Icie Rickman: We also made dolls and gave them to each other for Christmas. We made little rag dolls, shuck dolls, and cob dolls. To make a shuck doll, first you just take the shucks and stand it down. You put rubber bands around the shucks to keep the doll’s shape. Next you just wad up some cloth and make its head. The hands and arms of the doll are simply one shuck laid horizontally across its stomach which sticks out of both sides. Then I make it’s little skirt.
To make a corn cob doll, you just kindly take it and scrape out a little place for its eyes with a knife. Then you mark the eyes, nose, and mouth with a pencil, or something black. You dress it kind of like the shuck dolls.
—A Foxfire Christmas
I always asked for a doll for Christmas when I was a girl. I just loved dolls. I still have a few of my favorite ones. I gave them all names and I tried to tell each of them good night before I went to bed 🙂
Chatter and Chitter never cared for dolls like I did. They much preferred playing outside in the woods or with stuffed animals. When they did play with a doll it was one they made from something laying around the house like a stick of stove wood 🙂
Last night’s video: The Homecoming 4.
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I was like you Tipper I loved dolls and still do!
I remember getting a Betsy wetsy doll that I had asked for and didn’t think I would get but my mom surprised me with it one Christmas. I also got a wedding doll one year that I just loved. I wish I still had those dolls.
My mom used to make doll beds out of cigar boxes. They were so cute. She took the lid off of the box and cut it to make a head board and footboard then she used 4 wooden spools for the legs. She painted them and made a mattress out of a sponge and made a quilt and pillow for it. I will never forget that Christmas when she had each of us girls one under the tree with a small doll tucked under the quilt.
A while back I was at the grocery store and found a crate that had mandarin oranges in it. It was a crate that was just the right size for a doll bed so I bought 2 and made out for my granddaughters.
I made a patch quilt and pillow case I also found something I could use for a mattress and I found some wooden spools i could use for the legs. It was so
much fun painting it and thinking of the one mom had made for me when I was little.
One Christmas my sister and I got Kissy Dolls. You squeezed their arms together and it made her lips make a kiss. We cherished those dolls.
When I was young, I had Barbies but it was hard work putting on her skimpy form fitting outfits. My daughter liked small cars and power ranger toys. She even once fashioned herself a dolls house out of cardboard. It was very ingenious of her. She also had stuffed animals a black Labrador she called Labby and a unicorn she called Peggy for Pegasus. Sometimes kids are not into dolls and have their own ideas. I used to play jacks and do solitary things like bubbles making gigantic shapes and sitting perched on top of our tree. Hoping you all have a Merry Christmas, and love to Granny and your two mommas to be.
When I was a child, my family and I visited a living history museum/pioneer village. I still have one of the dolls carrying a bucket, all made from a corn shuck!
I named my dolls and stuffed animals too. 😉
I always asked for a doll too. Thumbelina, Baby Crissy, Mrs. Beasley, etc. I still have some of them, but I never had Barbies. My sister had a few Barbies and our aunt would make clothes for them.
We usually received a couple of gifts and we loved them well until the next Christmas. Sure wasn’t like it is today. Gifts were only for special times and then there weren’t many. They were certainly happy times though. We would spend the day playing and Momma cooking and baking. Wonderful!
Blessings to all y’all!
Christmas times a coming!
Like you, Tipper, my mother loved dolls as a child. And even as an adult, she loved them. In fact, she loved dolls so much that she treated me, her darling daughter, like a doll. I vividly remember those very early years when she forced me into multiple changes of clothing each day, styled my hair again and again, and compelled me to play dress-up, to have pretend tea parties and weddings with her. I hated every moment of it. I also remember my mother’s disappointment when I would not play with the dolls she gave to me. But I simply could not be bothered with such nonsense. All I wanted to do was “important” stuff: play with my Doctor Kit, watch birds, and dig in the dirt. It took my dear, sweet, well-meaning mother years to come to grips with the fact that the daughter she loved was not like her. In fact, to her dying day she thought that she had come home from the hospital with the wrong baby!
I am late to the conversation, but always love reading the comments and the memories your posts evokes. I was a babydoll girl myself, never cared for the Barbi doll types. My favorite dolls had the cloth bodies and rubber limbs and head. I did love the Betsy McCall dolls also. I would make our “house” on the small front stoop with random tea and saltine boxes. I also would climb up our old oak tree with low limbs and contrive a house for my dolls in the tree.
Tipper, would you please look up the meaning of “kindly” in your Appalachian dictionary as used in the Foxfire story in this post? I knew a person who used that a lot, and the nearest I could figure it also meant ‘please’.
Thanks for sharing such sweet stories. My fondest memories include receiving a teen age doll and making clothes for her on my mom’s treadle sewing machine. I used to love sewing and made clothes for my daughter and son. As I am older now I just dream about how much fun I had in the good ole days, although I haven’t given up yet. The best is yet to be.
I was able to multitask as a young girl. I played with dolls as well as playing outdoors. My younger brother and I were into riding bikes, playing in the dirt with toy trucks/cars making mud pies and swimming. Fortunately my father loved camping, and our favorite activity was hiking in the woods. My dolls stayed home when we went camping.
There was not a in my home while growing up, so the TV was never a babysitter for us.
It was a different time……Daisy BB guns, cap pistols, paddle ball, hoolahoops(1958 when I played with them) Old Maid card game, second hand bicycles, soda fountains, claw foot bath tubs and dolls. WWII was still very much talked about. My dad lost two first cousins in that war.
I always loved dolls too. Some of the ones I got for Christmas was a doll that when you turned a knob on her back, she moved like a newborn baby, Thumbelina? I hope that was the name of her, a Barbie and back then the legs didn’t bend, no store-bought clothes, mama had some scraps of cloth and made some of the prettiest clothes for her. I also remember getting a Chatty Cathy (which was perfect for me.) The last one I got for Christmas when I was at home was a Miss Beasley doll. I was in the 5th grade. I always loved Raggedy Ann dolls but never had one until one year I mentioned it to my soon to be husband so for Christmas that year, he bought me one. I still have her. I know a lady that makes the most beautiful corn shuck dolls. She used to sell them at the NC State fair in the Village of Yesteryear. I loved the Homecoming as I still dearly love watching the Waltons when I get the chance.
I loved my Barbie Dolls when they had wigs in the ’60s. I still love a baby doll. Told my children that if they see me with dementia in the coming years, to just give me baby dolls aynd Barbies to play with. I know I will be content as a piggy in mud 🙂 I’m a writer so I also told the kids to give me plenty of scrap paper and pencils. I always prefer pencils. Love you All & God Bless You <3
Interesting that you mentioned dementia in connection with dolls. My wife and I once saw an older couple in a restaurant and the woman was holding a doll and pretending to feed it with a spoon. It was a touching scene. She seemed contented and her husband was quite obviously going along. We guessed he had seen it many times.
One of my sweetest childhood memories was my grandmother making homemade raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, sock monkeys, and also the wardrobe of clothes she made for my other dolls. My favorite dress, however, was made from a light blue swiss dot material, which she made for my teddy panda bear. I thought it was the prettiest dress in the world. Though I was also an outdoor kid, I loved my dolls but especially that bear!
I enjoyed the doll stories so much. They reminded me of my own mother and the dolls she used to make. She was a child at heart and was quite handy with a needle and thread. There was nothing she enjoyed more than making dolls and doll clothes and gifting them to her granddaughters and nieces. She made a very special heirloom doll for me many years ago that I treasure. Her name is Emily and she has the most beautiful blue eyes, braids, and cute little pantaloons. The thing I love most about Emily, though, is what Mama embroidered on her skirt … “Wherever you go, whatever you do, be happy, and know that I love you.” Emily holds a very prominent spot in my bedroom and in my heart. Needless to say, I treasure her more than words can say.
My first doll I remember was a “Baby Pat A Burp”. Just like it sounds, you patted her on the back, like a real baby, and she would burp! This was in the early 1960’s. I loved that doll! I had Raggedy Ann and Andy as well and the story books that went along with them.
In southeastern Kentucky, small folk dolls were often made back in the day when little ones were in the church service. They were also called “church dolls and/or handkerchief dolls”. Some were rather plain; but some were a bit more fancy with stitched faces and embellishment. It was said they originated in the civil war era and men folk were away as a remembrance of fathers, brothers, or relatives. Although very simplistic, many are very pretty and still found in our area in craft shops!
I remember the corn shuck dolls, but I never made any myself. I remember people selling them at craft shows, along with the apple face dolls. I loved playing with dolls as a child and thankfully so did my daughter and my granddaughter. I did keep some of my Barbie dolls I passed on to my daughter and few Barbie doll clothes for her to enjoy. My daughter kept the Barbies that were mine along with the clothes to give to her daughter. It blessed my heart to see my granddaughter play with dolls that were originally mine. She’s now a teenage that plays several different instruments in band and the piano. She has sold her dolls to fund her love of music. I have no idea if she kept the beloved Barbie dolls that had lasted three generations, but I can only hope she kept at least one for future generations.
I also loved dolls! I usually got a doll for Christmas. Of course, I named each one! There was Susie, Doris, Debbie, Ann, Pammie, and 3 teddy bears named Teddy, Timmy, and Jingles. They are in storage now, a little worse for wear, as they were well loved.
My daughter was terrified of dolls. So of course my oldest son would move her dolls around, just a little. Maybe just turn their heads slightly. The fights were horrible. But me? I love dolls. Any kind of doll. I would take them outside and make them mud and stick houses. I didn’t ask for a store bought dolls house. I wanted my dad to make me one. A simple 2 room house. I know he wanted to make it fancy, with windows. Maybe a slanted roof. No, just one room on top of the other. His reply to me as always, no words just a wink. I loved the box house, and him.
My mother was into collecting Mrs. Butterworth syrup bottles for the purpose of making clothes and dressing them for gifts for family and friends. Neighbors supplied a lot of the bottles. There is no way to know how many outfits she sewed for those little glass figures. She did that for years.
Harold and I played with dolls when we were kids. They were our sisters’ dolls. We’d hide them and they would have to find them. It was so much fun, until they ran crying to Mommy and, under the threat of the switch, we had to give them back. Sometimes we got the switch anyway. The Switch nowdays might be fun but the switch from the late 50s and early 60s certainly was not.
I kin Chitter and Chatter about the dolls when I was young. I much preferred playing games with my brothers and the other children. When we couldn’t be outside I snuggled up with a book.
My sister and I LOVED dolls. We got a doll every Christmas. We gravitated to Barbie doll types as 9-10 yr olds (off brand versions of course.) Played for hours with ashtrays as hot tubs, Kleenex boxes as beds, deflated cut balloons as swim suits, etc… I got my 12 mo granddaughter a baby doll for Christmas this year. It looks just like her! I bought them matchin t-shirts to wear. It’s a cheap doll, but so rubbery soft, with the silkiest soft hair and the cutest Rosie cheeks, I can’t wait to give it to her, she’s 12mo so I know it’s more for my enjoyment than hers right now (but maybe some day soon she’ll love it?)
Sadie I agree with you, I hope Tipper will get her hearts contentment of snow but I also hopes she keeps it for herself. I am retired now and no longer have to drive or go anywhere when it snows, but now I worry about my boys (son and grandsons) having to go in it. After 38 years of diving 17 miles one way at all times of day and night I have had enough to last me for the rest of my life.
My all time favorite TV show was the Waltons, I thought it be wonderful to live and work each day with a large family like that in a place as beautiful as Waltons Mountain.
Randy, my husband drove 50 miles one way to work for 30 years. He was a newspaper printer. He said the same as you did, “it was enough to last a lifetime”. He doesn’t want to drive anywhere now. He worked 3rd shift to get the paper out by morning. I’m glad he doesn’t have to drive that far anymore as I worried a lot in bad weather.
Good morning Tipper. I was like you, a girl who loved dolls. My daughter was the first granddaughter on my husbands side of the family. It was crazy how many dolls and dresses she received that first Christmas. Everyone was so excited to buy for a girl. She never really loved playing with dolls. She was like your girls—she loved her stuffed animals, and she loved going hunting with her daddy and helping him do anything. So far, at least one of my three granddaughters loves dolls as much as I do—so I still get to buy and make some.
I didn’t care for dolls when I was little. I did have a sock monkey that I really loved. Mama bought me pretty dolls and sewed pretty outfits for them, but they just sat on my bed. I never got to know them. LOL!
I liked tadpoles and caterrpillars, reading mysteries and rock collecting!
I remember us coming home from church one Sunday and Mama taking off her shoes to find a caterpillar smashed all over her nylon stocking clad toe! She had a FIT and so did I. That was my wooly-bear caterpillar that had escaped from its jar!
Cornhusk dolls are such a treasure. Many years ago the wife of a coworker made me a corn husk angel ! It’s too big for the top of a Christmas tree so it sits carefully on a table. Liked hearing how the girls made a doll out of things found in woods & such.
I think your daughters not caring for dolls and making theirs out of a stick of wood is not only creative, but very imaginative! As one can see with Chitter’s jewelry making, she’s a creative sort she is!!! I loved dolls too like my Holly Hobby rag doll. Mommy talked about corn shuck dolls and she was born in 1907 or so. I’d have loved living back then I think if I’d have a kind husband. If you had a bad marriage in those days it seems to me you were stuck like Chuck and no way out…oh well. God bless you all lout here and send some snow to Tipper! I will gladly pass my portion on to her to enjoy! Gotta get crackin’! The day is young…
I still have a corn shuck doll family I made when I was 9 after seeing a demonstration at Gatlinburg Craftsman Fair. I have parts of several dolls I had as a child. The last doll I received was a ballerina doll with extra clothes my parents gave me at a church Christmas program. I have two sons and 4 grandsons and no idea what will happen to my dolls. I loved paper dolls as well. Now I make dried apple dolls at events but my recent attempts at making corn shuck dolls has not been very successful.
I’m like the girls, I liked being outside. I also loved horses. In fact, generally dolls make me uneasy (so do clowns and puppets). I had horse books and plastic horses. The only doll I ever liked was a Mary Poppins doll I got for Christmas. She came with her traveling outfit, coat, carpet bag and umbrella. I didn’t play with her much, just displayed and admired her.
I made shuck dolls, just a few, back when I was in my 20’s. My friends loved them as gifts. Seeing this I might make them again. Thank you Tipper! Karen Sykas
my daughter preferred stuffed animals too. everyone bought them for her when gift time. her daddy had to build a shelving unit finally to hold them all.
Good morning friends of Appalachia, God bless you and your family, Merry Christmas
Loved the Homecoming. Easy to picture all the characters as you brought them into the listeners mind. Such a loving and fun family. Thanks for the wrap up of another week. Almost Christmas, only 9 days to go. Praying for Granny…God bless you all.
I always loved dolls and had a good many. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the good sense to save a single one of them—I gave them all away when I thought I was too old to play with dolls—this is one of my biggest regrets…!!! Thank goodness I did keep several of my stuffed animals and I dearly treasure these possessions from when I was a little girl.
I got my first and only doll in January of 1972 (right after Christmas) and kept her for almost 50 years before she left me to be with God. My doll’s name was Janice. In happier better times of the past, I would “cut up” a lot with both mine and my wife’s families. One year my teenage nephew kept saying saying he wanted Santa Claus to bring him a doll (girlfriend) that year for Christmas, so I bought and wrapped up a cheap doll that year and gave it to him at our family Christmas get together. He still mentions and laughs about me doing this from time to time. Laughing, cutting up, having fun and enjoying your family and loved ones, it don’t get any better than that.
Amen, Randy.