Well today I tried to photograph a doll from the recent doll shows, and my camera wouldn't come on! I had put a just charged battery in it, so it should have worked, but it didn't. So, I have to resort to some pictures I had on the computer. This is a childhood toy of mine, that I came across at the house recently. He's lucky he survived really, because the box he was in was on the landing, where so many things melted during the fire. He's what is known as an 'oily jiggler'.
And why is he called that? He's made of a very floppy rubber, and has sort of a sheen to him.
I can't quite make out the letters on his butt, but he does say 1967, which sounds about right. A lot of the oily jigglers were made by Russ Berrie.
I have him because when I was about 5, (which would be 1967), my sister brought home a green one just like him, only slightly larger. (My guy is about 6 inches long.) He belonged to a friend of hers. The friend had decided that he had died, and my sister was to sew him a black velvet funeral suit to be buried in. This bothered me to no end. I found it very distressing. I begged my sister not to let the friend bury him. For one thing, I had fallen in love. I wanted that dog so much! Also, the thought of the poor guy going under ground forever really upset me. I had to rescue him! Also, my sister told me to shut up, and made the funeral suit. I still have a tiny stuffed cat she made out of the leftover velvet.
How she got a velvet suit on a sticky rubber dog with floppy limbs, I don't remember. I'm sure it wasn't easy. And so she took him back to school, and, I assume, to his sad fate. I loved him so much that I searched for one of my own. I couldn't find a green one, as I recall, and bought this orange one instead.
He's a bit worse for wear these days. As you might have noticed, I had to staple his ear back together. That's his fault, for being so pleasurable to bite. I think his tail suffered the same fate, except I lost the loose piece.
The cigar box he's laying on has a story. It was my Monkees box, in which I kept all my Monkees articles and pictures, bubble gum cards, and the fake autographed picture my sister and I sent away for from a magazine. My sister decorated it for me with coloured construction paper, and put a huge thumbtack in the lid so it could be more easily opened. Sadly, at some point after I was grown, and it was stored in Mom's attic, she threw away the contents! This was especially disappointing for Emma when she was a kid, and became a big Monkees fan.
Also in the box with the Monkees box and the oily jiggler dog was a little jewelry box with these guys in it.
The rats are Rat Finks. They were quite a thing in those days. These came from a bubble gum machine, and snapped onto a plastic ring, for wearing. The babies are very tiny, especially the orange one. He had a cradle the same colour as him, but it got lost. The red thing on the left is the magnetic bee, (missing the magnet out of the bottom), from a Tickle Bee game. You used a stylus with a magnet in it to drag the bee around a track. Ours had a chicken coop and other things you lulled him through, but I think there were different ones. The red thing between the two top Rat Finks is the jewel from a Haunted House game by Ideal. I don't remember ever playing it as a game, but instead of a board, the game had a three dimensional haunted house. I just liked to play with the house. The jewel is all I have left. Mom threw the house away. Funny the bits I have from the Tickle Bee game and the Haunted House game are the tiniest pieces.
Anyway, that's the 'doll' for today. Wedding details coming soon! See you tomorrow.
I never heard of this toy. I am glad you got to have one for yourself. I would have been sad about the funeral also.
ReplyDeleteI still wonder if she really buried the poor guy, and if so, if she left him there. They were about 11 years old. Kids are weird sometimes.
Delete