The Clutter Of Memory

Decluttering has ultimately led me to the Final Frontier of Desperation in my house. My nightstand's bottom drawer, until it became jammed with stuff, was where I put things that I honestly had no idea what else to do with. A few days ago, I decided to finally tackle it and Be Ruthless. 

I won't bore you with the inventory except to say that I still have more decisions to make. Do I keep everything my kids ever made or gave to me? Can I lovingly say goodbye to the many senior pictures of former students? Do I still need my high school diploma?

One thing I found was probably returned to me by my mother at some point. I don't remember. But it brought back a flood of memories. I hope you'll indulge me here because once I share this, I may let the photos and this narrative be my record and toss the actual items.

Growing up in the sixties, we used to play with paper dolls quite often. Some women's magazines even included them for girls, and we could even buy little booklets of them with perforated, punch-out dolls and clothes. Those were flimsy, however, and we didn't get to any store often to buy them. I decided early on to make my own, and I used to make them all the time. I especially liked making the clothes.

Here are two paper dolls I made long, long ago (more than 50 years ago!), in the style of Raggedy Ann dolls. I found them in a plastic bag along with some of their clothes, lying in that horrid drawer.

The one on the left is named Ginger and the one on the right Ann, according to what is scrawled on their backs. They're coloured with crayon, and they appear to be made on box cardboard. I only vaguely remember them, but I recall lots and lots of other paper dolls I made.

They had all kinds of clothes, from coats to jammies to pantsuits. They each even had a flower girl's dress. Here are some of the outfits I made for them:

The Halloween witch's costume is intact, but the clown costume is missing, except for its hat. I love the little 60s Mondrian colorblock dresses! So stylish.

And rompers (back then, I probably called them sunsuits), and pantsuits, and even a skirt and blouse. Check out the psychedelic patterns on those pantsuits. Cool. Some of the paper tabs have either Ann or Ginger written on them. And you can see that there are Almost Twin versions of most things.

These are the last odds and ends of what remains. I'm sure that there was another striped dress in a different colour, and an outfit to match that beret. There also had to be a top to match that blue and red pleated skirt. 

Here are Ann and Ginger dressed up for you, just so you can see that I knew what I was doing.

There's that cute hat! It just matches that sunsuit, doesn't it? I had so much fun making my own paper dolls and their clothes when I was a kid. 

As I was looking at the clothes, another memory struck me, and that was that we always had paper--lots and lots of paper. My dad worked at US Steel, at one point also known as National Tube. He was a safety clerk there while we were kids, and he used to bring home old documents/copies. We used reams of that recycled paper for all of our artwork. When I turned over my doll clothes, there was my dad's writing. 

So many memories! Later, when they did away with that job, he became a security guard at the gatehouses where workers clocked in and out and trucks did, too. He used to bring home stacks and stacks of old timecards, and those became our family's mode of correspondence for notes, lists, reminders, and brief memos and signs. I'm smiling right now, thinking of it. 

For now, Ann and Ginger are back in the drawer with just a few other things, awaiting a final decision. I will be Thinking Hard. Thanks for letting me share them with you.