CHATTY CATHY!

The first doll I ever had was a Chatty Cathy doll. She looked like the doll above except she had blond hair. I got her for X-Mas and I could pull a string on the back of her neck and she would talk. I carried her everywhere with me. Several months after X-Mas, the little round ring on the end of the string broke and the string went through the hole in her neck and into her back. I was disappointed that she wouldn't talk. My dad said he would fix her. He brought her back to me sometime later and said that he had a little bit of trouble but that he had fixed her and she could talk again. I turned her around to pull the string and....yeah....I could get to the string....because she didn't have a back anymore. My dad had chipped and chipped and chipped away her back trying to get to the string until.....well, she just didn't have a back anymore. But, boy, she could talk.

Bless Dad's heart, he always meant well. One time, I went home for a visit and he told me he would change the oil in my car for me. He got confused, drained out all the antifreeze and refilled it with oil. He felt so bad about it! I felt sorry for him. He had to take it to a mechanic and I couldn't leave till it was fixed. I missed work the next day and everything. He could never understand after that why I wouldn't let him work on anything of mine. He would say I only messed up once.

Um....I got off track, didn't I? Anyway, does anybody remember The Chatty Cathy doll? When I looked for her picture on the internet, several versions came up. Did you have a Chatty Cathy doll? If so, what did she look like?

BEANY AND CECIL

This is the first cartoon I remember. I was under two years old when this cartoon was popular but it is one of the first memories I have. Does anybody remember Beany and Cecil? I bet The Writer does!!!

WHERE WERE YOU THE DAY J.F.K. WAS SHOT?

On that day, November 22, 1963, I was only 2 ½ years old. My dad was off work and I was at home with him. I didn’t really understand what was going on. I remember my dad just jumping up, scooping me up, running outside with me and placing me in his 1957 Chevy. He got in the driver’s seat and drove really fast to the doctor’s office where my mom was a nurse. He scooped me up again and headed into the doctor’s office. He asked where my mom was. She came walking down the hall. He said, "Norma, Kennedy’s been shot." And then my mom was upset just like my dad was. It’s all a bit of a haze to me now and I don’t really know how much I comprehended at that young age but I remember as word spread throughout the office, patients and nurses began to get upset like my mom and dad. It was an awful feeling to be that little and see everyone like that. It was like this wave of shock that covered everyone in the doctor’s office until little by little, everything went from sunshine to darkness.