ME, MY MOM & PAPER DOLLS
When I was in elementary school I remember getting sick- I think it was Mono or mumps because I had to stay home and not be with other kids for what seemed like weeks.
I remember being in bed every day and Mom kept me down and resting by entertaining me with plenty of quiet activities. One afternoon she brought me a book of paper dolls. The doll was Vera Miles and her figures were on the front and back cover.
The clothes were on the inside pages of the book. They were pretty dresses and stylish coats with matching hats and shoes. You would cut out the clothes and their tabs so you could ‘dress’ the cardboard figure. Mom had to help me cut around the tabs.
But soon I had the entire wardrobe cut out and the fun began – changing her outfits and standing her in the little slit in the cover. Then I would make her do a turn and twirl as if she was in a fashion show. I loved it! Vera Miles hair was in an up-sweep the color of reddish blond. She looked like my Mother and she definitely had the same taste in clothes. (See their pictures below)
The next day, Mom brought another book of paper dolls, this time it was Elizabeth Tayler. Oh my, she was even more beautiful. I remembered the other paper dolls I’d played with were of little children especially Betsy McCall. Mom subscribed to McCalls Magazine so we could cut out the paper dolls and the cute little clothes in every issue.
My memory is that my sickness was mild and it felt like a luxury because I was being waited on.
Sixty years later, I’m lying in bed, down with Covid, and my fever has me going down memory lane wishing my mom would come in my room smelling so delicious with her cheeks rosy from coming in from cold. Her arms are full of paper doll books and scissors for me to play with while I’m sick.
Next thing I know I’m waking up from a most healing nap.
Writer’s update: I continued this memory to include in my massive notes for the book I’m writing about “Esther”. I loved the fact that she had a plentiful supply of 8 ½ x 11 manila envelopes. We carefully labeled these with the names of the starlets to store them. It was easy to slide the cardboard figure, her clothes & accessories into these envelopes until we had a neat stack of all of them!
My sister Sally and I kept all our important papers in the piano bench and I remember putting them in there and could pull them out anytime to play fashion show.
I also learned that Vera Miles actually lived in Wichita, attended North High School (my alma mater), was Miss Wichita, Miss Kansas, and a close runner up for Miss America. That might explain my mom’s infatuation with Vera Miles; because in 1956 Mom was a finalist in the MRS. Kansas contest. A contest where baking, cooking, managing households, and having a good figure to sport a swimsuit were categories! That’s another story.
Oh, and that piano, it was one of the many prizes she won as she entered contests asking for jingles, rhymes, and slogans. That’s another story.