{"id":3192,"date":"2022-05-29T21:32:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T21:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/?page_id=3192"},"modified":"2022-05-31T07:04:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T07:04:03","slug":"doll-in-the-family","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/true-life\/1972-1974\/doll-in-the-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Doll in the Family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Growing up, Kim and I were not the only little ones in the family. We had competition from a life-sized doll. The family named her Colleen.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colleen was about three feet tall and made of plastic. She had a fairly realistic baby girl face, and long brown hair that went past her shoulders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Colleen had been a gift to my grandmother Edna, from a friend on the occassion of the birth of her grandaughter, Kimberly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the time, Colleen just sat silently in a chair in the corner of our bedroom in Poppy’s house. Occasionally, she would be trotted out to show to company as if she were the third child.<\/p>\n\n\n

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When my sister Kim was three, she and Colleen were almost like twins.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Send in the Clowns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One little toy I used to enjoy between the ages of six and eight was a merry little chap that me and Kim dubbed “Clownie”. Always smiling, always happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The original “Patootie the Clown”, in all his finery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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“Clownie” as I knew him.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the beginning, when he was still working as Patootie the Clown, he had spoken. I only ever knew Patootie by his later slave name, Clownie. By the time I remember him, he was a bit of a broken man: his speaking pullstring had broken off, leaving his voice forever hidden inside the box in his chest. Someone had apparently also stolen all his fine circus clothes and accessories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does every kid’s doll lose its clothes? Life can be so cruel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where are they now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The last time I saw Clownie was in 1974, when we were living in Langley. Still in his red long-johns, he’d developed a tear in his rear end, threatening the loss of some stuffing. A kind local babysitter sewed him up for us. I have no idea what became of him after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colleen managed to stay in the family, going to my brother in Port McNeill for a few years. Colleen was later reunited with my sister and has followed her around Vancouver Island ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time I saw Colleen, she was barefoot and dressed in a long red wool sweater, but my sister has reassured me that she’s well cared for, and wearing a lovely little dress.<\/p>\n

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Growing up, Kim and I were not the only little ones in the family. We had competition from a life-sized doll. The family named her Colleen. Colleen was about three feet tall and made of plastic. She had a fairly realistic baby girl face, and long brown hair that went past her shoulders. Colleen had … Continue reading Doll in the Family<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3197,"parent":217,"menu_order":18,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3192","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3192"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3211,"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3192\/revisions\/3211"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ejohnlovebooks.com\/true-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}