Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Old stuff

I was fossicking about on Owen's blog the other day...the one about dolls, anyhoo that got me thinking about my old dolls.

Before I was born (I know, I should say WAAAAAY before I was born) in 1955 my grandparents sailed off to see the world since their sprogs were old enough to be left home alone. My mother had just got married and her younger brother stayed with Mum and Dad while Nana and Grand-dad were away. Well, for whatever the reason when they were in Egypt (Port Said) to be exact my grandmother stumbled across a doll. The doll stood about the size of your average 3 year old and she just had to have it. She told me she bought it for her first Grand-daughter. (I have mentioned that I have a waaaaay older brother haven't I?) I quite like the idea that she lugged this huge doll about for months before coming home to New Zealand. I guess Customs must have been easier to navigate back then!

As it turned out, that doll had to sit in a cupboard for QUITE SOME YEARS before she gave it to me, the first grand daughter. I promptly named her Sally (the doll, not Nana) and proceeded to pull her eyelashes off (again, the dolls not Nana's). They never grew back. Even after I took her to the dolls hospital to have her plaster-type arms and legs fixed a few years ago. I don't think the lashes are ever coming back. She used to have this fluffy sort of gold "hair" which was glued to a bit of cardboard onto her head. Obviously that hair is long gone, but the woman who restored Sally to her former glory has done a great job all the same. What do you think?





Of course, I often thought I shouold have given her a more exotic name considering her voyage partly round the globe but Sally it has remained. These days she spends her time sitting in an old rocking chair in our bedroom, unsmilingly because the same evil child who pulled out her eye lashes also poked in her paper teeth playing dental nurses back in about 1968!





Well, back when Adam was a cowboy (I figure if Mike can post female pix things on his site, so can I!) it was also quite ok for young kids in New Zealand to have a Maori doll. This is a photo of mine, I named her Pania as I have always been particularly struck by the Maori legend of Pania and the Reef. The feathers on her cloak are real and altho' sparse, they fell out with time rather than suffering the same fate as Sally's eyelashes!



and as for NZ music month....


14 comments:

Owen said...

She does look a bit malevolent, but after being tortured and what not, I guess she may still have a bit of a chip on her shoulder, that the plaster repair folks may have missed ? :-D And thanks for teaching us a new word via a vivid and pertinent illustration... I'd never had an inkling as to what "fossicking" meant... now I know.

The Sagittarian said...

Owen, you will have to revisit cos I hit "piblish" before adding my music clip! Must have been doing too much fossicking!!

Steve said...

My mother has some dolls which a Japanese pen friend sent her when she was in her twenties - they were still in their cellophane last time I saw them... might be worth getting them valued... and yours too!

Rol said...

1955!?

Surely that's a typo!

The Sagittarian said...

Steve - I have thought about doing that especially since I saw a similar doll in a museum but I'm not sure where you would go to get a doll valued!

Rol - grrr. Not a typo, just appalling grammar. I wasn't born in 1955 but some years after! (Mind you, my word verification for this comment is "prove")

Owen said...

Hey Sag, top of the French morning to you, although I guess it is evening where you are already, just wanted to pass on a hot tip to you, just found a blog which I think you may really enjoy, a real nut case if there ever was one, a must read, and he needs more followers to appreciate his squirrely vision of the world... so if you have a minute between all that darn fossicking you're doing, whatever that is, take a look at :

http://lonegreysquirrel.blogspot.com/

The Poet Laura-eate said...

Poor Sally! Naughty Amanda!

I hope she didn't put a curse on you.

Extraordinary thing to have lugged home all the way from Egypt though when it looks like a doll they could have bought in any large and decently-stocked toyshop!

I have a one-eyed Panda (don't tell the RSPCA!)

The Sagittarian said...

Laura, my younger brother has a one-eyed Panda too...maybe they could form a support group?

Owen - thanks for that linnk, I think I have visited there before via Meggie's blog.

The villager: said...

Seeing those dolls presents such an evocative picture of childhood and lost childhood, Sag.

You might make a grown man cry !

meggie said...

Your Maori doll is very like one my daughter had, who was naked when we bought her. I dressed her, & we still have her. It was about 1972 when she was acquired. I have made reproduction porcelain dolls & I am always apalled at the restoration on older dolls. FFS they were not originally painted with harlot colours & lips!!
Loved the story of how your well travelled doll reached you!

Owen said...

Hi Sag, just a good morning from France to you... and hoping all is well on sunny South Island.

meggie said...

Hi Amanda, I have tagged you for a List! No obligations, but if you feel like doing it, would love to read your answers!

Owen said...

Hi Sagit,
I saw a story on CNN today that may explain why you've been so quiet of late... :

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/21/new.zealand.millionaires/index.html

"Global hunt for accidental millionaires"

"(CNN) -- An international manhunt was under way Thursday for a New Zealand couple who fled after a bank mistakenly paid them NZ$10 million (US$6 million) when they applied for a loan of just NZ$10,000.
New Zealand authorities said they had sought help from Interpol in locating the couple who disappeared May 7, two days after an employee error at Westpac bank paid them 1,000 times the amount they asked for."
==============================

So, would you know anything about that??? I guess it's not easy blogging while on the run, trying to connect to the net on wifi hotspots in airport lounges... while on the lam. Just remember to send a little bit of the loot to Steve ! So, where you you going to hide??? Must be awful having Interpol after you... I've heard there are some well appointed caves in Afghanistan you could use??? Well whatever happens... have fun ! While you can !!!

Owen said...

Oops, the comment box cut off the link to the story, so here it is chopped up...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/
WORLD/asiapcf/05/21/
new.zealand.millionaires/
index.html