My Dolls

[chochiyo_sama]

The first doll family is Dr Ken Basey, his wife Barbara, his twin daughters Alicia and Allison, his younger daughter Bonnie, and his infant son Kenny.

You see the cradle I made for Kenny out of a spam can, some white felt, and some blue eyelet. I made that many years ago. The baby is a little doll I got at a tourist gift shop when I was 12 years old. Originally it wore a little white knitted sweater with a hood and blue tights. I don't know what became of those original clothes.

Barbara was my first Actual Barbie. She was a ponytail Barbie that I got for Christmas. One of our puppies chewed her ponytail off, so I bought a set of three wigs for her at the Ben Franklin store in Albert Lea.

Alicia, on the right, came to me in pieces. Her head was on a straight leg Barbie body at the flea market in Winona. I got a Skipper with a really bad head at the same flea market on another Saturday and swapped out the heads. I gave the straight leg body to my Stacey doll whose body had been wrecked by my brother forcing her to sit astride a Johnny West horse. (She is in another family.)

The other family is Ken's twin brother Kurt who dropped out of medical school after having his thumb accidentally amputated. Now he is the janitor in his brother's clinic. His wife Donna is the receptionist. His daughters are Jane (the older) and June (the younger).

Jane is the first Barbie I owned. I used my birthday money--$3--to purchase her at the Woolworth store in Albert Lea when I was 9 years old. I can still remember the thrill of standing in the Barbie aisle looking at all of those boxes dolls and choosing her from all of the possibilities. She had long, straight, shiny hair then. Her hair was ruined when my sister got mad at me and threw her in the toilet tank (nasty, rusty water) and left her there for days. Her hair was so nasty and clotted up that I had to cut most of it off. Her bangs were ruined so I cut a hank out of my own hair and glued it on to cover the ruined bangs. I had always planned to re-root her hair, but now I think I will leave her as she is. She is special to me just as she is. I did the best I could for her when I was a little girl.

June was a Tutti that my grandmother gave me for my 14th birthday--I think that is the last doll I was given when I was a kid. Other people thought I was too old for dolls, but my grandmother knew I would love her. I got Kurt at a flea market in Winona when I was in college. He was missing a thumb when I got him. Donna belonged to the wife of one of the janitors I worked with in Claremont. She had two alike, so I traded some vintage Coca-Cola coasters for her. They collected Coke items.

The other dolls came to me via EBay.

There are so many more dolls and they all have names, most have families, and most of them haves "lives" and histories.

I adore them all.

Comments

[the_godiva]

Are these some of the dolls that were packed and stored in the garage? Are they moved over and out and free now?

I think it's great they all have story lines.

Maybe you should photograph them in candid portraits and then write up bios and stories. There's your book.

[chochiyo-sama.livejournal.com]

Most of the dolls were in flat totes under the bed or in the closet. I tried to keep them out of extreme temperature changes which is really hard on dolls.

They are all going down to the basement now which is a huge open space. I will be watching for cheap tables and shelves that I can set up dioramas on. I am thinking about doing either a doll blog or a YOUTube doll channel.