The Doll Book of the Month Club: The Doll In the Garden

   If it's not one thing, it's another. You won't believe what happened to us now. Before we get to this month's book, let me tell you a tale. 

  Saturday afternoon I was talking to my sister on the (land line) phone, when  all went silent. Turns out, our electricity was off. We assumed it was everybody's electricity, and it would soon be back on. So we went on with our lives. Ken went to work. The fact that he didn't come back home should have tipped me off to the fact that, at least, it wasn't the whole town. I just thought of that. But at the time I was thinking when it started to get dark, and neighbours' lights were coming on, that, 'maybe it's just our block'. Unfortunately, it was not our block, but just us. 

  Ken worked late Saturday  night, and went in early Sunday morning, so he didn't really have a chance to figure out why we had no electricity until Sunday evening. I know nothing about the electric, so I wasn't even going to try. When Ken sorted it out it appeared we need a new main breaker. We went to try to find one Monday, after helping Emma and Fuzz move Fuzz's stuff to a new apartment. Nobody seemed to have one. As we were waiting at a red light to turn onto the street to Home Depot, an electric repair van drove past. I joked that maybe he had our part, and Ken said maybe even that guy was going to Home Depot for supplies. So the light changed and we drove to Home Depot right behind the electric guy! He was going to Home Depot for supplies! Home Depot didn't have the breaker, but Ken talked to him in the electrical aisle, and he confirmed what Ken thought was the problem, He also said that since the pandemic it has been really hard to get supplies like the breaker we needed. He said it might take months to get the breaker. Noooooo!!! He told us about an electrical supply place we could try. They also didn't have the breaker, and called loads of other stores, including competitors, to see if anybody had it. Nobody did. So we resorted to ordering one from Amazon. We paid extra for expedited shipping...a LOT extra. It was supposed to come between Wednesday and Sunday. I thought it must be coming from China or somewhere. Well, it turned up today and it only came from FLORIDA! It should not have cost $30 to expedite something from Florida to Ohio, and still have taken 3 days! 

  Anyway, it was worth it. We have our electricity back. While it was out, there was no house phone, no internet, (because it goes through the phone line and there was no electricity to the phone base), so, no sound, and no light! I have a heavy duty flash light, so I could get around. But by Tuesday night I was talking to the cats, to myself, anything for some sound. And the dim light was causing me to nearly have a panic attack. I was trying to take a shower in the dim light and started freaking. I kept saying to myself, "I can't do this. I can't do this." I'm not afraid of the dark. It was just that I couldn't see clearly. At the best of times I like a super well lit room. If I can't see properly it just drives me crazy. I don't like candle light, or dimly lit restaurants. I need to SEE! I had to keep myself from starting to hyperventilate. I've had panic attacks. I had them every day at the end of my school days, (which finished early because of it.)  I knew one was coming on. I did have some tears, but managed to settle myself and get through the shower. When I went in my bedroom I turned on every battery operated light we had. Ken came home and saw the bedroom window and thought the electricity had come back on. Seriously.

  Anyway, once we got the electricity back on today, not everything came back on, and we had to go out and get one of the lesser breakers too. Luckily Lowe's had one.

  So, we got our internet back just in time for this month's book. Talk about coming down to the wire. But, continuing Ken's luck, tonight he locked the car keys in the trunk! He had gotten off work and put something in the trunk and left the keys in it. The police had to come and get into the car for him.

  This month's book is "The Doll in the Garden", by Mary Downing Hahn.

  From the cover you'd think this book gets pretty gory and scary. But read on.

  The story begins with an 'almost 11' year old Ashley moving to a new apartment with her mother. Ashley's father has recently died and she and her mother are still coming to terms with their loss. The apartment was rented from a real estate agent, but the house belongs to the occupant of the downstairs half of the house, a crotchety old woman named Miss Cooper. 

  Miss Cooper hates Ashley on sight, and Ashley can't seem to stay out of trouble with her. She forbids Ashley to go into the weedy old garden at the back of the property. Of course, Ashley goes anyway. There she finds a statue and fish pond amongst the weeds. and a white cat. When Ashley meets her new neighbour, Kristi, Kristi tells Ashley that the white cat is a ghost, and connected to mysterious crying that's heard every summer.  

  Ashley talks Kristi into coming into the garden with her, even though Kristi is very afraid of the 'haunted' garden and the mysterious white cat. While clearing out the weeds Kristi uncovers a wooden box, buried in the garden. The box contains a very old doll, and a note from someone named Carrie, apologizing to someone named Louisa, and asking for her forgiveness. Kristi is afraid of the doll and insists that Ashley leave the doll in the box. But both girls later feel sorry for the doll, and Ashley retrieves her.

  Okay. From the moment they find the doll anybody could figure that the crying is a ghost girl wanting her doll back. But this story goes further, and deals with death and grief, and regret. It's not a super scary story, but  has just enough eerieness to get things going. The end is a sad/happy one. It may not end the way we wish it could end, but it ends realistically and satisfyingly.

  I don't think the book will be too sad for kids, although it did make me cry. (I cry at anything. Just ask my family.)  It's sad, but in the end we learn that it's okay to be sad sometimes. It's also not too scary, as I said. In fact, those looking for a horrifying story might be pretty disappointed. I liked the book. I think most kids will too.

  There are no illustrations. The book was originally published in 1989, (...which makes the timeline of the book more understandable. You have to read it to know what I mean.) , and has been published with a few different covers.

  That's the doll book this month. See you soon.

Some Recent Goodwill Hauls and a Bad Back

  I still have one doll to show you from the first doll show in August, and one to show you from the second doll show in August. I don't have either of those photographed though, and my back has been out for the last couple of days, so that's not going to happen right now. 

  My back was sore and stiff, I think, from the hours of driving to see Ivy Sunday night, sleeping in the car, (because I'm not staying in a hotel during Covid), and then hours of driving back home Monday. We went on Sunday because it's such a long drive and if we used up Monday driving we'd miss time with Ivy, who also had work to do on Monday, and it would be super late when we drove back home. I figured if we got there Sunday evening/night, we'd have all Monday free. It worked out well, except for sleeping in the car. Someone in Ivy's dorm had had Covid recently, so we probably wouldn't have been allowed to stay in her room if we'd have wanted to. I was a bit stumpy Tuesday, and then Ken and I had Fun Day on Wednesday, which involved more driving, and a nice car picnic at an arboretum again. That totally finished me off though. Wednesday night there was a lot of screaming going on during my shower. The neighbours probably thought I was having a visit from Norman Bates.

  I spent yesterday resting, but should have rested laying down and letting my back relax. Instead, I sat up all day, and then there was more screaming at bathtime. I was hoping the warm water would help relax my back, but it just wasn't enough, I guess. I got smart and had Ken put some pressure on the painful places before we went to bed, and it did help unbelievably. I am still having pain, and I've been laying down and moving carefully when I do things. I think I'll probably be better tomorrow. Ken will be glad of that, because I haven't braved the stairs for a couple of days, so he's had to bring me food. (I didn't want to get stuck downstairs, unable to move. There's no working bathroom down there at the moment! (However, I did get a nice porcelain sink at a church sale this summer, and I've been waiting for the weather to cool down before braving renovating that tiny bathroom that only has a tiny window.) 

  Anyway, while I'm an invalid, I thought I'd go ahead and post some dolls that I found at a Goodwill a few weeks ago. There were several bags of dolls that day, and the prices were crazy. The bag I bought was only $1.99 though. It contained these.

  There weren't any dolls I was really interested in, but I got really excited when I saw what the girl on the right was wearing. 

They're a bit stretched out from being on her fat feet. (She has molded shoes already.)

  If you read the blog regularly, you'll know that my dolls are notoriously low on shoes. I was excited about these shoes, because they are Betsy McCall shoes! I have two Betsys, the Tiny kind. Not the 11 1/2 inch one like I showed you the other day.

She was an amazing yard sale find, even if she is missing half a leg . You can see her post HERE, and read my Yard Sale Tale.

One dollar at the flea market! You an see her post HERE.

  I actually have a white pair, and a black pair of Betsy shoes, but no red ones, and someday I hope to get that red plaid dress for her.

  The dolls included a Native American Dress Me type girl.

There was a Ginny wanna be. 

  I'm pretty sure she's not a real Ginny. To tell you the truth, I got so excited about the shoes I forgot to look! She looks cheaper than a Ginny though. She's probably a Virga or something.

  Then there is the girl who was wearing the red shoes.

She's a Hollywood doll...

... like the compo (possible) Alice I showed you recently.

  She has kind of an interesting face.

  I suppose if she were wearing a cute dress she'd be kind of cute. Does anybody know who she is? 

  She has some personality.

And a strange little belly scar. Maybe she's had a Caesarean.

   Aside from the shoes, there was also a brush. (Maybe it's a back scrubber brush?")

Does anybody recognize the brush?

  Another Goodwill recently yielded this chair and this mini American Girl doll.

  It's Felicity. She's very yellowed. 

She doesn't smell like cigarettes, so I don't think it's nicotine. Has anybody had one of these dolls that yellowed.? Do they just do that?

  So now I'm off to rest my poor back muscles, See you soon.

What I Got at the Doll Show, Part 5: Pre Teen Betsy McCall

   I can't believe it's September already. You know how it always seems the years go faster every year? Emma told me that she read that time really does seem to go faster as you get older because the time is less of a percentage of your total life. It's like how time seems to move so slowly when you're a kid, and almost as slowly when you're a young person. When you're only 6 years old, six months is 1/12 of your whole life. When you're 60 years old, six months is only 1/120 of your life. I'll be 60 next March, and time really does fly these days. That sounds really sad, doesn't it?

  Before I go on, Beth in WV, please comment with your email so I can email you with the postage for your Highway Doll.

   If you're waiting with bated breath to find out what I got at the last doll show, you can go ahead and breathe. It was a 'fashion doll show', and most of what they had were the same old, (And often the same new), Barbies, Integrity, etc type dolls you see everywhere all the time. I was not very excited. Plus everything was so expensive it couldn't be touched. Not by me anyway. I think the best thing we saw was the Ruby Red Galleria dolls. I haven't seen any in person before. They were beautiful. Even my sister wanted one, and she doesn't even collect dolls. I only bought a bag of miscellaneous clothes and bits, which had some Tammy clothes and a Tammy head in the bag, a couple of Christopher and Banks Barbie sized Christmas sweaters, a 1979 Muppet Show Players Fozzie, and one lone doll, which I will show you soon. She has to sort out some clothes first.

  But today we're continuing with the dolls I got at the show before the last one.  Today we're looking at Pre Teen Betsy McCall.

    Betsy was made by Uneeda.

I thought she was teenaged Betsy, but from a picture of the back of a Betsy box, I see that she is actually 'Betsy McCall, Child Fashion Doll'.

Her box says she was 'created exclusively for McCall's'.

  And this page from a 1965 McCall's needlework magazine refers to her and 'other 11 1/2" to 12" pre'teen dolls'.

She was made in 1962, '63', or '64. I've  seen all three listed as her manufacture date. Maybe she was available for three years. (There's reason to think this might be the case, as she came in different style boxes and in different outfits. They might have been different for each year.) Or maybe people have just used the wrong dates.

  One of her boxes was this Mondrian inspired colour block box. 

The other box was made to look like Betsy is coming out the front door of her house.

  She's 11 1/2 inches tall.

  Her body type is similar to Tammy.

 

 Her eyes are a little alien looking. But they're brown! And she has red hair. That's a rare combo, even in dolls. I have that combo, and I look for dolls with it. I was lucky to find a red haired Betsy, because that's what I would have chosen, and she came in other hair colours.

  I got her cheap because the dealer said she had a nick on her nose. I didn't see one, but I didn't care much. I had been wanting this doll, and her price suited me. She looked fine. On close examination at home I saw that she had something white on her nose that maybe the dealer mistook for a nick? 

But it cleaned off.  I think maybe what the dealer was thinking of was that she was priced that way because she's had a haircut.

I don't mind that either. Some of these dolls came with a shorter bob, and this one can be trimmed up to look just fine.

If I can curl her hair to stay in these side flips, that would be great. 

  Her head is on a ball joint, so she can tilt it to either side or up or down.

  She has one feature that is a bit unusual in an 11 1/2" doll like this. She has sleep eyes.

  I think this dress is homemade. She's also wearing tights that are too short, and scoot down below her butt. The dress was pretty dingy and I washed it before the photos were taken. It did improve. I think it needs a soak in Stain Devils for nicotine or something though.

  Betsy McCall started life as a paper doll in the McCall's magazine, in 1951. The same year a three dimensional 14" version of Betsy was produced by Ideal. Since then there have been many different Betsy McCall dolls, made by several companies, including the more recent remakes of her by the now defunct Tonner doll company.  The most popular and best known version of Betsy is the 8" Betsy made by American Character in 1957. She's my favourite, and you may have seen mine two HERE and HERE. This version of Betsy is my second favourite.

  There was a Betsy McCall record with this girl on the cover, This page has a nice photo of it, and you can download the record to listen to it!

  That's all for today. See you again soon for the lest doll I got at the doll show.

The Doll Book of the Month Club: Tammy, Adventure in Squaw Valley

   Talk about coming down to the wire! Our internet was off since Friday night, and only just got back on today. Just in time for the Doll Book of the Month Club entry for August. This post could have been better, but I finished the book last Friday, and was going to write the post that night before I forgot what I wanted to say. Thanks Frontier!)

  I seem to be finding a lot of Tammy stuff lately. (Not my stuff. It's all 'Tammy' stuff, and believe me, there's probably way too much of it.) I mean Ideal's Tammy. I've been finding things like the doll, and things associated with her. One of those things is this book, which I got at an antique mall during a recent Fun Day outing.

  "Tammy, Adventure in Squaw Valley" is one of those Whitman hardbacks from the 60's, and it resembles the Robin Kane or Donna Parker books in more ways than one. 

The writing is pretty par for the course, and so are the illustrations. 

That's not to say that that's a bad thing. I enjoyed those books as a kid. I can see where kids of the era probably enjoyed this Tammy book. 

And having said that, I do have to say that it's not perfect. The entire first chapter is character exposition. We learn all about how great Tammy is, what an annoying little sister Pepper is, how much Tammy's brother Ted is an all around great student and typically superior acting big brother. 

Tammy comes home to find that Mother has a secret.

  The 'Adventure' is mostly what happens to Tammy and Ted at the ski resort in Squaw Valley, which they are staying at for a family wedding. I don't think that's what the title is referring to, but it takes most of the book, with only a couple of only slightly out of the ordinary happenings in the meantime, to get to the actual adventure.  

  Tammy is described as being 16 years old. She plays baseball at school, and likes archery and tennis. Tammy, in her doll form, had an archery set, and a tennis set. This book contains a lot of Tammy trying to ski, and the doll also had a ski set, complete with skis and a skiing outfit that completely matches the ski outfit Tammy buys for the trip in the book. I am wondering how much the book was seen as a commercial for the doll and her clothing sets.

  If you collect Tammy dolls, the book is a nice addition to your collection. Not only that, but the book can sort of make the doll 'come alive' for you, since she's given a personality. Tammy is sensible, stubborn, and feisty. (Why thank you. Yes I am!) You even get to know her family and what they were supposed to be like.  As I said, the 'adventure' took a while showing up, and it was sort of like 'Lionel Twain' described some of the mystery writers' books in "Murder by Death", in that they made it impossible to solve the mystery, by leaving out clues, and introducing characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. But the book was a nice leisurely 'adventure' anyway, and then got exciting at the end.

  If the illustrations look familiar to you, it may be because illustrator Haris Petie  was responsible for the illustrations in many books, including some mysteries featuring Trixie Belden, another heroine included in the 60's Whitman line up. Author Winifred E. Wise seems best known for another Whitman book about a teenaged girl, "Minnow" Vail.

  That's the book for the month. See you again soon!