Did you have that ONE Toy you desperately wanted as a child and never got? I did. It was a 'Hedda Get Bedda' Doll with three faces and rubbery lifelike skin... well, as lifelike as Doll skin got in the 60's. *smiles* She had her wide awake smiling face, her sleeping face, and her sick face complete with spots and a thermometer. The pom-pom on her plastic bonnet was what spun her various faces around and she had Yellow seersucker PJ's. My Friend Verna had her and was gracious enough to always let me play with her... but oh, how I wanted a Hedda Doll too! Alas, she was a collectible series even in her day and too far out of the price range of my Family's means at the time. So... I never got Hedda... but I never forgot about her either.
Fast forward almost half a century later... I'm trolling E-Bay... you know, for those items you might otherwise not stumble across in a lifetime of Junquing and Scavenging... and I decide to plug Hedda's name into the search engine. It was a lark, here I am a Woman over Fifty and not a Doll or Toy Collector, but the prospect of a Second Childhood experience, to FINALLY own that ONE Toy that eluded you in original childhood and you wanted with a passion... well, it was tempting. And... there she was... in her original Jammies no less... only missing her thermometer!!! *the Skies parted, Angels singing, Harps playing* But... this is an auction my Friends... how many other grown-up Girls still had an unsatiated equal passion for ole' Hedda I wondered?! My Heart was practically beating out of my chest as the auction progressed and other bidders came on board... but I WON HER... and at what I thought was a very reasonable price considering what a pricey tag she had retail for all those many years ago. I don't know how many Hedda's survived into this era... beloved and much played with Toys have a tendency not to hold up in the best of condition for collectors to deem worthy of investing in. But, I'm not a Toy Collector and to be honest, I wasn't buying this particular Doll as an investment or for resale... it was FOR ME, to satisfy an age old longing for that ONE Toy that eluded me as a little Girl wanting it. So, even if Hedda had seen better days I probably still would have gotten her and she still would have had pride of place in my room in the beautiful hand carved Turkish Rocking Chair that The Man carted all the way back from one of his Desert Storm stints for me. She hasn't lost her appeal all these years later either, my Grand-Daughter adores her and a Toy like her was meant to be loved and played with... even though she's almost as old as Gramma now. *smiles*
The graphics of the old Toys and Books is so appealing that every so often I purchase a few in my Thrifting forrays, its nostalgic and takes me back to my childhood. There's the old record with the Happy Birthday song and adorable graphics... I remember playing those on my Mighty Mouse crank-up record player. *LOL* There is the occassional lifelike Doll I find at Goodwill that I remember seeing expensive Collectible Ads for in magazines... and for nine bucks, yeah, I'll spring for her too. Even though the four year old Grand-Daughter pulled off her lifelike eyelashes and put them on her own eyelids one day... *LOL* ah, well, there goes her collectible value I suppose, but how funny is that moment and visual peeps?!? PRICELESS!!! Doll lashes stuck over the Grandbaby's own eyelashes, and that guilty face when she's busted... hysterical!!! And there I am trying to pretend to be upset and stern... and hold back fits of laughter 'til it hurt!!!!!!! *wink*
And there have certainly been others... treasured Toys as a child that you played with to death and then years later stumble across at auction or on your Junquing journeys. If the price is right, sometimes I just gotta have it... like the 'Creeple Peeple' Thingmaker that my Brother and I as budding entrepreneurs made the pencil topper Creeple Peeple Heads and sold them at School for a Quarter apiece. Yep, found all the molds for them too... and they still make the Plasti-Goop so the Grandkids could be back in the 'business'!!! *wink*
So, what Toy(s) eluded you my Friends? And what coveted Toys of your past have you 'scored' or at the very least run across in your sprees and have it bring back nostalgic memories even if you didn't have to have it? Here's to our Second Childhoods... may we grow old but never grow up... Dawn... The Bohemian