Dear Sun Spots: I need help desperately!
About 53 years ago, I made a set of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls for a dear friend. I got them back, also with the pattern that I made them with. Now, I would like to make a set for a new great-granddaughter but I can’t remember how to do the hair. You help so many people, I thought I would try and see if I could get assistance through the Sun Spots column or its readers.
Many thanks to readers and anyone who can help me. I can be reached at 784-5738. – Delia Beaulieu, Lewiston.
Answer: The Web site www.raggedy-ann.com carries Simplicity patterns for 15- 26- and 36-inch Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. To contact them via mail, write to Raggedy Land, Charles and Cheryl Platt, 131 Northridge Drive, Macon, GA 31220-6641, phone 478-757-0001 or via e-mail at info@raggedyland.com.
In the meantime, you and other Raggedy Ann and Andy fans might be happy to note that according to www.billbam.com, John Barton “Johnny” Gruelle, artist, political cartoonist, and family man, gave his young daughter a gift found in an attic. The gift was a rag doll, dusty, faceless and long-forgotten. He drew a new face on the doll and named her Raggedy Ann. Raggedy Ann, soft, floppy and wearing a perpetual smile, quickly became Johnny’s daughter Marcella’s constant playmate.
Johnny was amazed at the effect such a simple doll had on Marcella and believed that it would only be natural for other little girls to have the same reaction. He sent a hand-drawn illustration of his doll to the U.S. Patent Office and was awarded what amounts to a birth certificate dated September 7, 1915. A phenomenon was born.
Three years later, in 1918, the PF Volland Co. published Raggedy Ann Stories.
Raggedy Ann, kind, good natured and loving was rumored to be sweet to her very core – literally. Legend has it that the original dolls contained a heart made of candy.
Building on Raggedy Ann’s popularity, Raggedy Andy, her brother, was created in the 1920s along with Raggedy Andy Stories. Raggedy Andy was a mischievous, adventurous and lovable addition to the Raggedy world. Johnny realized that by creating Raggedy Andy, both boys and girls could have a doll they could relate to; dolls that can be impish and kind, careless and caring. What child couldn’t relate, at one time or another, with any of these characteristics?
Dear Sun Spots: I really enjoy reading the Sun Spots first thing in the morning with my coffee.
I would like to address the man who was looking for honey maple spread: It is available in Hannaford on Sabattus Street.
Also, I’m wondering if Sun Spots might have the lyrics to the song The Prisoner’s Song. It includes the words: “Oh, I wish I had the wings of an angel, over these prison walls I would fly. I would fly to the arms of my darling.”
I don’t recall the rest of the lyrics but would sure appreciate it if you could please locate the words to this song for me. – No Name, No Town.
Answer: Sun Spots located the following lyrics (www.cowboylyrics.com) that may be the ones you are seeking. It was recorded by Vernon Dalhart and written by Guy Massey.
Oh, I wish I had someone to love me
Some one to call me their own
Oh, I wish I had someone to live with
‘Cause I’m tired of livin’ alone.
Oh, please meet me tonight in the moonlight
Please meet me tonight all alone
For I have a sad story to tell you
It’s a story that’s never been told.
I’ll be carried to the new jail tomorrow
Leavin’ my poor darlin’ alone
With the cold prison bars all around me
And my head on a pillow of stone.
Now I have a grand ship on the ocean
All mounted with silver and gold
And before my poor darlin’ would suffer
Oh, that ship would be anchored and sold.
Now if I had wings like an angel
Over these prison walls I would fly
And I’d fly to the arms of my poor darlin’
And there I’d be willin’ to die.
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