dolls | dolls
May.08.2013
Ten years ago, when my mother was in the throes of dementia, I left New York, bought a home in North Carolina near my brother, and moved her in with me.
Mama Jo, as she was known, was a hoarder who had been living in Virginia with a collection of more than 700 dolls that she referred...
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Apr.07.2013
Photos of me by Mama Jo
To commemorate the anniversary of my mother's heavenly ascent, I thought I'd introduce a Forever Home Photo Contest using photos sent to me by new “moms” and "dads" of her dolls. Mama Jo loved to take photos. Many were of her/our dolls. Whimsy was never in short...
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Sep.13.2012
Photo by Mike Smith/At Home Gallery
He almost went into the freebie pile. He stands 7 1/2 inches tall. I should say he measures that tall because he can't stand on his own. His clothes are moth-eaten. His feet look too wide and big for his short legs. Yet there was something about him...
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Jul.15.2012
In the spring of 1953, we registered our oldest child--a girl--for school. She would need uniforms. Buying a sewing machine seemed like a good investment. We had no idea how remarkable an investment it would prove to be, nor how far its usefulness would stretch into the future.
I had to overcome my...
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Feb.27.2012
Pretty Dolls by Kimberly Dana, a finalist in the Children’s Picture Book category at the 2011 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest, is a delightful story about overcoming jealousy and the love a girl can share with her special doll, no matter what she looks like.
Little...
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Dec.17.2010
Ever since I was four years old, women insisted on giving me dolls. By age seven I had an assortment of them, made of papier-mache, clay, and cloth. Using my older cousins' torn silky stockings, my grandmother Nicolasa had also made a few of them for me. And one of my mother's friends had brought...
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Dec.16.2010
Is Black to be shunned? Why did Oprah Winfrey’s team have the Mamee Golliwog dolls taken off the shelves because it would offend her during a visit to a Melbourne toy shop?
Golliwog, they say now, stands for racism and slavery. If that is the yardstick then I am afraid every person of Black...
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Dec.15.2010
A miniature-adult figure dressed in shimmering white satin decorated with beads and lace stared back at me from the Sears and Roebuck catalog. Her veil seemed sheer as dragonfly wings. I was seven years old and that doll was my only request from Santa Claus, as I had repeatedly told my parents. ...
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Oct.09.2010
The festival of Navaratri is upon us, marking the period of nine nights when female divinity is celebrated all over India. The first three days are dedicated to the worship of Durga, the mother of the universe, the next three days to the worship of Lakshmi, giver of spiritual wealth, and the...
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Feb.20.2009
Last night at dinner, my sister and I started talking about the dolls we played with as children, or at least two. We had amazing, hours-long games involving intrigue and espionage.
One main figure in all these games was Lady Helminsky, who was an arch, mean, bossy, witch queen of a doll,...
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