Show dolls of yesteryear by frances armstead Grm stead C 5 5 1 WENTY FIVE years ago a little TWENTY girls letter to santa claus went something like this dear santa please bring me a new head for my dolly her name is christina she still has a nice body but her head has so many dents it wont last another year I 1 would like one this time with real hair made into curls and eyes that open and shut your trusting friend what has become of those christmas dolls whose bodies could outlast half a a dozen ozen heads when the curls went s straight tra ight or the wig n f 11 IN A t h 0 1 N avi ta 1 mother took the btttle girl to see the dolls dropped off or little brother johnnie picked the wax off the eyelids and sister was consoled by promising her a new head mother took her to a department store where there was as large a display of doll heads as of dolls there were china heads metal heads and heads of papier mache there were heads with wigs and some without there were those with parted lips and dainty teeth showing while others hid their smiles behind behind firm mouths and staring eyes one thing those these varied heads had in common their necks widened into foursquare four tour square bibs front and back with holes at the corners for applying the needle to the old body the bodies in those days were of cloth their inner substance sawdust where now are those torsos that could withstand endless repairing fresh sawdust and new heads T they aey probably found their way to the attic in time and sister was vas promised a whole new doll then ter ier trip to the department store vas as a matter of deciding between betwee dressed and an undressed lolly mothers preferred the latter lecause because they would bear closer in lection as to materials and work nan ship dollys dallys clothes were easly made out 0 of f the family scrap bag r by the willing hands of the family stress who did the job for rec bation moreover the undressed oil C ost cost a little less but sister ked to linger over those in silks nd satins gatins with poke bonnets and lumes covering cov erin their golden curls h hey ey wa wore e petg petticoats and often they eld the their ir fro fragile gile fingers in tiny nuns of mink and sable ci western News newspaper union oa liv |