Oh....The 1960's.

The 1960's. These dolls are my latest small collection of dolls from this time. They are late 1950's to early 1970's mostly English manufacturers such as Palitoy. Pedigree and Roddy......

If you look closely there are a couple of American dolls...a Horseman and Eegee in the back there.

Some of these are not marked at all. This is because the manufacturer put all this information on the box. I have a couple of the boxes, there is one that was manufactured for Marks and Spencers(St Michael as it was then) and another For Woolworths a "little Beauty" from the 1950's.

In the back there is a Sheena doll with growing hair from the 1970's. A lot of these I found in local junk shops. others I bought on Ebay...just because I liked the look of them.

In the days I was a child I kept all my dolls in a pram. I had a few dolls and bears. but not this many! what happened to them all? well I still have one of the bears.....but the rest got dumped. we did not have charity shops on the high street in those days!
We left the farm pictured with me and my doll early in 1968. My father "died" in the November of 1967 in a car up by Kildale. As a result we left the farm and had to go and live in the real world full of other people and live without animals and fresh air all day which is all I knew. To say the transition was a difficult one would be a bit of an understatement. Lets just say that my dog died and all my possessions were mostly dumped because "we could not take them with us". I still do not know why we could not take my dog. Any way no dolls and no dogs. So that was that for childhood. All gone and off to boarding school I went.
My mother and Grandmother rented a cottage in a nearby village. And no I am not going to write the complete story here. I really do not want the hassle. That would be the hassle from my father's family, because anything I say will be taken as a lie. I was there . They were not. today They do not want to know me. I think it is best that way..

The 1960's. I take it by the white blouse and navy dress that this was a school uniform. Probably made for me by my grandmother, The hair cut! oh yes I remember getting my hair cut in Guisborough. My mother took me to a hairdresser and told the lady to cut it all short. The hairdresser actually asked me if that is what I wanted. ...Well no not really . My hair was long and straight in those days. Mother hated it. Much time was spent putting my hair in paper rolls at night to curl it. It looked ectreamly stupid as the papers were curled from the roots down....which left the ends straight. mother never put the papers in any order either and i looked like a wooky on a bad day as mother brushed the curls and made them kind of frizzy . . yep looked stupid.....mind this hair cut was an inprovement but not much as you see my grandmother cut the fringe.......

So a doll collection from a much simpler time. I have never been back to the old farm or seen my father's grave over in Danby. I was going this summer. Then when it came to it....I thought.......
"why are you doing this to yourself?"...I had no answer that made any real sense and so dumped the whole idea and we went to Harrogate for a day out and a look around.