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Friday, April 3, 2009

Preserver of Posterity or Pack-rat?

Putting together my recent post about my small collection of Barbie doll clothes got me thinking about what you do with things like these. I have a shoebox filled with the Barbie clothes my mother made for me some 40-odd years ago, along with several doll dresses and a tiny quilt sewn by my grandmother (just like the full-size ones she made for her children's beds.) I even have a red & white cap and skirt my great-grandmother knitted for my mom when she was a little girl.

I didn't give them to my nieces when they were young enough to actually play with them because they're just too precious and delicate. I suppose I'll give them to the girls when they grow up and have daughters...but of course, the doll clothes will be even older and more delicate then, and those children won't be able to play with them either. So what do you do with things like these?

It seems downright wrong to get rid of such family heirlooms. So, after I took the photos for this post, I put them back in their shoebox in the linen closet. And there they will sit, rarely seeing the light of day, except when they will be passed on so they can inhabit another generation's closets. Which doesn't seem quite right either.

Frink says I should put them on the cat. But I'm pretty sure one of the reasons Frink loves me is precisely because I'm not the kind of person who dresses the cats. (Even though, perversely, I love the website Stuff on My Cat.)

Anyone out there have any better ideas?

6 comments:

  1. Adorable dresses! Yeah, I know that the younger girls won't be particularly careful of it, as the older ones are. So, I understand how you feel.

    I love the last part which says that you don't dress your cat. hehehe. I agree, even if they look cute, they might feel uncomfortable with it. :)

    By the way, thanks for dropping by my page the other day. Have a nice weekend!

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  2. You should put them in cute picture frames and hang them on your wall or set them in a bookcase. You can even add fun captions.

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  3. With those memories I can understand why e-bay doesn't even come up. I hope you can preserve them OK.

    You cat comment reminds me of one of my posts. The first clip has some cat humor in it.

    funny ads

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  4. I agree with Tina. I put a Christening dress from many moons ago in a shadow box and displayed it in the guest bathroom. It looks really nice and it's a great conversation piece.

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  5. I love the idea of a shadow box! Thank you! I'm going to look for one for the Barbie clothes, too. Maybe I can find one deep enough to put Barbie herself in.

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