Sunday, January 11, 2009

Trash, treasure

I spent yesterday morning at the indoor cleanup for Beth's preschool. They do this three times a year, and it was actually pretty fun, despite starting at 8am. Waaaay too early in my book...but there you go.

As I was going through bins and bins of old curricula and books and dress-ups and toys — and throwing out anything unusable — I noticed that someone had thrown out a doll. A My Friend Mandy doll. That's part of my childhood, folks. She had ink all over her face and legs, and her hair was a mess, and her cloth body was stained, but...Mandy! So I pulled her out of the pile and held her up for the director to see.

"Are you seriously throwing this away?" I asked. "Do you know what these things are worth on eBay?"

She gave me a dubious look. "Well...if you want to sell it on eBay and give the money to the Fundraising Committee...."

So I brought Mandy home, threw her in the wash to clean her up (Fisher Price was definitely on the ball when they made a machine-washable doll), and looked up her value on eBay (about $15, though a new-in-box doll fetches around $90) as well as some ways to clean her up (thick conditioner should work wonders on her hair).

Halfway through combing out her hair I realized I didn't want to sell her. Want to know why?

See any resemblance?

So the after-nap conversation went something like this:

"Sarah, who does this dolly look like?"

"Beff!"

We went upstairs to find Beth. "Bethie, who does this dolly look like?"

"I don't know." Pensive look. "ME!" Then she had to take a look at herself in the mirror with Mandy.

She's staying. I'll write a check to the fundraising committee tomorrow. I hope Beth enjoys her half as much as I enjoyed mine.

10 comments:

Em Russ said...

ah ha!! She does look like BETH!!!

Kazzy said...

Very sweet! Dolls... what a foreign concept to me!

Maryanne said...

That's great! My mom snagged lots of great stuff for us that her school (a private preschool-K) was going to get rid of. I couldn't believe the stuff that they were going to throw out. Of course, i am an unrepentant garbage saver (other people's garbage-- my own is truly destroyed or truly garbage).

Reggs said...

Holy COW!! Mandy TOTALLY LOOKS LIKE BEFF!! That is really cool that you ended up having a baby that looked like your childhood baby doll.
That proves it! Beth is a doll...:)

Robyn said...

As soon as I saw the picture, my first thought was, "That looks like Beth!"

Stacee Maree said...

WOW she does. I can't believe you got her clean.

Brooke said...

Wow, she DOES look like Beth . . . shall I mention that my old My Friend Jenny looks just like Eleanor? What a great find! Does your mom still have the old sewing patterns for the Mandy dolls? I have some duplicates (oh, my crazy eBay addictions) if you want them. Or, wait . . . did I give them to you already?

Brooke

Melissa said...

Cute story, Libby! I had that doll as a little girl too.
Did I ever tell you that I blog too???
Well it's:
www.stoufferfamily.blogspot.com

It's fun to check in on you and your family!
Melissa (McBride) Stouffer

Ashley said...

OMG I used to love Mandy. I'm glad she came to stay with you guys.

Unknown said...

Hey! I had one of those! I wonder what ever happened to her?