by Shelley Bennett
First, some corrections need to be made to last week’s article about the grand opening of Om-Ah Holistics. Lynda Jackson will be instructing Gentle Yoga at the studio.
Please see their website or Facebook page for dates, times, and prices. I apologize for any confusion I created!
By the way, I had a great time at the grand opening! Amazing people, delicious food, and again the overall feeling of peace and calmness as I walked into the room. Thank you Teresa and Erika!
Earlier on Saturday morning, I stopped by an estate sale. I had been in the house before, at a doll club meeting hosted by AnnaMae McAndrews.
In the 80s my mom and some of her friends started a Doll Club and they would get together monthly and share their treasures and talents. I remember AnnaMae, along with Gay Smedes, Marie Grutgen, and Linda Farris, and their amazing collections.
I was in awe of their beautiful antique dolls and other toys. AnnaMae and Gay were also master seamstresses and made the tiniest, most intricate outfits for their dolls with itty bitty buttons, lace, ribbons, and other trim.
They would also restyle hair, make repairs, remove ink, and replace wigs. It was more than purchasing and collecting as there were hours and hours put into restoring many of their dolls. It was love.
I learned that if you put butter on the ink stains and left them in the sun, it would bleach the blue and black marks left by naughty children and their pens. Downy fabric softener could get the tangles out and small perm rods or pipe cleaners could be used as curlers.
I was taught to look on the back of a doll head to find who the manufacturer was and to watch for tags on their clothing to tell if it was original or not.
But sometimes, when you found a discarded doll at a yard sale, it didn’t matter if it was worth anything or you could resale it. If it had a sweet face and was in decent shape, it was good enough for you to take home and care for.
AnnaMae’s home was still filled with incredible antiques of all kinds: furniture, clothes, tools, kitchenware, costume jewelry, items for crafting, and of course the dolls! There were dolls of all sizes and shapes in all kinds of outfits.
Shirley Temples, Ginnie dolls, Tiny Tears, and Madame Alexanders. Composition, hard plastic, and vinyl. I recognized so many faces from my childhood. It felt good to visit the past and remember some of the remarkable women who passed down their knowledge to me.
Remember when news was ‘newsy’? When you read about weddings, family events and engagement announcements in the newspaper? If you have something that might be newsworthy, please submit it to [email protected] and I’ll do my best to include it here in “The Good Stuff.”
