Memories... Memories... Memories

by Dana Bachman

FENELON FALLS: On Saturday, October 18th, the Fenelon Falls Grannies for Grannies held a fundraising event at the United Church. Guests were invited to share childhood memories of a favourite doll, a favourite toy.

The memories came flooding out. There were sad stories, there were funny stories. Gail Cotterell shared a hilarious story from when she was a young kindergarten teacher. She had been to the gym and when she arrived at her kindergarten classroom, she realized she hadn’t brought her work clothes. Parents and kids were lining up at the kindergarten door. How embarrassing! She quickly rummaged around in the classroom dress-up box and found something to cover those short shorts!

Grant Cotterell told the story of the disappearing and reappearing sand toys at Shorelea resort. Eileen Weldon told the story of the “magic” cigarette box her children were fascinated by and still fight over today.

Judy Kennedy told the story of her well-dressed teddy bear and how that laid the basis for her career as a designer and costume maker.

There was a sad story about a little boy who had no toys —just an old lard bucket and a spoon. When he went to the beach, all the bullies kicked sand at him.

Wand Tsiakos and her daughter shared the story of her daughter’s childhood doll collection, dolls from many nations. Dale Spurvey and her sister shared Dale’s collection of dolls, notably her Barbie dolls, a black Barbie, a large-size Barbie, a hippy Ken with waist-length blonde hair, and a Barbie with articulated limbs.

The audience lingered to hear the stories, and everyone went home satisfied, both by the loving stories but also by the delicious desserts. And the icing on the cake, the cherry on the cheesecake. Several guests went home with “Treasures,” paintings by local artists, Elizabeth Barrett, Marilyn Britt, Sandor Tandory, and Donna Stover.

What an interesting and creative event. Let’s see what the Grannies come up with for next October.

All photos by Jamie Milroy