Raggedy Ann and Andy

My sister-in-law wrote about her memories of Raggedy Ann and Andy from when she was a child recently.  As a coincidence, I had put down on my blog topics list to write about one of my memories of the two characters from my childhood only days before.   I've been meaning to get to that post for some time, but other topics have somehow taken precedence.  

When I was little I had a Raggedy Ann doll.  I'm not sure if I had a Raggedy Andy doll—I don't think I did—but he doesn't factor into my memories nearly as much.   I have vague recollections of the doll moving around my house and sitting in chairs and corners, but not much else.   What I do remember though is a book about them.

This book had several things in it that made it a magical book to me.  First, the book talked about food and candy items.  As a child I would picture the candy so much I could almost taste it.   The other thing that made it memorable was that the book had scratch-and-sniff pages.

Imagine reading and thinking about candy and then being able to smell that candy on the very page of the book.   It was truly a magnificent book.   I don't know what happened to the book, but a year or two ago I looked up the key words, "raggedy ann andy book scratch sniff" and got one hit: Raggedy Ann's Sweet and Dandy, Sugar Candy Scratch and Sniff book.

I either found it on Amazon or eBay and bought it.   The scratch and sniff stickers are long since sniffed out, but the story is still there.   I didn't remember the story completely, but it seemed strangely familiar when I read it for the first time.

For a long time, my children didn't care much about the book but of late, they've brought it to me to read to them at night.   If I could find replacement scratch-and-sniff stickers I'd put them on the book. Maybe I should look into that.

As I was reading the book to my daughter the other night I looked up at the paintings of Raggedy Ann and Andy that my mother-in-law's grandmother painted for her.   We have them hanging over the children's bed.   They are beautiful paintings of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy hanging up on the drying line after being washed, held up by clothes pins.   They hung in my mother-in-law's room as a child, my husband's and now my children's.   They're special to all of us and hopefully, some day, they'll be special to my children too.

The Big Boy Update:  We were on the way to lunch yesterday when I heard my son say from the back seat, "hey, fire and water car."  I looked around to see what he was talking about.   There was a car to our left that had pictures of flames and drops of water in their logo.   Their business was home disaster repair.    If their window was down, I would have told them my son had named their car.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  When my daughter went to get her hair cut the other day I had a hard time explaining to her that we weren't going to a doctor.   At almost three and having never had her hair cut, she didn't really understand the difference.   After she got her hair cut by Sue, she looked over to the other stylist across the room and said to me, "that's the other haircut doctor."