The Manimal is Away

     For a whole week.  As we've only one vehicle working and he drove away in it this morning I'm here in the valley with the animals and my thoughts (which at the moment are grey and gloominous). There's plenty of work to be done, but I don't feel like doing any of it. I could seriously go back to bed and sleep for a week, but there are animals to take care of and a wood stove to keep going. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
    Nevertheless I've set a task for myself and this is as good a day as any to finish up the doll history posts. I certainly don't have to be in a cheery frame of mind to document all the odd little figures that cluttered my childhood.

Pajama bag doll. Note her ribbon clearly stating I Am a Pajama Bag, which certainly explains why her back zip is on her ample skirt instead of her bodice. She is sort of cute if you like that type of thing, which I don't now and didn't as an 8 year old either. I would categorize this one as "one more thing to take care of." Which is true of a lot of things designed to hold other things and also true of a lot of the things given to children.  ( Go clean Your Room!)

Kissy. You squeeze her hands together and her internal mechanisms cause her lips to move slightly accompanied by gutteral boink sound.  I once dated a lad who kissed similarly, and I do mean Once.

Newborn Thumbelina.  At the ripe old age of eleven I actually wanted a doll for Christmas, a Newborn Thumbelina I'd seen at the hardware store a block from our house. She had dark hair, a white lace tunic and bright pink tights. Adorable to my eyes. It was the lace tunic and the pink tights that really won my heart.
 My cousin PJ also found  this doll to be charming and we thought life would be ideal if we each had one. PJ worked on her parents and on Christmas morn found under her tree a regular large sized Thumbelina in a little white dress. Nice, but not what we had in mind.,
Meanwhile across town I had done a good enough job promoting this desire that my parents and my Aunt Dorothy BOTH got me Newborn Thumbelinas, with whitish blonde hair an dressed in bright yellow stretch rompers.  Upon opening the boxes I promptly burst into tears. I didn't want twins, and I didn't want blonde hair or yellow rompers.
This of course revealed me to be an ungrateful child, and I was caused to listen to the sad story of little poor children throughout the world who didn't have any baby dolls at all. My cousin had a similar experience. The thing of note about this story is that it was the last time in my life I bothered being specific about what I wanted for Christmas.   I had arrived at the conclusion that telling grown-ups what you want is a waste of breath.

Winnie the Pooh Spoon Sitters is what these are called on Ebay.They have a wide slot in the crotch that allows them to  sit on the handle of your  spoon while,you eat, and as a bonus their outreaching arms allow them to hang onto the rim of your juice glass. Or milk glass, but a glass of milk is overkill if you already have milk on your cereal. And if you have one of these you are eating cereal, because they came as a premium in cereal boxes. Collect them all.

Mama hand made large Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls for me and my brother when we lived in Mount Vernon, Indiana. She did it just before Christmas, and didn't have time to get their hair put on. Four huge bald rag dolls. I was in 8th grade. Richard was a senior in high school. What  she  was thinking I haven't the faintest idea.

Rat Fink. My brother had a zillion of these. They came from a gumball machine at the little shop across the street from the high school. They were apparently a very cool thing to have, tying in with models of hot rods.,  He gave me the pink ones.

1. Sassy Dolls or Brat Dolls, I'm not sure of the real name. They came with an assortment of facial expressions and some had a tongue that would pop out when you squeezed their belly.



Trolls and a troll house. Ugly, but fun. Tricky to make clothes for, as their arms don't move. My first troll, which had pale green hair, was the second doll I bought myself.  Money well spent no doubt.



another Sassy Doll on the left I think. For a long time I had a doll like the one on the right. . Actually liked her, she had a cheerful face and was easy to make clothes for because her arms and legs moved.

Eskimo doll, from the souvenir shop at Niagra Falls where we went on vacation. These are really well made dolls, I think by Canada's Regal Dolls.

This is the closest picture I could find to our Santa Dolls (Yes/Richard got one too) Our were larger, about three feet tall I think. they had white rubber gloves and black rubber boots and a sturdy black plastic belt with a red plush peplum attached that made it look like he was wearing trousers and a coat.  I really liked Santa.  He was put away with the Christmas ornaments every year, which may have been part of his charm.  Feel free to joke amongst yourselves about his resemblance to The Manimal.

Royal Doll Company's Joy Doll, mine had a much prettier brides dress than this. A fancy bride dress on a doll that has the figure of a toddler. Boggles the mind. Perhaps she's having an arranged marriage?

 

Susie Sad Eyes, the first doll I bought for myself. Got her at the drugstore  between our house and school, in the '60's, with my saved up milk money.  Mama thought she was terrible looking, but I really liked her. Still do, which is why I now have seven of them living in a bookcase upstairs. About 98% of the dolls of my childhood I really didn't care about and have no desire to have back again, but this one I still like.   I wonder why....?  She's not well made, her clothes aren't fashionable or skillfully designed, she doesn't have a wardrobe you can buy or a jolly lot of friends or furniture or a car. No career uniforms, nor accessories. What you see is what you get, just this little plain doll by herself.  Still, she's my favorite.