Welcome to another "Wild Hare Wednesday"...Don't worry, I didn't empty out another closet or dump the contents of all our dresser drawers out to be reorganized. I promised that this week I'd reach back in time for my story. In keeping with that promise, let's step into my Wayback Machine, shall we, Sherman?
I'm quite fortunate in that I was raised to believe there really isn't anything I can't accomplish if I practice and/or really put my mind to it and, until about 1985, I did pretty well with that. Then, it hit me. Right smack in the kisser. I still get a little queasy just thinking about it. Wait. Let me sit down before I proceed. It's ok. I think I'll be alright now.
What happened was that I had decided I wanted to make dolls. Go figure. It was about the time that the Cabbage Patch Kids were all receiving their printed birth certificates and being placed under cabbage leaves in family gardens. Little kids were begging for them. Moms and grandmas were frantically sewing, knitting or crocheting little outfits for the new arrivals (I still have patterns in case anyone is interested), and I was sitting in my sewing room with this idea that kept chewing at me. (I wouldn't have dreamed of calling it a studio in those days!)
Coming from a long line of educators, I had this boffo idea of going up against those insipid CPKs with an educational doll. Yeah, that's it. I'll call 'em "Tater Tots". (Stop laughing. I can hear you!) And, I would do more than a phony adoption or birth certificate. I would include a little growing kit along with it. Sure. Why not? I can package up a little baggie full of dirt, a peat pot and oh, I don't know...how 'bout a potato eye that would grow into a nice big 'tater when it was planted? (Do you need to run potty about now? Perhaps I can offer you a Kleenex to dry your eyes?)I got all the way through this process and then headed to the sewing room. I was gonna make a doll. In my head it would be beautiful...and smart. Problem was, after a week of trying...in the end, the best I could do was this stuffed fabric lump that more closely resembled the next craze to come along...The Couch Potato! ARRRGGGHHH! Are you kidding me? I can't make a doll? How pathetic am I? Really? I can't make a little, flippin' doll? (Deep breaths, now.) Nope. All those years of false confidence, blown into the stratosphere in one short week.
So, all the planning and dreaming of wealth and fame ("Meet the woman who single-handedly took on a pop phenom like Cabbage Patch Dolls, or Pet Rocks, or Care Bears. Meet "The Mother of the Tater Tots"!) Yup. Then I woke up...as if from a bad dream. I want my mommy.
The boys still laugh about it. "Word" was passed along to our daughters-in-law. Everyone knows that they can ask me to make anything from Grammies Jammies to wedding gowns. But pity the poor fool that asks me to make a doll.
Head over to Shell's blog to check out the other "Wild Hare" stories. (Say "Hi" to Razzy and Sugie for me.) Oh, and so you don't think that beautiful doll face is anything I had a hand in creating...That baby face belongs to a Dear Ones™ doll created by Kezi Matthews. Here's a link to her sweet babies. I'm gonna go lie down now.
