fill the tank.  Since none of us knew each other, we were thrilled when she generously offered to take us places.  One day I got a package in the mail from my mom.  It was a cute Bobbie Brooks wool pants outfit with the money to buy some shoes to go with it.   I asked Little Becky to let me know the next time she was going to the malls on 50th Street.  That weekend we planned a shopping trip.  About six of us decided to go.  As we piled into the car, I generously asked her if she needed gasoline to which she replied, “Nope I have a full tank.”  I thought nothing else of it.  We spent the day shopping, I bought my shoes and when everyone was thoroughly exhausted and ready to go home we called Little Becky from a phone booth. She met us a thirty minutes later at the Dairy Queen across the street.  

As we got into the car she said, “Well since I have spent the day running all of you around, it will be $1 each.  We were somewhat surprised since we had offered to buy gasoline when we left that morning.  Each of us forked over a dollar…..six dollars total for gasoline.  We learned that day that every time Little Becky gave us a ride anywhere it would cost us a dollar.  I started walking.

Little Becky  sold Tupperware, Fuller Brushes and Avon.  Fortunately my allowance covered my needs and those things were not among them.  Then one day, she started asking us all to come to Sears, she had a job there and needed our support.  We carefully inquired as to what it would cost us and to our surprise she said nothing.  Several of us rode the campus bus to the Sears store.  

When we walked into the main entrance of the store, there stood Little Becky. Her silky, smooth blonde hair was held back by a sparkly headband with her soft curls resting on her shoulders. She was wearing a dressy dress and heels, with a matching sparkly beauty pageant type banner across her chest that said, “SEARS, Miss Revolving Charge”.  I wanted to double over in hysterical laughter.  

Once again as in everything she did, she was in charge and deadly serious.  She approached us, handing us a charge account application.  Never breaking her professional demeanor, pointed us to some tables with pens and chairs.  A lady was sitting there to assist us with our applications.  None of us had jobs.  We were all college kids, with our parents paying our way.  However we dutifully filled out the application for fear of Little Becky’s wrath.

The application process did not stop there. When Little Becky arrived back at the dorm that night, she proceeded to hand out applications to everyone on the sixth floor.  Then she went floor by floor to all seven floors handing out applications, one floor a day for a week, until five hundred applications had been given out. 

The next week she continued by knocking on every door in our dorm to retrieve said credit applications, completed and ready to be turned in.  Those who had not filled out the applications, she greeted pen in hand, ready to assist, and witness their signature.  She continued knocking on doors until she had gotten back almost every application. There was not a single person in Stangel Hall that she had not talked to personally about their Sear Revolving Charge application.  

There were about 12 of us on the sixth floor who ate together every day at noon.  We would wait by the dorm office for Elaine, who worked in the office putting out the mail.  Little Becky had been so persistent with her credit applications that while waiting for Elaine for lunch, people we knew from other floors would look at us sympathetically and whisper, “You live on the same hall as her?”  We would nod our heads, they would shake theirs in sorrow.

A couple of weeks later we were waiting for Elaine before lunch. They had already been serving for 20 minutes when we finally went to the office to see what was taking Elaine so long.  It seems  hundreds letters from Sears had arrived.…..the responses to Becky’s SEARS Revolving Charge applications.  Elaine didn’t join us for lunch for the next three days.  

Good job Little Becky.  I lost touch with Little Becky after college....but I bet she is the CEO of some business, no doubt!!