Dolls, Boats, Trains, and Planes

I was musing about all the places you could find dolls, and thinking of my friend Mary Hillier who always said "dolls are where you find them!" The air show is here this weekend, and I remember the last time I went. There were WWI and WWI planes, some biplanes, with big Snoopy dolls, dressed as the WWI flying ace, sitting in the cockpit. Of course, there were souvenier beanies as well, wearing tiny T-shirts, and miniature models of various planes at the show. I think the best part was watching them take off at the end, with Snoopies tucked safely inside. We also go to local carshows; I have a 14 year old who loves cars, knows all about them, has a batttery operated model, and who even designs them. More than one gorgeous vintage car has had dolls of various types enhancing it. Time out kids, stuffed animals, big rag dolls, and even Halloween dolls grace the display and the insides. Of course, there are those who like to keep stuffed animals on their dashboards, and I have a Garfield with suction who used to live on my rear view window, of my Wild Strawbery edition Ford Escort. And, there are doll hood ornaments, and dolls that dangle from the rear view mirror on slender threads. Of course there are also the dolls I buy on my adventures in dolling, and these live in my trunk temproarily. I already mentioned the dolls on the barge, the river doll collection which I hope to post soon. Leslie Gordon wrote early on that Ships Figure heads were doll related, and I have miniature versions in my collection and lots of photos of them. Eleanor St. George writes in The Dolls of Yesterday of a Japanese doll captured on a Japanese Sub after WW II. The dolls was surrendred very reluctantly by the sub commander. Remember that dolls play a big part in Japanese culture. I have found dolls in gun shops, and for sale at tool sales, sometimes very beautiful examples. Occasionally, they also show up at gun shows. It is especially fun when dolls who up in odd places, in restaurants as part of the decor, once, in Sears, a lovely vinyl Hawaiian doll graced a wahing machine for sale. There have been many buildings down town over the years that featured doll collections, once a travel agency, another time the local hardware store featured a large collection of Dutch dolls in costume with their tulip bulbs. Sometimes, the storefront would be used solely for the dolls; there was no business occupying it. I have a doll house that was part of the decor of a local children's shoe store, and our old Leath furntigure used to feature dolls in its display window. Recently, we took a trip to the train museum in Wisconisn. We saw dolls, antique ones, sitting in vintage train compartments with childsized mannikins in Victorian outfits. Dolls turn up at train shows all the time, as figures for the trains, but also doll furniture, figurines, and stuffed animals. Always think outside the box to enhance your collections. You just never know what you might find.