Mrs. Teabody Wants You to Want a Kewpie Doll (of sorts)

Good Morning, Gentle Reader on this calm but overcast June morning where the scent of roses encapsulates Chez Teabody like bargain shoppers encapsulate WallyWorld on Black Friday. A heady time, indeed. Today Mrs. Teabody will swan off to the International Tea Expo in Las Vegas where she will be schooled in all things related to tea. Imagine! Four DAYS of nothing but tea education. Why Mrs. Teabody shall soon have her PhD in tea. Perhaps some venerable not to mention piratical institution such as Phoenix U. already offers such a degree? No doubt.  And while Mrs. Teabody welcomes the opportunity to learn, learn, learn, she is not much enamored of temperatures so high that one's eyeshadow is soon slithering along one's bosom, and what better scenario can one imagine with temperatures predicted to reach 112? Mon Dieu!

But to the topic du'jour: Wanting a Kewpie Doll! Or more specifically wanting you, Gentle Reader, to want a kewpie doll. To want something so much you just will not shut up about it. To become the squeaky wheel. The big, bad omnipresent squeaky wheel. Attend.

First you must know that kewpie dolls-- the outrageously costumed and bedazzled and makeup- enhanced variety featured above - - started appearing at American carnivals sometime in the early 50's. Mrs. Teabody's large family did precious little in the pursuit of entertainment during that time as money was scarce and the family was large.  However, Mrs. Teabody's father enjoyed meeting up with his brother from Huntingdon at the Shade Gap Picnic and what a source of wonder this event provided for otherwise sheltered children. Dangerous and exhilarating rides, exotic nutrition-free food, crowds of people--strangers! -- and an evening finale of aerial acts and fireworks. An absolute departure from everyday existence. Mrs. Teabody's father called the men who shouted at you to engage in games of skill, "fakers," and there was little truck with them. Rides were selected judiciously as each child was allowed two rides, each costing a quarter. Somewhere between the siren call of the fakers and the cataclysmic waltz with death provided by the ferris wheel and the scrambler, a wide-eyed Mrs. Teabody spotted a display of kewpie dolls and she instantly knew she wanted one. No. It was beyond mere WANT. It was absolute necessity. The entire family were dragged to the vendor where an inquiry for price delivered the catch-your-breath news: seventy-five cents. Why, this symbol of beauty cost just one little quarter more than the allotted fifty cents everyone in the family had been promised.

Mrs. Teabody made her case for the purchase while her siblings called her many unkind names before going off in their pursuits of pleasure with their fists wrapped tightly around their fifty-cent pieces. Finally it was just Mrs. Teabody and her father.  Hugs were given. All the persuasive power any eight year-old girl possesses was brought to bear. Promises of good behavior into the next three decades were made. Mrs. Teabody's father stood immune--impervious to even the most adroit argument.  Down but not out, Mrs. Teabody began to whine. And cry. And complain. And cry. And pitch a little hissy-fit meltdown. And cry. Gradually over the course of the evening, Mrs. Teabody wore her father down, and at the end of the evening she waltzed off to the car with her kewpie doll on a stick in her adoring hands. A little ashamed of herself, Mrs. Teabody had learned that if one resorts to whining and crying and complaining, one sometimes wins.

Mrs. Teabody wants you to become a squeaky wheel, Gentle Reader. Here in little Fulton County, Pennsylvania, Meadow Grounds Lake--a beautiful serene fishing lake has been drained with thousands of fish dying in the process and the habitat for hundreds of other species destroyed.  County residents have been promised the dam will be repaired and the lake will be restored but nothing will happen until an engineering study is done so that needs to be our/your focus now. Mrs. Teabody wants you to want Meadow Grounds Lake restored as much as  Mrs. Teabody wanted that kewpie doll so many years ago. But you are going to have to whine and cry in letters and E-mails and phone calls, and you are going to have to do it until they buckle. Starting right now.

Thanks for the lake!

 1. Senator John Eichelberger
State Senator for Fulton County
201 Lincoln Way East
McConnellsburg, PA 17233
(717) 485-3616 or (717) 485-4216
Website: http://senatoreichelberger.com/contact/
email: jeichelberger@pasen.gov
Fax: (717) 783-5192
Due for re-election 2014

2. Richard Alloway
State Senator for Adams, Franklin, and York Counties
Chair of the Game and Fisheries Committee
37 South Main Street
Suite 200
Chambersburg, PA 17201
(717) 264-6100
Or
187 Main Capitol
Harrisburg, PA 17120
(717) 787-4651
Fax: 717-772-2753
TTY: 800-364-1581
Internet Contact Form:
http://senatoralloway.com/contact.htm

3. Representative Dick Hess
State Representative for Fulton County
House Majority Whip
314 Lincoln Way East, Suite A
McConnellsburg, PA 17233
(717) 485-4430
Fax: (717) 485-3979
http://www.dickhess.com/Contact.aspx
Email: dhess@pahousegop.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mrs. Teabody Reflects on Hallowe'en and Asks Forbearance for Rushing the Seasons

Image
Yesterday morning I woke to pouring rain and chose for my morning walk a turtleneck, jeans, and an insulated vest, along with scarf, hat and gloves. By one o'clock I was in short sleeves and Mr. Teabody was "catching some rays" inside the secret garden. Crazy October and as we slide into its finale of Hallowe'en, I can't help recalling a day inside my classroom with an administrator and the topic of devil worship. Like most female teachers, I paid homage to the seasons and holidays by way of door decorations and bulletin boards and as this was in the days just prior to political correctness, angels and the Christ child showed up for a few weeks before Christmas with the same regularity as colorful baskets of eggs and bunnies alongside a glowing cross for a few weeks before Easter. And what teacher (like myself) was going to let Hallowe'en go by with all its cool imagery and not take advantage of the chance to decorate? I had the gamut of images bought a
Read more

Mrs. Teabody Reflects on a Trip and Kindness

Image
I am wide awake looking at the moon and stars in the June sky through a window while I am lying in a comfortable bed inside a rental house in Penzance, Cornwall, England. I can count on one hand the times in my life I have been able to see a starry starry sky as sleep finds me. It's a doozy. I want to tell you about our first day here--Saturday-- before I lose the feeling.  Saturday morning started in tension: My three companions pictured above at Saint Michael's Mound had to make the 7:00 A.M. train from London  Paddington-- all four of us with all our luggage -- and we also had to meet up with two other friends inside huge Paddington Station because I had their tickets. All that went off without a hitch and the six of us managed to get on the train  in our assigned seats, our many pieces of luggage stowed on the main rack at the end of the car.  So far so good.  Great Western Rail have a scheme on weekends where you can upgrade to first class for twenty-
Read more

Mrs. Teabody Celebrates Her Father

Image
Back row: Richard Henry, Reed Henry, Pete Henry, Raymond Henry Front row: John Henry, Sally Henry, Wendell Henry Tomorrow is Father's Day. My father passed in May of 2006 so quite a few June Sundays dedicated to honoring fathers have passed without someone on the receiving end of a funny card, a poke of RedMan, a singing bass to hang on the wall and my life is poorer for it. I grew up in a home with three brothers and three sisters, a stay-at-home mom, a work away father, and I have always known what it means to be born a Henry but it is only in my very late years that I have come to fully appreciate the great gift of my heritage. Pictured above are some of the biggest influences on my early life. This photograph was taken in 1966 at a Henry gathering in Clear Ridge, less than a mile from where the folks in the photograph grew up--the five handsome and witty uncles, the beautiful and vivacious aunt and all of them so very happy in each other's company. With them came the
Read more