My First Dolls

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Copyright: J. Hardy Carroll

Here we are again and this week we’re gathered near children playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey. We’ve come together to discuss our original stories for the week. This is the Friday Fictioneer’s group. Our hostess for the gathering is the talented and gracious author and artist, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. The challenge for each of us this week and every week is to write a story with no more than 100 words, not counting the title. It’s supposed to have a beginning, middle, end, and be inspired by the picture prompt for the week. This week’s prompt was provided by J. Hardy Carroll. Thanks, J. Hardy. To read the other stories by group members, just click on the link given below, then on the smiling blue frog. Next, follow the given directions. The link for this week’s stories is as follows:

24 May 2019

Genre: Memoir

Word Count: 99 Words

My First Dolls by P.S. Joshi

I was born in 1941, so one of my dolls was a sailor. My brother was in the U.S. Navy. I was taught a little song about a sailor boy, popular at the time.

Another doll was about as big as I was. It had real hair and a lovely face. The body was cotton, but the legs and arms were a hard composition material.

I was little, and the doll was big, so her toes dragged on the floor. They got worn down through the painted coating.

My brother named her Suzie Q after my nickname, Suzie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

67 thoughts on “My First Dolls”

    • Thanks, Rochelle. I’m glad you like the story. My brother was born when my mother was 19 in 1921 during her first marriage Her first husband died. My brother was five when my mother married my dad. She was around 40 when I was born in 1941 and my dad was around 44. Many of my first cousins were around my brother’s age. Their children were close to my age. 🙂 — Suzanne

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      • Well, I wasn’t an accident. I think my mother might have waited to try again when the Depression was over. I wanted children but you might say there was no scheduling involved with mine. I called them happy accidents. I delighted the grandparents no end. My mother-in-law was thrilled as Indians hope for a boy first and I had a boy first. She told me I could have a girl next and I did. She just thought I was great. 😀 — Suzanne

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    • Thanks, Keith. I wasn’t the only one who played with that doll. The neighbor girl did also. My mother insisted I share my toys. There aren’t many left anymore who called me Suzie. Probably none now. 🙂 — Suzanne (alias Suzie).

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  6. You really stirred the memories. I was born in 1947, so my memories are from stories my parents told. My doll? She’s in the possession of my granddaughter, who I’m sure doesn’t play with her any more, but still keeps her dressed and dusted 🙂

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  7. Thanks, Linda. I’m glad I stirred good memories for you. So far, I only have one granddaughter who was about ten when my son married her mother so thus far there’s been no one to play with my dolls. My daughter just got married so she may have a child. By the time I found those dolls where my dad packed them, my daughter wasn’t playing with dolls. Anyway, she preferred “My Little Ponies” to baby dolls. She had a backpack with the little lion cub from “The Lion King” on it. 🙂 — Suzanne

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    • Thanks, Patrick. I have a good memory for the past but recent names and places sometimes slip out. My dad also remembered a lot from his childhood so it must run in our family. My brother must have spent a lot on that doll. She was lovely. My mother used to comment on the “real hair”. 🙂 — Suzanne

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    • I had a small table and chair and little tableware in the “new” plastic but I didn’t do tea parties. I don’t remember my playmates doing that either for some reason. In those days we were in and out of each other’s homes and playing outside a lot. We got our first TV set when I was nine. 🙂 — Suzanne

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    • Thanks, Brenda. I lost many things moving around. Some of it to a leaky basement in one house. More from moving from a house to a flat and not having enough storage and bringing too much to India at my husband’s insistence. He didn’t realize things had changed and you can get most things in India now. He was bipolar and didn’t always use the best judgment. When we moved here the packers were not good and my high school class ring I’d had for about forty years went missing. We had our stuff shipped by boat and the shippers had to repack everything at extra cost to us. The farmhouse where we were staying temporarily had no screens and mice came in by the droves and chewed and chewed into our cartons which were there with us. It took us five years of renting to get my husband’s brother to give up the key to this flat. It was my husband’s flat but his brother had lived here for a time. He wasn’t living here just storing stuff in it. Other relatives finally helped us get it back. My son told me now is not a good time to come back to the U.S. I can afford a caregiver and cleaning woman here. I use a walker due to arthritis and sciatica. The only problem is this flat is forty-three steps up and there’s no lift. There’s a place for one but the other families didn’t want to pay for one. Things could be worse. I can live on my Social Security here without going into poverty. My husband was terrible with money, especially toward the last. My son handles the money in the U.S. and put my husband on a strict budget. Most of the money he sent to me. I had a seperate account here. Sorry, this ran on so. —- Suzanne

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  21. Theere is something touching about having a sailor doll and a brother in the Navy. The toes dragging on the floor and getting their paint chipped off is a great detail, emphasizing the littleness of the girl compared to the doll.

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    • Thanks, Andrea. I was also taught a song about a sailor. Part of it went something like Sailor sailor, coat of navy blue. I love my sailor and he loves me too. My brother served on aircraft carriers. My dad had been in the navy before, during, and after WWI. 😀 —- Suzanne

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  22. Lovely recount of a childhood memory Suzanne. Boys don’t have dolls but I had a Lone Ranger ‘action figure’ when I was eight. It stayed around far too long before I reluctantly gave it away to a younger relative 😉

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    • Thanks, Subroto. I’m glad you enjoyed the story. My son had GI Joe action figures and others. When he grew up he didn’t have young relatives to give them to so he sold them to a local comic book store. They became collector’s items, especially the Transformers. He also sold some He-man figures. —- 🙂 — Suzanne

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  23. How lovely to learn a little about your childhood. I can remember the awe I felt as a little girl when I looked at some of the really elaborate dolls in the shops. I can’t remember owning one like this, but i had a little collection that I do remember. I loved to make clothes for them.

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    • Thanks, Margaret. I’m happy you enjoyed the story. About the only thing I made for my dolls were little baby undershirts my mother taught me how to make. She’d made them for me when I was a baby. My grandmother sewed and made some clothes for a little boy doll I had. I later learned to sew and made clothes and costumes for my children. 🙂 — Suzanne

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  27. What a lovely story! Can’t say I had dolls really (at least ones I didn’t immediately destroy) until my 20’s and I was dating my current husband. He bought me the first one, a Spock Barbie in a StarTrek uniform, been hooked ever since. I did have one crocheted one I used as a pillow at one of my most favorite foster homes… let me see if I remember her name..wil…wil…ah, Willamena… I found her in the attic.

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  33. Thanks, Bjorn. I’m glad you liked the story. Teddy bears have always been popular. Oddly enough, I didn’t have a teddy bear but I did have a little lamb with a music box inside. The wind stem for the music box was underneath the lamb’s tummy. 🙂 — Suzanne

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  35. Thanks, Kalpana. I’m happy you enjoyed the story. I had a doll collection but in those days when I was old enough, I played outside with my friends and liked to read, draw, and create. My daughter preferred animal dolls like My Little Pony toy horses. 🙂 — Suzanne

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