Doll Book of the Month Club: Raggedy Andy Stories by Johnny Gruelle

   Last month, (Or rather, the beginning of this month, since it was late!), we looked at the original Raggedy Ann book, "Raggedy Ann Stories". This month we're looking at the follow up book, "Raggedy Andy Stories", by Johnny Gruelle.

  Raggedy Andy Stories first appeared in 1920. two years after the first Raggedy Ann book. 

  As the story goes, Andy was invented when a friend of Gruelle's found an old rag doll from when her mother and Gruell's had made their daughters rag dolls, and gave the doll to Gruelle. The story found in the Raggedy Andy book is slightly different. The person who gave him Raggedy Andy was someone who had played with his own mother when she was a child, and it their mothers who had made the dolls.

The whole tale became part of the stories themselves.

  Like the Raggedy Ann Stories book, Raggedy Andy Stories is a sweet, gentle book, full of stories about what toys get up to when people aren't around. 

Like pillow fights.

A nd running into Santa Claus. As in most dolls stories, the dolls collapse at the risk of being seen being alive, because no one can see them that way. By the way, the Santa thing is why I was going to use this book for December...forgetting it would be after Christmas when I posted this.

I hope kids these days still like things like that. (Oh, nd the illustrations are also beautiful.)

The original illustrations by Johnny Gruelle are bright and colourful, and full of life and coziness. 

Andy isn't as popular as Ann. I see way more Raggedy Ann dolls and other products than I do Andys. Traditionally boy dolls aren't as popular as girl dolls. But I always loved Andy best. Raggedy Ann and Andy aren't as popular in general as they used to be. The Raggedy Ann and Andy museum in Gruelle's hometown of Arcola, Illinois, closed down in 2009. The museum was run by Gruelle's granddaughter. When it closed some of the books and rare dolls were donated to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. The museum has 43 pages of Ann and Andy goodies on their website, which you can start perusing  HERE. 

  See you tomorrow for Doll-A-Day 2023!  

The Return of Doll-A-Day!

   Just a quick announcement to say Happy New Year! And to let everyone know that Doll-A-Day is returning to the blog in 2023! I may regret it, because it's a lot of work, (and I still have to finish my posts on our recent trip too.), but I have been intending to get back to it for the last couple of years. The last two years I haven't been ready when the new year came. Once I miss the first day, I figure it has to wait until the next year. So this year I thought I had it ready...and then couldn't use the pictures I took! So tomorrow's doll will be a different doll from the one I intended, but there will be one posted! Keep an eye open for the trip posts, and hey, what does everybody think about The Doll Book of the Month Club? Should it continue? Leave a comment and let me know what you think. And have a great 2023! 

The Grand Tour Part 3: Friends and Family, and Burton Constable Hall

   We left Edinburgh on Sunday morning, and headed south. Not far south, because our first stop was Darlington, to visit my friend Penny.

I loved the train station there.

As with most old train stations, there are a lot of beautiful architectural details.

  I last saw Penny in 1986. We had meant to get together the last time Ken and I were over, but the only time that worked for us, ended up being bad for Penny. She was team leader on a project, (She's an animator.), and they had to finish on a time limit, meaning she absolutely had to work that day. We did talk on the phone a few times while I was over though. This time she was free, and she met us at the train station in Darlington, loaded our huge bags in the back of her car so we didn't have to rent lockers, and drove us to her house, where she served us a nice lunch, and afterward, tea and biscuits. We sat around and talked, we met her kids, grown now, but who didn't exist the last time I had seen her, and had a very nice afternoon.

  When we left Penny's I saw this on the way to the car. I had to laugh and took a picture to annoy Ivy with.

"Look Ivy! We found a 'bin store'! Ha! (It was the trash can storage.)

  From Darlington we continued south briefly, to Hull, where we were met at the station by no less than two Ken sisters and two Ken brother-in-laws. We were staying with Gloria, and were supposed to spend the beginning of the week, (October 24-26.), with Gloria and her husband, since she works the last three days of the week, and the next three days, (27-30), with sister Marjorie and her husband. Since we weren't going to be seeing the Marjorie in the evenings, as far as we knew, we set the evening of the 30th to spend with Ken's friend Paul and his family. We set another evening to spend with Ken's friend Michael and his wife, and another day I was to go spend the day with my friend Jenny, who I also had last seen in 1986, and had missed seeing last time. And this is where things began to really happen in the curse of Ken and Tam.

  About this time we were informed that our 11 year old great nephew was having another bout of Krohn's, and was in the hospital, as he has been on and off all year. We were set to see him the following week, as he lives in Huddersfield near Ken's other sister. Next we were informed that Paul had fallen, but was doing okay, but his wife and daughter had Covid. Other than that, things were going swimmingly! 

  That is, until Marjorie's husband Cliff, who is 88 years old, began to have bad stomach pains. He ended up going into the hospital, and having operations on one single and one double hernia. His time recovering in the hospital meant we didn't get to spend our allotted days with them either.

  We did see Marjorie, and visited Cliff in the hospital, and visited with them later when Emma, AJ, and Ivy arrived. But first we spent the week with Gloria and Alan. They took us around. 

The telephone boxes are white in Hull. (Bottom right.)

  On Tuesday they took us to Burton Constable Hall.

Approaching Burton Constable Hall.

It's huge, and really beautiful.

Ken, Gloria, and Alan and Burton Constable Hall.

We saw some whale bones.

Me, in front of the huge cool fireplace in the front entrance.

I could live here.

Does this guy look like he's scolding, "Ah ah ah!"

"You kids get away from there!"

The ceiling in that room is magnificent.

I'd repaint this bright yellow room to something more buttery. I love the fake tree though.

It's a fake tree, but it has some real birds in it.

This room has a secret door in the corner.

This statue was so great! It really looked like that 'cloth' on his head was see through.

The paintings on the walls are of Burton Constable Hall. The clothes are reproductions.

This was The Chinese Room.

There is a tiny sedan chair on the table, and there's somebody in it.

There is a dragon on each corner of the curtains.

These walls are covered with silk. It's starting to disintegrate.

Another great ceiling.

This was beautiful. I wish I had a window like this. 

This room was basically a library room. That's me, having something explained to me.

Gloria and Alan.

This chair has a very interesting story. See how it looks like there's a mane down the back of the seat? Well, there is. And that's a tale on the seat.

The story was on the chair. Part of it at least. The story is that the owner of the Hall was riding this horse, his favourite, in a hunt, when it died. He loved the horse so much, he couldn't bear to part with it, so he had it made into the chair, so he could always have it near him. Some people think that's gross, but I think it's kind of nice, in a way. I could never have done it with an animal of mine, but I can see why he'd do it.

Queen Victoria sat in this chair.

Cool table legs!

 Throughout the house there were frequently people on the sconces, chandeliers, and candelabras.

This model of the Hall was made in 1830. It's only cardboard, but it's still there. I'd put it under glass or something to keep dust off it.

They even had their own chapel.

This wallpaper is pretty.

This weird thing is a closet!

This room is set up like a lady's bedroom.

Oh my lord! I want this chair! 

It's awesome, even if it is a little worse for age!

This bed was amazing too. Look how tall it is compared to Ken.

This room had more amazing curtains and furniture.

Another great chair!

And look at this...pelmet.

Another great pelmet and chair. Are you getting the idea that I love fringey things?

Beautiful chair! I have a thing about furniture. Sorry.

This room was rented out to American tourists in the 1980's, so it was decorated to look like an American's idea of an English country house.

My leg and back were pretty painful. I kept having to sit down, but I kept going.

Luckily they had seats, in almost every room, for guests to sit on.

This big dining room was set for dinner.

Look at the people on this chandelier.

This wall sconce was pretty cool too.

I loved the statue of the little fawn kid playing with his dog.

I kept taking pictures that I hoped would look like paintings the whole trip. This is my Constable. 

Tammy World at Burton Constable Hall.

  This was so long that I had better close here and pick the trip up the next time. So, no major disasters at Burton Constable Hall anyway. See you soon for the rest of Hull.