I’m sorry, but my day was too filled with things to get to your comments…
the closet still looks the same as it did Monday…and the boutonnieres didn’t get started yet…
I promise you…there will come a day soon when I will be sewing again for your dolls!
Soooo…I thought I’d ask a few questions about going back to school…just because I know my readers like to go down “memory lane” from time to time.
You can answer any question or just the one you like best… here we go..
First let’s start with a question about our dolls?
Do you have a favorite Back to School doll outfit that you like to dress your dolls in?
What was your favorite subject in school? If you want to answer…what was your “least favorite” subject?
Does anyone remember their favorite school lunch? Did you take it in a special lunch box? Mine was an Annie Oakley one!
Was anyone a cheerleader? I was and could do a mean cartwheel!! ;o)
Were any of you teachers? I already know some of you were…
Well, that’s probably enough…who’s first?
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Arrgggghh!!! THIRD TRY!!!!
1–Favorite back-to-school outfit for dolls: I have a wonderful jumper pattern that is so cute, and makes up so many different ways! I’ve made many of them, and even sold some in years past. My favorite back-to-school look.
2–Favorite subject: English grammar!! I love-Love-LOVE diagramming sentences!! Least favorite: algebra and history.
3–Favorite school lunch: Two hot lunches back in Michigan–bologna sandwich with Lipton’s noodle soup, and hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes. I still make them both (esp. the latter) for us today, and we both enjoy them. My lunch box was gray with blue trim, I think. The Thermos closed with a CORK, and then a cup/cap screwed on. It often leaked, so mom stuffed a napkin inside the cap.
4–Cheerleader: Nope. I had no athletic ability, plus was so much smaller than everyone else (4’6″), and had zero interest in sports. I have been to ONE football game In. My. Life.!! Bo-o-oring!!
5–Teacher: Yes. Twice, first in elementary school, then some years later I was a certified Stretch & Sew instructor, teaching women how to sew on the then-new knit fabrics starting to become available. To this day, sewing on knits is my favorite kind of sewing!
Okay, who’s next?!
I meant to add, in reference to my lunch box: I was born in 1946. The fun lunch boxes didn’t come out until I was in HS–and way too old for them!!
Looks like I was second!! Charlotte’s comment did not show up when I first started writing.
Oh, Charlotte, what fun! We have a lot in common! I loved, loved wearing jumpers. So comfy and cute, change the tops, best school OF ever!
I also loved diagramming sentences and making outlines as well. What a fun game doing that was. I even tried to make it fun when I was teaching English, by donning a costume from my classroom closet and assuming a persona while diagraming. Sure helped bring on the laughs and learning without much gnashing of teeth from the kids or groaning!
Hamburger gravy on mashed potatoes! I remember that, too, but my favs were the grilled cheese sandwiches and soup OR macaroni and cheese. I loved canned spinach, which makes me sort of abnormal…
I was born in ‘48 so you’re only two years ahead or me. I had a Roy Rogers/Dale Evans lunch box. They started making them in ‘53 when I was 5 and you were 7.
I WAS a cheerleader but my HS in VT was pretty small…my graduating class was 63. The main reason I became one was I loved the outfits and doing a “show”….always been an actress up until 2 years ago when I did my last play, “Doubt” and I was Sister Aloysius, a part I had wanted for quite awhile. ANYWAY, I was chosen to be on the squad NOT because I could do cartwheels, hand stands, etc. NO! Old Sal had the loudest voice and did the best bulldog imitation in the whole school. LIKE you, I hate, hate, hate football. Seems dumber than dirt to me ruining your brains for what? Give me strength!
Yup, I taught as well. Started with nursery school, loved 4 year olds, got a masters degree and taught parochial HS for freshmen, sophomores and seniors, then community college, and then finished with 8th grade, my all time favorite level. Sassy critters, those 8th graders! 👍
I sure could use having you for a neighbor to help me like sewing more and how to do knits…we need Dorothy from PA as a neighbor, too, because she has tea parties, and we need Joy to make us laugh and figure out whatever needs figuring out. You know, it would be so fantastic to have ALL of you as neighbors. We could live in our own town, Dollville! And our partners/hubbies can do the cooking and cleaning and be very happy for us when we get a new box in the mail and just clap for us…and let us take over the entire house with dolls and doll stuff!
Well, Charlotte, sure hope you are still feeling better. Your post just made me smile so big! Thanks and have a jolly day! Keep getting better.
Sally
Dear Sally, I love that idea. I want to live in Dollville and be neighbors.
I nominate Jeanne for Mayor!
Charlotte can be the Superintendent of Schools in this case crafts.
I will be part of the Welcome Wagon (remember that organization?). Activities include tea parties, of course.
What will you be?
Hello, dear Dorothy. Yes! Jeanne as Madam Mayor. And you will be great for Welcome Wagon, which I surely do remember. You and your dollies can be the Queen and Princesses of Tea Parties.
I will be Chief Enabler and Cheerleader of everyone buying fabric and dolls. Oh, it would be a ball.
Thanks, Dorothy. I always check the posts from the day before before I open up the new one. This way I don’t miss out on anyone’s comments because they are all so worth reading.
Have a glorious day.
Hugs to you, Queen Dorothy!
Sally, Chief Enabler and Cheerleader
Well, here we go, unless Charlotte is writing now, I’m first!
As far as favorite school outfits for my dolls, well, yes, and no! I try to change it up each year, but they all have to coordinate with the colors of the dress, since I only display my dolls. I think this year will be more of red, white and blue. Each group of my dolls gets to have their own lunch boxes and, book bags. I make sure they all have food in the lunches, and paper, pencils, books, etc. in their book bags! If someone needs somehting, I order it off Ebay! At least with the clothes I have for them, they never outgrow anything, so that helps! LOL
I loved art in school, reading, spelling and English too! My least favorite subjects were math and science! Too technical and no fun! No STEM girl here!
No special lunch for me that I know of. I always had to buy my lunch at school, and didn’t like it very much when we had canned spinach! Ugh! But I DO remember getting ice cream on a stick afterwards for 2 cents and taking it out on the playground after lunch!
Are you kidding me…..a cheerleader? Nope! Never could do a good cartwheel, although my sisters could.
Yes, i was a teacher!! Loved it, but those days are over now!
Doreen from Arkansas
My Dolls school dresses are made from some of the 1960’s fabrics that my dresses were originally made from. My mom saves everything!! It was so fun to use these and remember my own school days. We could only wear dresses to school until high school in the early 70’s.
I walked home for lunch daily in elementary school, took packed lunches in junior high, was on a school schedule called “split sessions” during high school due to extreme overcrowding in our district because of lack of funding for new buildings. We only attended school for 5 hours each day. Only classes..no down time…or lunch. Extracurriculars were in the middle of the day with sports and band combining all grade levels.
No sports for me, Marching Band-played the bells, Concert Band-percussion, French Club and Student Council.
I remember liking biology and chemistry…probably because of the teacher.
I worked for the Ohio School system for 23 years as a cross country coach, classroom aide and mostly as a clinic aide. Loved the students and teachers…we are all still friends and have a monthly lunch bunch group that meet up. I try to attend whenever I am back in Ohio.
Great memories but would never go back to the junior high days…lol!
Well, the dollies here are extremely lucky if they are dressed for anything let alone school. But, for once, I did get Luca and Hanna dressed although, not so sure they really want to go back to school except for the social aspect. 🙂
In elementary school, we all took our lunches to school from home. No hot lunches except the occasional hot dog sale by the P.T.A. My lunch box was red plaid painted metal and contained a small matching thermos which always contained cold milk. A special treat inside was a Hostess Cupcake. 🙂
No particular elementary subject stands out for me, but I always enjoyed singing when we had a special teacher come into the classroom once a week. We sang the same songs so many times that I still remember them. 🙂
In junior high and high school, algebra and chemistry were my least favorite subjects. Kind of an airhead here. 🙂
Yes, I was a song leader in high school. The eight of us, danced and cheered for football in the fall and basketball in the spring.
Yes, I’m a retired public school elementary teacher. Loved those kids. 🙂
I was a cheerleader my last year of high school at the American School at Burtonwood RAF Station in Northern England in 1956-58. My father was a civilian with the Air Force. There was no felt fabric available for cheerleader circle skirts in England and not even any blue felt in America. The school colors were blue and white. So my mother ordered red felt from The States to make the skirts for all of us. No shorts or slacks allowed at that time. There were only eight in my graduating class and I know I never would have made the team in a Stateside high school.
The schools were located between the takeoff and landing runways and we had to delay class during the run up of the engines before takeoff due to the noise. The base was being closed due to the subsidence of the runways due to the coal mines located below the runways. The base had been headquarters for the Berlin Airlift. If you stood at the end of the runway, a B-52 would totally disappear and reappear after running over a dip in the runway.
I have Felicity’s and Molly’s desks. Linda has the most complete collection of school dresses. Hope she’ll send a picture. My favorite lunch was ham sandwich 🥪 with tomato 🍅 and mustard that my mother made.
Favorite back to school outfit for dolls – I love the school outfits and especially the school supply sets for the historicals. I like dressing my Samantha and Felicity in their school outfits with their school supplies. i also have Samantha’s PC desk. I also have Josefina’s, Addy’s, and Kit’s school supplies (love those real wax crayons).
In elementary school I packed my lunch unless it was pizza day. I had a Holly Hobbie lunchbox.
Milk was available to purchase.
Favorite subjects – in grade school I liked reading/ spelling/ vocabulary. I also liked history depending on the year/ teacher.
In high school I loved biology (best teacher ever), physiology,.and English.
Least favorite subjects were algebra and chemistry , although my algebra 2 teacher was far better than my geometry teacher.
No, not a cheerleader, but I was part of the pep squad in grade school. In high school I wouldn’t have had time, even if I had wanted to try to make the team. . Never did learn to do a cartwheel, but I did play softball in grade school and volleyball/ tennis in high school gym class. Always much better at fine motor activities.
Yes, a teacher. I home schooled my daughter from K – 12 and am certified to give achievement tests. I also taught Sunday school and taught various things in the girl’s group my daughter was in. The group was a combination of home ec., Bible reading/memory, volunteering, nature study etc. I guess a 4-H hybrid. I also was a substitute teacher briefly.
What a lot of teachers.
Mom taught me to diagram sentences when I started Catholic school in 7th grade — she had learned when she went to Catholic school. My classmates had already learned. Grammar has played a big part in my life as I had to teach it the seamanship school where I first worked. When I moved on to teach college, I asked my first class (remedial English) what they wanted to know, and one said, “We don’t WANT to know this, but we have to learn grammar.” When we started, they looked at each other like “We were afraid of THIS?” They bonded over basic grammar.
After that, I taught research paper writing. It was a required course. The great experiences I had for the next 25 years would fill books.
Favorite subject — maybe history. My 6th grade teacher taught us from trilobites through the Renaissance. When I joined a college class late and faced a test on the Greek myths on the second day, I aced it, based on my 6th grade education.
As a library tech, I taught hundreds of single-session “how libraries work” classes. Librarians also taught those classes, so I was surprised when a young Frenchwoman who often assisted at those classes said as we left after one, “Of course, you are the best. It is your organization.”
The library sessions gave me a chance to work with the head of Women’s Studies, who offered me the chance to teach a WS class of my own. That was wonderful — the classes bonded in a single session and students learned from each other as well as from me and the textbooks. They treated each other with remarkable courtesy. Often the students were older — in their 20s or 30s and sometimes older than that. Some were men, often of traditional college age. It was interesting to see how they fit in, but they did.
One of the youngest researched and visited Planned Parenthood and must have run into the kindest woman on Earth. He told us some of his questions and her answers. His girlfriend was pregnant, and he really, really needed basic information, but he had no idea how basic it was — and not a single member of the class smiled or rolled her eyes or glanced sideways at another woman. It could not have been a better experience for him. Another young man, who looked like a typical frat boy, showed up 2 years later at the reference desk with a stack of books and said, “As you can see, I’m still writing about women.”
If you are going to spend your life doing something, being a teacher is a good choice.
Marilyn, I loved diagramming sentences. I still do it in my head sometimes. When I hear folks on TV, especially on commercials, speaking with incorrect grammar, I know that they did not learn to diagram.
That’s for sure, Dorothy!! Diagramming shows it all so clearly!
Questions are always fun:)
My dolls go from Summer to Fall outfits…not so much School outfits.
School lunches were always good. Grade school we took sandwiches..and always traded part or all. No one said we couldn’t :0) I’d trade my bologna for Peanut butter and Fluff…( fluff being marshamellow creme)
High School we did hot lunch…home made and wonderful!
Favorite subject was Home Ec….should have taken typing instead LOL
Cheerleader…no… but was part of the Teen Fashion Board representing our school at the big department store here “Brandeis” We modeled all summer and could work at the store…which I did. WAs so much fun!
Teaching Sewing for years for 4-h ( and yes Charlotte, I loved Stretch and Sew Classes) and Religious Ed Classes were it for teaching.
Good luck with your wonky closet doors Jeanne
Dear Jeanne,
Thank you for the fun topic. Reading these comments was so enjoyable and inspired old memories.
I hope you and George got the doggone doors figured out and are feeling good about them. Get some needed rest to recharge your batteries, my friend.
Sending a hug,
Sally
At first I didn’t think I’d have much to say, but I proved myself wrong. This was fun.
Last year I made the dollies who needed back-to-school attire more modern types of outfits. This year I’ve decided they are going to wear something more like I did when I started school, pretty little dresses. A lot of them have backpacks now but so many girls have joined the family that I may need to take inventory again. During my stint in school we never could wear anything but dresses, skirts and jumpers. I always loved wearing corduroy jumpers.
In first and second grade I went to a neighborhood school and went home for lunch. We moved to “the sticks” as my grandfather called it after second grade. They were building housing developments at a furious pace and my parents bought a home after years of renting. We had no nearby schools so we were bussed to whatever schools in town had room for us. At one time my sister and I, both in elementary, went to two different schools. I took my lunch in a lunch box but it was different kinds all the time so I can’t really remember them well. I do remember one year having an adorable lunch box that looked like a drawstring purse. It had a matching thermos. Once I was n junior and senior high we had cafeterias.
Me a teacher, no way. I haven’t got the patience to teach anyone anything. I’m not a patient learner either. Everything I’ve learned sewing/craft related I taught myself because I’m a struggle for anyone trying to teach me anything. I was cleaning out some more “papers” the other day and ran across an assessment of myself that was quite interesting. It seems I’m a rare oddity. A left brain oriented individual who is a visual learner. It said because I’m so left brained which makes me tend to like things orderly and I get overwhelmed when too many things are on my plate I needed to do more creative things to calm my mind. Which I do. But then it mentioned something about me being on a constant quest to learn new things all the time – which, of course, keeps me overwhelmed. Yes, I’m a struggle even for myself. LOL
My favorite subjects in school? Definitely reading and writing. Neither have ever been a struggle for me. But English was never one of my favorite subjects. I loved writing but I really didn’t want to know the mechanics of it. Took away a lot of the fun of writing. I did take Composition in college and enjoyed that. My math trajectory is a very interesting one. I never was good at it all through school and actually failed the subject in 8th grade. Then I went to college and was majoring in Geology so most of my subjects were maths and sciences. I had to start with Basic Algebra, then Intermediate Algebra before I could take College Algebra. I aced them all and my College Algebra teacher told me few were as good at math as I was. Sadly all my life I had been living down to the expectations of the adults around me. Reading and writing just came naturally for me but if a subject was anything I had to work at, well lets just say those around me were less than supportive.
I never participated in extra-curricular activities. Once school was out I had to pick up my youngest sister at the babysitter and keep her until my mother got home from work. Best I could do was belong to the Pep Club. We all sat in one area of the bleachers with our shakers and cheered on the team. I did attend the football games and loved them.
I hope things are coming along with your closet doors.
Dear Jeanne, what great questions!
My doll children have back to school clothing from ebay or etsy. As we know, I cannot sew. I don’t have a favorite outfit for them.
Yes, I was a teacher.
No, I was not a cheerleader but I played in the band. Well, truthfully, I kind of marched along carrying my clarinet. I never played very well.
My favorite classes were English, writing, drama, and social studies.
My least favorite class was gym. I couldn’t do anything. I got stuck in the rings once and the teacher had to get a ladder to get me down. Luckily one just had to show up and have a clean gym suit and one could pass.