General Chat

I used to collect porcelain dolls and am the proud owner of a beautiful black little girl nearly three feet tall with her hair done in tiny bunches all over her head. She is dressed in European clothes and holds a small black rag doll. I also have a smaller black doll with three faces, one laughing, one crying and one serious, I have only to look at her mischievious smiling face and I feel uplifted.

I loved my Golly as a Child and recently bought one in a garden centre for my grandson. I was surprised, thought they had been banned. Just to add, I am the least racist person you could wis to meet and same as others think its PC gone mad .
Ho and I also had a black dolly called lu lu , this was in the fifties.

I had Boko and Tomo dolls named after the conjoined, except we called them Siamese then,twins.

I saw the Black and White Minstrels in 1965. As far as I know they were white people blacked up. It was a musical show on stage in London. Please tell me if this offended anyone - it was just a show to me.

The same year I was in South Africa. Apartheid was still going strong. I was 7 years old and what I remember is this: different beaches for blacks and whites in Durban. In Cape Town, different bus stops for blacks and whites. And, what really stood out for me, queuing for a cafe in a department store for a cup of tea,but different queues.

As a kid, these things seemed wrong - but not the Black and White Minstrels.

I do not wish to upset anyone, just to give a child's view of the situation at the time.

Sharon, near me in Kent there is a village famous for its Siamese twins, their portrait is on the village sign and there is a restaurant named after them. Haven't seen any dolls, though.

I remember seeing them on tv during the 60s...did'nt they make regular appearances on Sunday night at The London Palladium?

jax

No,the dolls were not joined together. Two little girls were brought over fom Kenya,I think,to be seperated. I had two black dolls to represent them after the operation.

In those days,if you had a black or brown dog or cat you might call it a word you may not utter now. People have found it offensive that my big black tom cat was called Idi.(Spookily,he and Idi Amin died on the same day).

What is far more important to me is that Vilbard,a black man who grew up in apartheit, takes no offence at it at all. Truly,if he did take offence,he would not hold back from telling me.He was a guerrilla fighter,he has been tortured,what the white woman calls her cat is not very significant.

I had a golly, and loved him. No idea what happened to him ....... probably passed on to my brother's children, as happened with most of my toys .

sigh :(

OH and I also (separately!!) collected the gollies from Robertson's jam


I also had a Golly money bank that had belonged to my brother (10 years older than me). You put a coin on the Golly's hand, and he lifted it to his mouth, and swallowed it!

We went to New Orleans around 1977, and I bought a two-ended doll for my daughter.

It had long skirts. When the skirts were turned one way you had a white doll dressed as of the 19th century era. Turn the skirts over her head, and there was a black mammy doll, complete with kerchief round her hair.


It was supposed to represent girl and her maid.

J loved that doll ...................... but found it last summer (over 30 years later!), and expressed horror about the connotation of girl and servant.


sigh :(




sylvia

Chris

I never had a Golly or a teddy (I hope you all feel sorry for me). I do recall a couple of very white dolls though.

Does anyone remembering buying from school, for a couple of pence, small pictures of children. Proceeds to the missionaries I think. It was in infants school and the pictures of the black skinned children were most prized.

Vera

I didn't have a Golly and I suppose I didn't mind that much - I was not into dolls - I did have a black one that said mama when you bent her over... I was more upset because my cousin (also a girl) had this wonderful Hornby train set and I would have loved it.

My older cousins only had one doll between them so one of them put a dress on their black cat and popped it in the pram and told the other one she was married to a Maori.

Persie

Poor Vera,

my mother liked dolls and that is why I had them but was never interested in the cot or pram either. However, I still bitterly resent the fact that I was forced to give my panda away - she gave me the choice of either my panda or teddy and then told me daddy had bought me the teddy for my first Christmas and would be upset if I gave it away - but it was my choice.

My mother was soooooooooo good at blackmail!

What was it with out parents making us or just giving our toys away?

I know I did'nt have many compared with the kids today but I always remember some soft toy cats that suddenly disapeared....to my cousin apparently, I was really heartbroken over that.

jax

It was my books (which I love) that went to relatives and toys disappeared but I know not where. As soon as I outgrew anything it was washed and passed on.... I got told off once when we ran into friends of mothers at a carnival and their daughter had on my dress and I said "so that's where that dress got to."

I had a golly my aunt gave me but the dog we had ripped it up then when my husband and I where in s shop near Torquay we found them and my husband has bought me 3 different size and 1 for my key ring then my friend bought me 1 and they are now beside my computer

Vera

I remember those photos was it something like christian aid week? and you had to take them home and try and sell them...I;m not sure but they do ring a bell

jax

Vera
I remember selling pictures too. I think they were called "Sunshine Babies" and I was at Grammar school so must have been 1963 onwards.

Linda :o) XxX

That was it Linda Sunshine Babies. Funny how you can remember things you did 40+ years ago, trying to remember what you did last week is a struggle lol

jax

Chris

I could have had that panda! My daughter was given a teddy from my father. It was amazing that he ever got round to buying it, although he was a kind man. It was for her 1st birthday. She is not at all interested in it but I hang onto it for dear life.

Linda and Jax

I remember now you did not pay for them. You sold them to raise funds.
Sad to say for me it was more like 60 years ago. The children loved the black skinned babies. To children they were just different nothing else.

Vera

Why did our parents give away our toys? I think in my case mine might even have been sold on as it was post war and toys were still short. A lot of my toys were second hand. My son does still have my bedraggled teddy, I had a huge dolls house which my Dad made and which disappeared. I also had a huge panda my dad made while in hospital and that too disappeared. My daughter still has my toy tea set (china) and, much to my cousin's surprise when she found out I still have a porcelain doll that belonged to my cousin and she didn't know where it had gone. and goodness knows what happened to all my books, some were passed on to my sister but not all as there were 7 years between us.

We did not sell those pictures but our school did raise money for charity.

I remember we raised money for one that had some pictures of Downs Syndrome victims on the posters but nobody ever mentioned anything about what Downs Syndrome entailed. I had seen them about and would have liked to have known more about them and to have understood their problems.

As no information was readily forthcoming I just assumed it was one of those things it was not nice to ask about and you had to pretend you had not noticed. Now there is a good way to promote understanding!