A friend, who knows me well and read Keeping Faith, said she thinks she has me figured out as to why I like to write and spin stories. She said it is because as a kid I played by myself a lot and had an invisible friend. She may be on to something because I did play by myself a great deal because there were no other kids my age in the neighborhood and no cousins or siblings close to my age.
And I will agree that I had an imaginary friend, but he was NOT invisible!!! I saw him all the time. His name was Gary Lynn, and we played together often. He didn’t like paper dolls like Betsey McCall—anybody remember her in McCall’s magazine? And paper doll were one of my favorite past times, so on those days, he stayed away, but when I played in the dirt with my little plastic cars and such, he was right there!
Yep, I was quite an eclectic little kid. I loved dolls and had a huge collection. I even had a three bedroom, two bath miniature doll house with little people to match. So I spent hours in the floor, moving small furniture and miniature figures around.
Pam and Sam were my twin three year olds when I wanted more life size “babies,” but my very last dolls were Barbie and Ken. Barbie even had a corvette and loads of clothes. At that time, Mattel was a bit behind on Ken clothes so my Aunt Lucille made him a suit and a couple of shirts.
Come to think of it, I had lots of toys. Looking back, I think now my mother bought them to keep me out of her hair because I can remember asking her over and over, “What can I do?” She would say, “Well, why don’t you clean your room or fold those clothes for me?” And that’s all it took. I was off. I wasn’t sure where, but I wasn’t hanging around her, taking any chances.
One of my all time favorite things was my little pink metal kitchen that included a sink, refrigerator and stove. There was even plastic food to go with it. If there had been a Food Channel then, I would have believed I was Rachel Ray or Paula Deen, y’all!
But, then there were days I couldn’t wait to be outside, and if the weather was good, outside was almost always my preference. I ran with the wind to my back, kicking balls, playing soldier and riding my bike. I can remember putting playing cards on my bicycle spokes with clothes pins to make my bike sound cool. And also, I played pony express using my bike to make “deliveries.”
We lived on a big hill so I was forever rolling down it or “shooting” at cars with my play guns. Often, I wore my Dad’s old Air Force hat that he had worn in the Philippines during World War II, and with a plastic machine gun, I pretended to shoot the Japanese. I realize that doesn’t sound very politically correct today, but war is hell, and I was waging it!
But, I also liked to curl up with a good book or comic book and read. Once, I wrote my own book which I wish I still had, because I remember writing it, but I can’t remember what it was about, which may be a good thing! I put it together with string wound through the holes I poked in the side of the typing paper. Maybe that is when my wanting to be a writer and author all started.
As you can see I was all over the map in my play interests. And I didn’t always play by myself. I sometimes had friends over, and we did many of these activities together. But I also had Gary Lynn. I can’t remember when he left for good, but I do remember him and exactly how he looked.