Raggedy Ann Dolls - Still Going Strong!
When I was in seventh grade I met a classmate that is still my best friend to this very day. Seventh grade is
the time when the public elementary school and the parochial schools typically combine classes as the public junior high building. I had been in
public elementary school and my friend had been in the parochial school. In our home room classroom we happened to sit next to each
other because we were both late in finding the classroom and these were the only two seats left. Of course, as is always the case when you're
late, they were in front of the room. We were given ten minutes at the end of the class period to visit with our classmates. Little did I know
that thirty five years later this classmate would still be my best friend.
We were inseparable from that first period of seventh grade through the remainder of high school and through
college. We spent so much time together that our parents became good friends because they were constantly running us back and forth between each
other’s home. My friend’s mom had the neatest job. She made Raggedy Ann dolls. It seemed the dolls were everywhere in my friend’s house. Her
mom had made Raggedy Ann dolls for my friend and her sister when they were young girls. A mother of another girl saw them and asked her to make
her daughters Raggedy Ann dolls. Soon she was making Raggedy andy also and her business was under way. She hand sewed all of the dolls and their
clothing. She made the dolls in a variety of sizes depending upon what the people ordered. When we were in ninth grade she made us Raggedy
Ann costumes for Halloween. They were great. We had a dance that years at school and everyone agreed that we had the best costumes of
anyone.
This was close to the time when cabbage patch dolls first
came on to the market, and people were buying them out as fast as they hit the stores. As it turned out, my friend’s mother was contacted to see
if she could make one of these dolls, as well. The grandmother was frantic because she had promised her granddaughter one of the cabbage patch
dolls, yet they were completely sold out in the area and the back order time was well over three months. My friend’s mom said she would attempt
to make one, and of course, as you might expect, it turned out great. Soon she was getting more orders for them than the Raggedy Ann dolls.
Through the years she kept up with the trends and continued to work out of her home sewing different toys.
I'm not sure if the Raggedy Ann and andy dolls still garner the same amount of attention as they did back in those days,
but I know you'd be pretty hard pressed to find someone who doesn't know about these dolls. Trends come and go, but I suspect the
Raggedy Ann dolls will be around for many generations of kids to come.
Raggedy Ann Dolls
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