We are snuggled up in the Dora bed, deciding on a bedtime story. "How about your special book?" Allie asks. It's late and the story is long, but I can't say no.
The book is "Amy's Doll," and I've loved it since I was a little girl. The spine is damaged, the title page, torn; the paper is yellowing and smudged. But the black-and-white photographs of the 8-year-old girl and her broken doll still take me right back to a time when stuffed animals were as essential as blankets, dolls were cherished friends, and anything could be fixed.
I'm barely finished reading the last line of the story when Allie cries, "Again, again! I liked it, I liked it!" So, we turn the pages, looking at the photos and retelling the story in our own words.
I'm not sure why Allie thinks the book is special. Because we don't read it very often? Because it lives on an out-of-reach shelf in my office, instead of on the bookcase in her room? Or because she, too, sees something compelling in the story of the girl who loses her beloved doll and then finds it, dirty and damaged, possibly beyond repair?
--
Tucked away in a box in my attic, there is a broken doll.
Her name is Baby Tender, and she was my favorite, favorite doll when I was a
little older than Allie. She has a soft, plastic body, fine, blond hair and painted-on eyes. She was the center of all the doll tea parties, and the summer I was a flower girl, she married my favorite teddy bear in a wedding we staged on the front porch.
Most of these adventures happened after Tender's left leg got yanked out of its socket by some neighborhood boys. We tried to reattach it with masking tape, even designed a special cloth contraption to hold it in place, but it never stayed put for very long.
--
It's funny, what we keep, and what we throw away.
Why "Amy's Doll" and not "The Pink Elephant With Golden Spots?" Why do we save some things and get rid of others? In an increasingly material world, do the things we choose to keep have more meaning, or less? We purge our possessions in garage sales, figuring we can always find that book or that game or that toy again, if we really miss it. We throw away broken watches and cameras and TVs, because stuff is so cheap now that it often costs nearly as much to have an item repaired as it would to buy a new one.
Back in 1963, when "Amy's Doll" was published, people just didn't have so much stuff. If something was broken, they fixed it or found someone who could. There were no superstores or garage sales, and most kids wore at least a few hand-me-downs.
Today, what parent of girls doesn't have at least one doll with impossibly matted hair, or one Barbie with a missing limb or a chewed-up foot? How many
of us even think about trying to fix these dolls, when you can buy another one at the local retail chain, drug store or even the supermarket?
In the age of one-click shopping, the idea that you should hang onto something simply because you may never be able to acquire it again seems more and more foreign. From your home, you can Google just about any item and find someone, somewhere, who is selling it.
--
I am thinking about this after I tuck Allie in. I've never seen "Amy's Doll" in a bookstore, but how rare is it, really? I can't resist the temptation to
search the Barnes & Noble website. In less than a minute, I find six used copies ranging in price from $4.49 to $19.48, all available to ship in 1-2 business days.
So my special book isn't so rare after all.
I can't stop myself from feeling a little disappointed, even as I realize that although you can get a copy of "Amy's Doll" in a few days, it won't be the same book I read with my mother, snuggled up in my room with the pink bedspread and the matching ruffled pink curtains she made. Allie can't really appreciate that now, but someday, she will be blown away by the fact that her gray-haired mom held this very same book in her little-girl hands.
In the meantime, it's nice to know that I can order a back-up copy to read to myself in my old age.
Lisa Miller is a freelance writer who lives in Oneonta. She can be reached at lisamiller44@hotmail.com.
Columns
What we save, what we toss out
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
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Upstate theme parks offered affordable thrills
I saw in the news last week that Disney theme parks are raising admission prices to almost $100 a person. Children (who Uncle Walt considers 10 and under) are now $86 a day.
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Upstate theme parks offered affordable thrills
- Cary Brunswick
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Book-banning has a tendency to backfire
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Book-banning has a tendency to backfire
- Chuck Pinkey
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- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
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- Mark Simonson
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Don't play around with snappers
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Don't play around with snappers
- Sam Pollak
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Justice Dept., IRS abuses worth screaming about
"If this had happened while a Republican was president, the liberal media would be screaming."
Continued ... - THIS WEEK'S POLL
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Justice Dept., IRS abuses worth screaming about
- William Masters
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
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Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
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Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
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Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
