Paper Doll Memories...

Owner Phyllis Mae (Freckles) recollects..."In a family of five girls and three boys, my sisters and I loved paper dolls. I remember my older sisters, Mary Elizabeth (Beth) and Shirley Anne (Sheryl) drawing paper dolls, and Marjorie Alice (Marj), Jessie Carol (Cricket) and I having to have our own paper dolls. We drew our own paper doll clothes on any plain paper we could find. We cut out the models from old Sears Roebuck, and Montgomery Ward catalogs and then tried to find clothes to fit. If all else failed we would cut our own pattern from the material pages. We kept all of our paperdoll treasures in old shoe boxes under our beds."

Phyllis Mae (California) took the time out of her busy schedule, creating new paper doll clothes and artwork, to call each of her four sisters to ask them about their paper doll memories. What a time they had reminiscing! Beth, (Oregon) who drew big bows on the shoes of her paper dolls, remembers "Mom gave Shirley and I our first Sears Roebuck catalog", some scissors, and set us on the floor, letting us cut to our hearts content. Sheryl (Oregon) stated "for paper we used anything we could get our hands on, greyish beige paper or anything without lines". She also rememered the "Dion Quintuplet" paper dolls that were in the newspapers. Marj (Oregon) recalls the store bought paper doll clothes were flocked giving them a velvet look. "Phyllis, Jessie and I would play with our paper dolls by the hours,""Once in a while we used a Spiegel catalog, and Mom bought colored contruction paper" for our homemade paper doll clothes. Jessie Carol (New Jersey) declared "paper dolls were our favorite thing when we were little". "We found old catalogs and I remember getting the big baby doll paper dolls, and Margie, Phyllis and I sitting in the doorway (in everybody's way) cutting out paper dolls".

All five sisters agree that they enjoyed hours of fun and entertainment and knew that "paperdoll time" gave their mom a break. If you have a paper doll memory that you would like to share, contact Janey at memories@pjscorner.net or send a letter to PJ's Corner, Attn: Janey Loree, PO Box 39, Taft, CA 93268. These memories were shared in PJ's September Paper Doll Newsletter.