April 13, 2020
Stories of our youth from Nancy Hyde Seyfried (my older sister).
When I was about 18, my boyfriend Jim gave me a special doll the second Christmas we were dating. The 24-inch glamour doll had a beautiful pink ball gown with real pearl earrings and high heels. And in her evening bag, he had tucked in a beautiful wrist watch, yellow and white gold with diamonds. Mom flipped out! She thought that this was way too expensive a gift. She said I could keep the doll but I had to give the watch back. But Jim wouldn’t take it back. I kept the watch but didn’t wear it until the next Christmas.
I used to display the doll with her skirt spread out over my pillow. It was a thing teenage girls did back in the day. A lot of Grandmas crocheted fancy pillow dolls and they even made them with milk filters all tied together with colorful yarn. I had seen the doll in Jim’s family store, a Red & White Grocery in Wyoming, NY. Jim’s dad had received for sale several large “Santa” items that year. The doll was in a big box with a clear plastic front and a castle-like backdrop. I thought she was so pretty, I still have the doll, the gown is disintegrating and I think her pink plastic evening bag got brittle and didn’t survive the many moves during Jim and my marriage.
I still have the watch, although I lost it for about a year. I was packing the car for a Girl Scout weekend and unbeknownst to me it came unhooked and fell into the grass. A year later as I was walking out to the mailbox, there in the grass near where I had parked the car while packing it, lay the watch. I picked it up, wound it, and it began running! I think I must have caught it on my sleeping bag or pack and it came off. It spent the whole year outside in the weather, survived repeated mowing, and still works! Thanks for helping me bring back that special memory. Stay safe. Nan
Submitted by Nancy Hyde Seyfried