More Than A Toy

First, let me say thank you for the kind and encouraging comments that you all left on my post last night. I still can't believe I have written that many posts!

Rick and I watched White Christmas tonight, there are so many things that I love about that movie.....
Bing Crosby's and Rosemary Clooney's  voices, the costumes, the Vermont Inn, the firepit at the Inn,
the dancing, the friendships.  As we watched tonight, I told Rick that one of my most favorite Christmas gifts I ever got as a child.......a Rosemary Clooney doll.  I had seen her in the window of Gilberts, a little family store  in our small town.....I was maybe 5 or 6.  I immediately told my parents that I wanted her for Christmas.  My dad shook his head and told me Santa could not afford her.  Even at that age, I understood money was tight.
I had six siblings, each of us got one gift.  Our stocking held fruit, nuts and candy.
We learned from the beginning that Christmas was not about how many presents you got.


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I went to bed on Christmas Eve knowing that Santa would bring something, but not Rosemary.
On Christmas morning, I got up and ran to the Christmas tree, momma handed me my present.
It was a big box, almost as tall as me, and when I opened it, yep.......I got Rosemary in all her splendor.  She wore a pink lace gown, silver shoes and jewelry.  I loved her!   I had a Betsy Wetsy, but Rosemary was not a baby doll, she looked the way I wanted to look when I grew up.....and I wanted to be a singer too.

Rosemary was mine, until I was ten.  We moved to Chicago, where my mom's brother lived......there were good jobs there, and money to be made.  We lived in a small apartment, so Rosemary was left behind, in the basement of our house.  While we were gone, my sister and her family lived in our house, and they got a new pet.  A rowdy little dog.......he chewed Rosemary, along with the rest of my toys to pieces.  Rosemary is just a memory, but she was more than a toy, she was an inspiration.
Maybe I should look for a pink lace dress to wear this Christmas!