Hello Dolly!

When I was about 4 years old, Uncle Howard, gave me a doll for Christmas.  This doll was about an inch taller than I was, with black curly hair, blue eyes, red lips, long black eye lashes, a pretty black velvet vest over a white cotton topped dress that had a red skirt, and she had on white socks with black velvety shoes.  She was my best friend, and I called her Judy.  We played together all the time, there were tea parties, play school, reading lessons, she played against me in many games, she was my daughter, babysitter for my other dolls when I was away, and many more things.  She was the little sister I never had and I didn't pick on her or treat her mean.  She could even wear my clothes.  When someone gave mom childrens clothes to pass on, if they were the sizes Judy wore, I pulled them out for her.  Within a few years, Judy had a small suitcase of clothes and underwear (she came with her own underwear I forgot to mention).  As I was growing up, and being afraid of the attic in the upstairs where I slept, many nights when Diane was gone, I put Judy in her pajama's to sleep with me, along with a few of my other dolls.  They slept in the front of the bed as I was in back by the wall.  My theory was if a ghost or burglar came to get me, Judy was my decoy!  They would think she was me, feel past her to find more dolls, and it either gave me time to jump out of bed and run down the stairs, or they would think the bed was just full of stupid dolls.  I was sure if I got scared enough it would not be hard to play dead, stiff, or pretend to be a toy.  Guess what??  Nobody ever got me, thanks to Judy and my ingenuity to fake them out.  Diane didn't like Judy, but it did not matter, she was my friend, and my doll.  Diane never played with dolls anyway.  She slept with a teddy bear that had a plastic face, (cute) that grandpa had given her before he died and I was born.  That was about all she ever wanted, not any type of doll at all.  It was fun for me to play with dolls, cause Diane didn't like to play with me either.  My dolls range from one and a half inches up to Judy who was about 3 feet tall.   Once I watched a program when I was younger called "Twilight Zone".  It was about a doll left behind in an abandoned house, when a new family moves in with children who play with this doll.  They find out the doll is real, it talks, and it is mean.  They discover the doll killed the previous owners, so the doll has to kill them too!  In the end you see a doll on the stairs left behind with yet another new family looking to purchase the house as the realtor explains that the last family mysteriously up and left without any notice.  The young girl picks up the doll to claim as hers, as she puts the doll up to her shoulder, the camera shows the dolls face as it's eyes open, eyebrows raise with a real wicked smile.  Now that made me think twice about being alone with some of my dolls for awhile, but decided my dolls were friendly not fiendish.  Today I still have every single doll I was ever given in my attic.  Still have my bike, chalkboard, table and chairs etc... from my childhood.  I took real good care of my stuff, and when it was necessary to share them with others, I just supervised how the kids treated the dolls to make sure they were not hurt.