Friday, September 20, 2019

Doll-A-Day 2019 #263: Gramma

   Still on vacation. I'll tell you all about it when we get back. Until then, today's doll is this little lady.


She's Gramma.


She's a Sears exclusive.


She was sold in 1972. There was an 18 inch talking Gramma with different hair,shoes, and clothes. There was even a Grampa doll. The non talking Grampa was different too.He dressed much less informally, wearing a plaid shirt and suspenders,and no tie.


Why a Gramma doll? Because, I guess,all kids like to snuggle with Grama. But a Gramma cradle to put your Gramma in? Apparently there was also a chair for kids that looked like Gramma, so the child could sit in Gramma's lap. Literally 'in' Gramma's lap!


This is the non-talking version of Gramma.

Gramma has a very thin profile.
She has yarn hair.

Her hair starts at the top and is glued in strands down the back of her head.
Back when I was a kid,this is what Gramma's looked like. Both my Grama's had buns of sorts.
 
And hair nets to go with 'em! That's baby me on Grama's lap.
In fact, one of them used a nylon roll around her head that she rolled the hair up in to make a ring around her head. 

My Mammaw with my dad. Dad's holding his niece.
I'm reminded of that because...


Just for the record,my grampa looked nothing like the guy pictured above. My grampa, (I only had one. My dad's dad died before I was born.),wore work pants and a white undershirt or light coloured button up short sleeved shirt. He always wore white socks and brown shoes. He had 3 teeth,white hair,and little wire rimmed glasses,which he wore down on his nose.When he talked to you he would look over the top of his glasses at you. He was a former farmer and retired plasterer,who occasionally did plastering jobs. He spent his days in the metal lawn chair in the front yard,reading,usually Earl Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason) books.


Gramma has a stuffed cloth body.Her apron and dress are separate  pieces,and she also has bloomers.

 

Gramma and Grampa, (not mine!), were designed by Joyce Miller. 


Not Robin Joyce Miller. I found her online, but she would definitely not be old enough. The Gramma Joyce Miller must have been a somebody back then. She's even pictured on the ad above.  But the only thing I could find about Joyce Miller was this vintage tray which is supposed to have been designed by her.


I can see 'Gramma' strolling around in this idyllic setting. (Idyllic except for the green sky. What's up with that?)
  That's the doll for today. See you tomorrow.

9 comments:

  1. great find, I remember seeing those dolls in the sears Christmas catalog (which tells you how old I am) enjoy your vaca

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  2. It is the view of a lawn behind a fence in a yard.More of a 45 degree verses 90.

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  3. Amei a boneca! Suas recordações me trouxeram as minhas.
    Como é bom recordar boas pessoas e bons momentos!
    Abraço.

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  4. What cutie dolls. I called my grandmother Mamaw too! I only knew one grandmother also.

    Today grandmothers are so young looking. I think it all changed when the TV soaps became popular. Everyone started looking much, much younger.

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  5. My two grandmothers were completely different, one was grey haired and very round and cuddly and the other was quite glamorous...and she dyed her hair brown! I like the woolen hair this one above has, it's great how they've styled it.
    x

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    1. My grama had really long hair when she took it out of the bun. It was streaked with white like Lily Munster's! We used to like to watch when Grama took her hair down and combed it,sitting in front of her vanity. I have that vanity now.

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  6. I am not sure I want a gramma doll, but she is cute. I love her yarn hair and cheery smile. My Mom's mother had black hair with white streaks. She wasn't even totally white when she died at 88! She had the cheery smile, cooked pies, cakes, was pretty much stereotypical except that hair! Mom called it a china doll look, she had blue eyes and black hair. Oh and Mom's mother is the one that left me all her dolls. She didn't have that many, but they are still my pride and joy. I used to admire them on her dresser.

    My other grandma is the one that I never knew what she was going to be like. I have more bad memories than good, but I do have some.

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    1. I had one grama who wore her grey hair in one of those rolls around her head. She wore her stockings rolled down to her knees, little wire rimmed glasses, and she smoked a pipe! My mom's mom had hair like you described, dark, with white streaks, and she put it up in a bun and covered it with a hair net, making little scallops of hair on her forehead. That was when I was a kid, before she did a horrible thing and I never spoke to her again. Well, once, on the phone. My mom told me she had asked to speak to me, but when I got on the phone she pretended to not know who I was. Pretty upsetting.

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    2. I am sorry you had a sucky grandma too. :( My grandma was dying and called to speak to me, but I refused. Sometimes I regret not taking that call, but it might have been just like yours.

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Thanks in advance for your comments.