| VINCHES |
| This is short for "The Adventure People," who were produced by Fisher Price in the 1970s. The True Value truck came from a hardware store, and was not part of the original collection, though it did eventually get absorbed into it. Likewise absorbed into the collection was an "army guy" cave called Cold Mountain Cave, which Corey put a spell on (a spell that looked like a piece of Scotch tape) that made the cave room temperature or cold within, depending on whether the tape was up or down. I don't have any pictures of the cave. Usually, Kari and I played Vinches together, and there were a variety of storylines. Most involved the Vinches being a group of ranger-type people in the Maine woods area. The main family yu see against the True Value truck there. The father was the head ranger, the mother was a nurse, the oldest boy was Luke (actually a Wedge action figure, and represented as a Star Wars fan though I had no idea what Star Wars was at the time). Katie was the oldest daughter, and she was very much in love with Motercycle Joe (whom you see with the motercycle) who was a character of less than perfect report. The youngest was John, who had little or no personality. Most storylines involved them picking up and driving places, Luke's mother telling him not to obsess so much over Star Wars, and Joe and Katie attempting to further their romance against Katie's mother's wishes. Sometimes parachuting off of the stairs was required. Usually they discovered Cold Mountain Cave and moved into it every time we played. The spaceship was part of the 'Venture People, but we never really used it in conjunction with them. The little shuttle you see there was actually Luke's underwater diver, and the astronauts never got much use. The spaceship did make cool noises, though, and I would fly it around and push the buttons that made the cool noises. |
| Pi's-&-I's |
| The Playmobil people were one of the best toys ever invented, even though this entire set no longer exists. Pi's-&-I's was an abbreviation coined by Kari, I think, and stands for "Pioneers and Indians." While we were studying American Indians roundabout the 2nd grade or so (well, I was in 2nd or so), Mom bought us the Indian Village set, which was enormously fun. Singing Bird was the little girl, Tall Bear was the baby, and we never named anybody else, at least not that I remember. Shortly after that, we got the covered wagon set, and this family consisted of Charles (Pa), Caroline (Ma), Matthew John, and Charlotte Ann (the baby). Then the Indian dog migrated between belonging to the Indians and belonging to the pioneers, and was named Christian. The horses were Ink and Dolly. The other horse, Johnny Appleseed, was found in an old lego collection belonging to Corey. Storylines evolved around them heading out west and invariably meeting the Indians, of whom the parent-figures were suspicious, and Matthew John typically made friends with Singing Bird. When the pioneer house was added to the collection sometime later, the new storyline was that the pioneers were taking their wagon out west to go join Caroline's sister, Rose, and her family. Rose was married to John, and they had a son named Peter (whose legs unfortunately were splintered, else he would've made it into these pictures), and also lived with Rose and Caroline's father and a baby who I don't think had a name. Finally, a stage coach (driven by Carlos and Pierre) was added, and Carlos became my favorite character. For my 10th birthday, I got a collection of sheep, horses, and pigs, and we had a practical Pi's-&-I's empire going on. Heather and I often just skipped the people and played with the (now giant) herd of horses. When I got wild animals, we loved to play with the wolves, also. |
| Beanie Babies |
| I collected Beanies rather passionately for a coupld of years, generally during the time when I was helping with the VBS at Grace and Mom liked to stop at the Country Store on the way home. I usually begged Beanies out of her. Some were presents; the collection started Christmas of 1996, when I got Bones the Dog, and following in early 1997 when I broke my arm and everyone gave me Beanie Babies. The ones I keep currently on display are Luke the Dog (probably my favorite), the Bluejay, and the "new" orange and gray cats in memorial for Peaches and Stewart. As if anyone needed further proof that someone follows me around, listening in on my conversations with people and then doing what I said ought to be done, in 1998, we were in Yellowstone and I was looking for a buffalo Beanie Baby and kept asking after one. A year later, one was released! Not when I wanted it, but still! |
| American Girl Dolls |
| Say what you like about them or call it what you like, but my AG collection meant a lot to me growing up, and is still one of the more prized things I own. I know the company's gone to crap--mostly starting with when Matel bought them out--and now all the stupid, crappy, liberal dolls are screwing up the whole concept, and everything's gone miniaturized and . . . ugh. It's horrible. But it didn't used to be horrible! Back in my day, there were three dolls--Kirsten, Samantha, and Molly! Kari got Molly because her eyes were gray, and I got Samantha because her eyes were brown. I got Samantha sometime in 1991, quite possibly for Christmas since I was getting Samantha stuff by my 6th birthday. Although I was never a big fan of dolls, I loved adding to my Samantha collection, reading the books, and playing with her. Samantha and I played outside, climbing trees, enacting the books, or pretending to be captured by Indians--that was a popular game because I could tie her up to the tree. I remember when Felicity was released, and I wanted a Felicity doll very badly. Kari even went to the Williamsburg Tea Party where they unveiled the new doll. Then Addy came out, and I wanted an Addy doll desperately. For my 10th birthday, I got her, and I was very delighted! Addy and Samantha became best friends--ignoring vast time differences between their stories--and I religiously changed their clothes every morning and night and tucked them into bed. We had birthday parties, tea parties, and read all the time. Kari and I used to climb up in the tree and she'd read me the Addy books as I got them. The American Girl of Today came out and interested me very little except for by way of props. When the Bitty Baby was released, a re-release of a baby doll they'd once had many years ago before I started getting the dolls, I got Emily for Christmas in 1995. I called her Emmie and her bear was Annabear. I was upset when a year later the Bitty Babies were updated to include white babies with brown eyes (whoever knew that white people can have brown eyes too?!?!) but I still loved Emmie. Dad and I built an awesome cradle for her, and mom made bedding. Laura Beth or Kari and I would often sit around and play with the American Girl dolls for hours at a time. When the Josafina doll was released, I had a hard time with it because all this Spanish bilingual crap is liberal crap. However, Josafina was beautiful, and the Western stuff and cultural stuff was so cool, I desperately wanted her. By that time, American Girl doll prices had gone up twenty dollars from when Samantha was bought for me, but I saved up every penny and bought the doll myself. Josafina became a sister to Samantha and Addy, although her collection never got anywhere near as completed as their collections were. . . which isn't saying much. However, shortly after that, American Girl began getting even more liberal and weird, and I ceased to acknowledge the newer dolls or the fact that the company existed anymore. Actually, Addy was the last of the "real" American Girl Dolls, and Josafina barely squeaked in. Everything after her is stupid and crap! Bah! |
| Wolfdogs |
| Wolfdogs was a game played only by me and Heather. Nobody else joined us, nobody else got it. The game always went the exact same way, though the storyline changed and grew as we went on. It began with a wolf and a dog, respectively me and her, who were in cages and being held by a mean old fat bald dude. When he came to feed them, they attacked him and escaped up the mountain. The wolf and the dog got married and we skipped a bunch of generations to puppy Buck and puppy Sasha, from two families descended from the wolf and the dog. Buck and Sasha were pledged to marry one another but didn't like each other when they met, of course. Buck was then sent off to college on the other side of Wolf Mountain, and Sasha stayed home with her mother. When Buck returned, he was instantly smitten with Sasha. PS, I played Buck and Heather played Sasha. After roving adventures and things, Buck and Sasha fell in love and were married. Then Buck and his idiot brother Tramp (played by Heather) went off up the mountain for the annual meeting of wolves while Sasha stayed home and had eleven puppies, whom you see in the picture. Snowball, Sleepy, Daisy, Koala (or Quala), Peanuts, K.K., Bunny, Hero, Penny, Sunflower, and Odie. Then Buck came back. An evil black wolf named Star sent a mountain lion to kill Buck and Sasha, and this mountain lion (Freddy) jumped on Sasha and hurt her. So Buck went for help and Sasha was taken to the vet and healed. The game never really did conclude, as she usually had to leave by then, and much of the beginning of starting it over again was involved in building a glorious tent to act as the wolf cave. There was a second half of the story called "Part II: The Fear," which involved a giant fire on the mountain, but it was never really completed. I started writing stories about Wolfdogs, which you can read in the section about those kinds of things. Originally, we played the game down in the basement, and our wolf den was underneath the picnic table with one of the benches on its side to act as a wall. When we moved, we used my bed, the trundle bed, and the crib to make a splendid 3-story tent with designer lighting and air conditioning. Or we pulled out the trundle bed and used the space under my bed for the cave. There were originally ten puppies, because I read in Ranger Rick that wolves typically have eight to nine puppies, and Heather wanted to have one more than normal. Then I got Hero as a Christmas present in 1997 or so, and he was adopted into the whole fold. |