Girls and Dolls

Back in my younger years, of course I had a dolly or two, or twenty.  I don't remember being very enthused about playing with them, but I had all the newest dolls.  Hi Dotty came with a phone, and I can't remember her, but remember a Christmas picture with her in it.  I must have been two or three.

The pic says 1972, so I was two.

 Baby Alive was more interesting because you could feed her, and then she pooped.  Then her batteries corroded, and there was an awesome mess in her diaper.  Good times.

 Next came the one that crawled, and then there was a doll who walked.  Wait, they may have been one in the same. lol

  I wanted these dolls, and they amused me for a bit, but that was the end of it.  They held almost no interest for me after I had them for a minute.  I was much more into the little people and weebles.  I used them to create stories with intricate plot lines.  Kind of the way I play the SIMS today.  Yep, I play the SIMS.  I have a whole country that is four or five generations deep now.  It's set in medieval times.  There are castles, etc........ but that is another blog. :)

Lets not forget Vicki's sister's dolls.  The Crissy dolls.  They have long hair, but there's a knob on their back that you can twist to make it short.  To make the hair long again you just yank it out of the dolls' head.  These dolls are (or were) still at Vicki's Moms, and to my joy I came across the red head one day.  Vicki's toddler, Meg, was there, and I thought she would get a kick out of it.  When I yanked the hair out to be long again the look on her face was priceless.  She screamed and ran away, which was not my intent.  Her Mother and I had a good laugh, and have laughed about it since.  I'm laughing now.  It. Was. Awesome.  Sorry Meghan.  I will pay for the therapy.

I'm sure I have mentioned that my Mom was the secretary for St. Anthony's Catholic Church here in Superior for over 30 years.  My siblings and I grew up playing in the rectory that is attached to the church, and got to know the housekeepers very well.  In fact I cleaned that rectory for Sr. Veronica during my junior and senior years of high school.  

Somewhere around 1975 the housekeeper was Dorothy Baker.  She was a character, and boy could she sew. She created this doll for a raffle price for the fall bazaar at the church.  I watched her make it, and then they used me in a photo for the news paper to advertise the bazaar.   Oh I loved that doll.  I wanted that doll.  I NEEDED that doll!  Yep, I won that doll (that had to have been fixed) and I loved that doll for probably five whole minutes.  What ever happened to her?  I do not know.

Note the 70's pants

Then there was my dolly.  She doesn't have a name, never did.  My Aunt Mary bought her for me when I was born, at the gift shop at St. Joseph's Hospital, in Superior.  She was head of nurses there, and one of the ladies who worked at the shop made the doll.  She came with a bonnet, a coat, shoes, socks, bloomers, a slip, and a dress.  My mother held that doll until I was ten years old.  I didn't even know it existed.  It's a good thing she did.  I have no idea where anything but the bloomers, slip, dress, and doll are.  The rest was lost long ago.  I didn't play with this doll really, but I have kept her with me since the time I got her.  She has her own rocking chair that I bought just for her at a craft show years back, and currently lives in the Goovers bedroom.  

No, I didn't braid my hair for the picture.  Happy coincidence. 

Over all these years I don't think that I have even bought one doll for my girls.  Barbie's for Ashlyn I think, but that's it.  I did do the Barbie thing, because again, I created stories for them, but I definitely wasn't a girl who played with baby dolls.