My childhood Fashion Dolls and Dollhouse Furniture

My interest in dollhouses continued onward from the age of seven. Just before I turned ten, my Dad got a job in the Pacific region as an academic in a university there. So my younger Brother, my Mom and I also joined my Dad in the Pacific. I missed Sri Lanka I felt sad to leave my friends and my familiar life there. The journey from Sri Lanka to the Pacific was a long one and that's a story I will write on another day.

When I reached this new country there were toys galore that we didn't have in Sri Lanka, not to mention groceries and other items. The main department store in the City center was called Morris Hedstrom and they had a toy department. Of course I was delighted to spend time there. They had various dollhouse furniture sets made of plastic that I bought from the toy department. These included a blue and white bathroom set and a pink floral bedroom set. These furniture sets seemed to be smaller than 12inch scale in size. I also bought a doll called Daisy by Mary Quant. She had curly blonde hair but she was smaller than playscale but bigger than a 12inch scale doll. Each time we visited the toy department I bought a new set of clothes for Daisy.

During that same year my Dad's boss the Professor who was Italian American moved in to the house next door with his wife who was also a Professor along with their son and daughter. I think we got hold of the Sears Catalogue through them. So from then on we used to get our own bi annual catalogs and I was especially interested in the toy catalogues. They had so many wonderful dollhouses, dollhouse furniture and dolls. I used to dream about owning some of the things in the catalogue. I did end up ordering a Ken doll, a Skipper doll (when you turned her arm she grew taller and acquired a bosom) and a playscale baby doll complete with a set of clothes, crib, bottle and high chair. I saw dollhouses and dollhouse furniture, pools and cars for fashion dolls in the Sears Catalogue but even then I was rather restrained in my spending habits and I think that's the reason I never persuaded my parents to order those items for me. So I used to just dream about owning those things but never did get them.

From USA to Sri Lanka-1970

My Father was an academic at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka during the sixties and seventies. While my Mother was expecting me, their first child in the sixties, my Father proceeded on to the US to do his MA. When I was nine months old, my Mother and I joined my dad in the States. My younger brother was born in the States the following year.
















Note: click on each picture for clearer view

In these two pictures: myself as a toddler in LA, California, 1967-1968.



















In the two pics here: I was about 3yrs old in LA, California, 1970.

Just before I turned four our whole family returned to Sri Lanka where my Father resumed his work teaching at the University of Peradeniya.

Soon after we returned we stayed with my Mother's Uncle and Aunt and their large family of five girls and one son. They lived in my Mom's grandparent's ancestral home in a village close to Peradeniya. After a few weeks we moved (carrying our belongings in a lorry) to a house that we rented in Ampitiya which is a suburb of Kandy. I have some glimpses of memory of the time we spent there.

We had nice neighbors at Ampitiya, they had a son a little older than me. I remember visiting them one day dressed in a white/pink cotton dress and I was quite enchanted by their little chicken coop with hens that laid eggs. Our neighbors yard was full of tropical trees. At the time I couldn't speak Sinhala although I understood it (having just returned from the States), so they spoke with me in English. Something else that I remember from that house is how we used to keep the butter in a cut glass dish filled with salted water and a matching glass cover on top. I'm not sure if people still keep their butter this way but this memory fills me with nostalgia. We only stayed in the Ampitiya house for a few months before my Father was allotted University Quarters.

The first quarters that the University gave us were at the Gal Bangalawa (Stone Bungalow) at Mahakande.

Sinhala Avurudu (Sri Lankan New year) in Sri Lanka

When I was a child, every Sinhala Avurudu (which fell during mid April) our whole family used to visit my Dad's ancestral home in Udubadana where my paternal grandparents lived. My Mom used to supervise the preparation of traditional sweetmeats for the Sinhala Avurudu which was the traditional new year period.One of her specialities was undu walalu (these were deep fried rings made out of ground undu gram) after frying and draining they were placed in a pot of kitul treacle to absorb the sweet treacle. The preparation was from scratch so the undu gram seeds had to be soaked overnight and ground into a paste and they were fermented by the time the batter was made incorporating rice flour. The thick batter was squeezed out into a pan of hot oil through a button hole which had been sewn into the middle of a tea cloth.

My mom's other speciality were little cakes which were baked in small tins with frilly edges. In the bakeries they were sold as 'ispongee cakes' but the variety that my mother made at home were far superior in taste. So my mom had a huge batch of undu walalu and ispongee cake made to take to our grandparents home each Avurudu Season.

Since we lived in Peradeniya (close to Kandy) and our grandparents lived in Udubadana further up in the mountains about 50 miles away we started our journey in the morning and reached Udubadana about 3hours later around noontime. The journey was all uphill through the hill country of Sri Lanka which was mostly full of tea plantations with some areas populated by pinus forests. Our Dad used to recall his childhood stories of his experiences growing up as we continued on our long journey in my Dad's light blue fiat car with a hood rack attached. Onetime my younger brother got motion sickness as my Dad negotiated the numerous elbow bends. So we used to always carry cream crackers on these journeys to conteract any motion sickness.

Sometimes there were little kids (possibly from the tea estates or farms) that used to run up from one bend to the next crying 'Nona , nona' begging for food or money. So we used to stop and give them some food or money. There were also kids along the wayside who used to sell the beautiful wildflowers that thrived in the cooler climes of the mountains.

My brother and I quickly learnt the names of the waterfalls and mountain passes that we encountered along the way, Ramboda Falls, Ramboda Pass.

My first Dollhouse

My very first dollhouse was a glass cabinet which had its sliding glass door removed. I must have been around seven years old.The glass in the cabinet had to be removed because my younger brother had thrown his shoe at it in a fit of rage and broken the glass!

At around the same time in the early seventies, I saw this tiny little wooden dollhouse living room furniture set painted pink and decorated with a design of flowers. I think it was in 12inch scale, my parents bought it for me.

Even at that early age, I started making miniature objects from scratch, since miniatures were not readily available in Sri Lanka at the time and I guess they are not even available these days. I made my own miniature wall clock with pendulum with a little block of wood in imitation of those hanging on the walls of sri lankan households and chiming at every quarter hour. I also used a bigger block of wood to make a piano with a paper keyboard. I got the urge to make this piano because when I was in Grade 1 at Kandy Convent, we made a cardboard dollhouse for our classroom. One of the girls brought some cute dollhouse furniture for the dollhouse. From what I remember she brought a tiny piano and a cute carpet. How I wished I could be the owner of such lovely miniatures but I could only dream :) I'm guessing that these miniatures were purchased somewhere overseas like England.

My Dad went back to the US to finish his PhD around the same time, so when he came back he brought for me a dancing Dawn doll with long blonde hair and long eyelashes. She wore a short gold color halter dress and red high heeled shoes. She was the right scale for my dollhouse.

Why Blog?

I think it's important to try and put in words why I started this blog. I have always wanted to write something formally about my life and memories and I think creating a blog is the perfect way. I have always fancied myself to be a good writer who knows if this is true or not (smile), it remains to be seen. I want this blog to be my means of expression and the way to record my life's memories and also possibly to write about things that are going on presently in my life. Initially I am writing for my own enjoyment and expression but I hope that it will also make enjoyable reading for other people as well.

My experiences with the English language have always been favorable. From primary school upto when I graduated high school English had always been one of my best subjects. The essays I wrote always got good marks from my teachers. From when I was ten years old until I graduated High School reading books was one of my main forms of entertainment. My parents helped to instill this love of reading in me and being of a quiet nature I think I was more conducive to reading as a child.

My parents returned with me and my brother from the United States back to Kandy, Sri Lanka when I was around four years old. From then on I stopped speaking English and reverted back to Sinhala as my mother tongue. Even though I stopped speaking English I could still understand it and we had English as a second language in primary school. My mother used to borrow English children's books for us from the British Council Library and the USIS in Kandy, Sri Lanka. We also used to buy Tintin comics and Lamb Chop comics every week. I think this helped to keep English alive in me until I was ten years old when I got the opportunity to start speaking English again.

I am very excited about blogging and now that I have started, the words just seem to flow and I can't seem to stop writing (smile). I actually initiated my blog in March 2009 and didn't publish anything that I had written on my blog. Then this June 2009 I had some life changing events happen in my life that once again prompted me to actually start writing again and publish some of the excerpts that I had written.

I feel like writing is a form of escapism from the real world. Therefore, I have to watch myself so that I don't get too carried away and neglect what needs to be done in the real world.