October 15, 2016- More Toys and Childhood Fun-Part 2

    I had plastic tea set (Nursery rhyme character – Little Boy Blue?), Pluto, Aimee (I am pretty sure that this is the name of Holly Hobbie’s friend), Kathy, and a few other dolls. Two of them were named after family friends, Gina and Kerri. Mom had to buy me a new one of the latter because she got ruined when I accidentally dropped her in the tub. I also had a big red-headed doll that wore my old clothes.

   I loved my handmade doll clothes- 2 Barbie dresses made by either Fran or Donna, or perhaps both of my cousins. Aunt Ann made the Barbie wedding dress and a coat for my Cabbage Patch Kid. Mom made a few items for my Kerri doll.

   

   Mike had 2 cowboys that looked alike and were pretty heavy that he got from Helen J. He called them Nick and Ben after our twin uncles. One day he accidentally hit me in the face with one of them and it knocked out my baby tooth.

   

   I had the Barbie camper. Mike had a Tonka fire truck and a car that I’m almost certain was a Camaro; my Barbies fit into this. My dream car of the 1980s was either this or a Trans Am. I have a picture of me in a Trans Am which was on display at the World of Motion in EPCOT Center in 1983.

   He didn’t have Legos until the mid-80s. I have a funny photo of him and Tony sitting at our kitchen table playing with them. He won a nice Pink Panther stuffed animal at Kathy’s church carnival around the same time period. He regrets getting rid of it. He does still have the Wile E Coyote that he won either down the shore or at a carnival.

  

   I have a stuffed Benji that Aunt Joan got for me. Our Ginger looked a little like that doggie. Grandma Next Door gave me a teddy bear for my first birthday. I’m glad that I kept these. One of our oldest stuffed animals is a tiger from the mid-60s. She was the mother to my Lilly, who was a victim of my possessions purge- the late 80s edition.

   

   I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive myself for getting rid of my stuffed animal friends. Poor Mrs. Raccoon no longer has her husband and daughter Raquel (I got her from our grade school’s fund raising Farmco kit) because of this. Mike would say that they are just stuffed animals and put me down for getting emotional about this.

1976

1976-Aimee

1973

1974-Gina

                                                       

1975-Kathy

1984-CPKs Gerald and Myrtle

1985-Lara and Gerald,; Fleagle and Daisy Beagle

1974-Kerri

Theresa, Kathy, and other doll

Handmade doll clothes

Handmade CPK coat

Handmade Barbie clothes

Johnny West

The Pink Panther

1982-Benji

1969

1969

1970

Mrs. Raccoon- on right

Wile E. Coyote

Pluto-right

Legos 1986

Trans-Am-Epcot 1983

Internet photos- Barbie camper, Johnny West, and The Pink Panther.

September 11- Ginger and Buffy

 I don’t have that many pictures of my Ginger – maybe 12. No puppy ones.  She was adorable and looked a little like Benji.  The other puppy in the cage at the shelter was picking on her.  Grandma next door named her and spoiled her so much.  She liked playing with plastic soda bottles and when I took her on walks.  She definitely was my girl and my best friend.

   One time she got really sick when somehow she got the bottle of cough syrup open and drank nearly the whole bottle; poor doggie.  My dad kicked her out in the yard one day which was so mean.  Our neighbor Mrs. K saw this and yelled at him which we were glad about.

  She was such a good girl but Dad was so mean to her sometimes, probably because he was jealous of the attention that we gave her and the fact that he was kind of a miserable person.

  Mike squirted Milk Mate chocolate syrup onto Ginger once which wasn’t nice.  Jessica called her the Milk Mate dog which we did laugh about.

   I wish that I could remember more about her.  She was only 7 years old when Dad had her put to sleep.  We should’ve had her for 5 or 6 more years.  I wish that we had never taken that trip to Virginia – she might’ve gotten her sickness from the boarding place.  She might’ve just needed an antibiotic and would’ve recovered. 

  Buffy was definitely like a gift from God.  Mom and I were supposed to go to Columbus Flea Market but it was raining so we went to the pet store instead.  Mom asked if there was a girl spaniel in the cage and the salesperson said no but another one overheard us and said that there was one in the back.

   It was love at first sight. I had already picked out a name for her- Buffy Willow, after the 2 characters in the show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. My brother is actually paid for her. We had talked about getting a cocker spaniel for months before this. She quickly became a grandma’s girl. She loved playing with her pet rocks and also getting tummy rubs from us.

   I had lots of nicknames for her like Sunshine spaniel. It’s so corny that sometimes I’d sing “You Are My Sunshine” to her. Some of the others were Twinkie,   pork chop, sugar cookie, little lamb, cream puff, sweet potato, dumpling, turtle, Miss Piggy, lamb chop and Pillsbury Dough Dog. I’d call her that after rubbing her belly and making that laughing noise like the Pillsbury Dough Boy does.

   Sometimes I’d sing “My Little Buffy” to her using that song from the My Little Pony toy commercials -so cheesy. She was like our little cream colored Pony. She had a super short stub which made her even more special to us.

  We should have taken many more pictures of Buffy when she was a puppy.  She was very cute. I only have about 12 of them. One time she had something in her mouth and we thought it was a rock but when I took it out and saw that it was a big beetle I was so creeped out by this.

  She used to steal moms and my hankies sometimes and chew holes in them. We called her a hankie thief. She chewed and messed up part of the rug that Aunt Ann made for under the rocking chair.   Luckily she outgrew this stage quickly and didn’t ruin much else. She did chew the plastic nose off of my stuffed bunny too.

   Our sweet spaniel did have many health problems – arthritis, allergies, ear infections, a sprained back leg, pancreatitis, weak heart and liver and kidney troubles.  I feel so guilty about some of this. If we had taken better care of her teeth and given her the non – steroid allergy meds she wouldn’t have gotten so bad that we had to have her put to sleep at 12 years old. The vet assured us that we were good owners.

   I miss our little pumpkin muffin so darn much as does mom and Mike. Mom was spoiling her with too much food at one point and we had to put her on a diet for a while. We hardly ever took her for walks. We should have brushed her more. I can’t help beating myself for not doing much more for her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Ginger pup

I think about my dog Ginger alot. I only had her for about 7 years but it should have been longer. She was really sick but my dad wouldn't pay the vet bill to find out what was wrong with her and just had her put to sleep. It might have been just something like an infection and medicine would have made her better. I can never forgive him for this. Maybe God is displeased with me for thinking this way. She was my best friend and would always comfort me when I was upset, especially when my parents were arguing. She's a terrier mix who looked a little like Benji. We got her in 1979, I think, and by the fall of 1986 she was no longer around. I hope that someday I get to see her and all my doggies again. One day she somehow got into a bottle of cough syrup and drank nearly the whole thing and was foaming at the mouth- poor baby. She loved playing with empty plastic soda bottles. I wish that I could remember more of the good times that I had with her but my brain seems to hold onto the bad memories which are very vivid and the good ones are hazy and seem just like a dream.

I wish that my family and I never took that trip to Virginia in late summer 1986. Ginger started getting sick shortly after we returned. We had put her in the boarding place at the vet's office- she must have picked up a sickness of some sort there. Usually my uncle took care of her when we went away but he wasn't able to that time. Am I a terrible person for still being so angry at my dad? He was always willing to lend money to his brothers and sister which they hardly ever paid back yet he wouldn't give us money to find out what was wrong with my doggie- he knew how much that I loved her. Maybe he was mad at me for some reason and took out his anger in this way. Maybe if I visited his mother more like he wanted me to he would've paid for that vet bill. It's really not fair if that's the case. I can't seem to let this go. Ginger was the best doggie ever. I love our Buffy now too, but she's more of a grandma's girl and Ginger was definitely my girl.