I have loved dolls since I was a little girl. When we moved to the States, I was 16. My mother said I was too old for dolls and she donated my "babies" to the kindergarten that my parents helped with. Can I say I was sad? I'm sure the children there were delighted and I do hope they enjoyed many hours with them. I shouldn't have been upset. Most of the dolls I wouldn't have minded, but, about my special ones, I admit to crying.
My favorite dolls were Tiny Tears and Baby Dear. Here is my brother Danny, "onbu"ing my dolly the way Japanese mothers carried their babies.
I got Baby Dear for my birthday when we came to the States in 1962. My Great-Aunt Hulda sewed lots of clothes for her. I even got a suitcase just for those clothes! Here we are, ready to board the Brazil-Maru for the trip back home to Japan.
The Baby Dear doll is based on Eloise Wilkin's book "Baby Dear".
It is such a sweet book!!
I played with dolls for a long time.
I think I'm going into 5th grade here, with my Pebbles doll.
I found out that some of the ladies in my community life group at church enjoyed dolls too. So when I heard about Paradise Doll Hospital and Museum in Towanda, which is close to our town, some of us made a trip there!
This lady has over 9,000 dolls in her collection!! All sorts of dolls!
Look! Tiny Tears!!
Chatty Cathy! One of the girls at our dorm used to bring her Chatty Cathy doll to school with her.
My mother did let me bring my Barbies back to America with me so I had some of these in this collection.
My daughter had these.
My son had Alf!
One of the girls at our dorm had this one too, I believe. It also had some red and yellow spots you could stick on the doll so she'd have measles or chicken pox!
The presidents' wives with their inaugural dresses.
I left one of my Barbies and my GI Joe (it was my brother's but I pretended that he was Barbie's husband when I was little) for her to fix their legs.
We were so grateful for the tour and for all the answers to questions we had!
It was such a hot day, so afterwards we headed to the local burger and ice-cream shop.
That very day, a lady who found me on Facebook, told me she wanted to give me the Tiny Tears that belonged to her mother!! What a very generous gift!
One is never too old for dolls!
"He who is generous will be blessed.
He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed."
Proverbs 11:25
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