The Slice: Tricks or treats? Varies from door to door

So there really were people who bought encyclopedia sets from door-to-door salesmen.

“The year was 1990, and I was 11,” wrote Sarah Sanderson. “I remember sitting in the living room with my parents and the encyclopedia salesman. I’d recently complained to my parents that some of my friends had encyclopedias at home, which made it easier for them to do their homework.”

(Way to play hardball, Sarah.)

Her folks planned to buy her a set sometime before she got to high school. But then fate rang the doorbell.

“My parents asked me to look over the sample volume because I was the one who’d be using it the most. I skipped through the pages of the ‘H’ until I came to Halloween. I remember telling my parents that since there was an entry on Halloween, it must be a pretty good encyclopedia.”

She did wind up using the set a few times while doing homework. “Those dark green 1990 Lexicon volumes are still sitting on a shelf in my mom’s house.”

In 1955, Frances Jones and her husband bought a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. “As a bonus we received a set of pots and pans, which I still use, and a beautiful set of steak knives.”

Their two sons consulted the collection for years. But that wasn’t the end. “When my grandson was in fourth grade he wrote an acclaimed essay about helicopters, all from these books even though they were deemed old.”

There’s more. “My folks bought a Book of Knowledge set in the early 1950s from someone who drove out to the farm,” said Sally Gidlund. “I’m not sure how much the set must have cost but considering the salesperson had to drive from farm to farm, he couldn’t have made much of a profit.”

One salesman who might have come out all right was the guy who sold David Erickson’s mom five encyclopedia sets – one for each of her grown children. “They were mainly for her grandchildren,” he wrote.

Not all of the siblings had children. But his mom’s policy was “If one of us needed a lamp, we all got a lamp.”

Today’s Slice question: How much do the guys who pick up your recycle stuff know about your lifestyle?