Vintage Doll Repair
  • Why Doll Repair?
  • Alphabetical Index of Dolls
  • Dolls by Manufacturer
    • Advance Doll and Toy Company >
      • Tama
      • Walking Wanda
      • Walking Winnie
    • American Character Dolls >
      • Little Miss Echo
      • Petite Sally
      • Sweet Sue
      • Teenie Weenie Tiny Tears
    • Carlson Dolls
    • Celluloid Dolls >
      • Celluloid Doll 1 - Made in Japan
      • Celluloid Doll 2 - Schildkrot Reproduction
    • Deluxe Reading/Topper Toys >
      • Baby Boo
      • Baby Luv'N Care
      • Busy Baby - Baby Party
      • Busy-Baby Ride-a-Bike (aka Bikey, battery operated version)
      • Busy-Baby Ride-a-Bike (aka Bikey, non-battery operated version)
      • Li'l Miss Fussy
      • Nancy Nurse
      • Smarty Pants
      • Suzy Smart
    • Effanbee Dolls >
      • Dy-Dee
      • Melodie 1
      • Melodie 2
      • Noma
    • Hollywood Doll Mfg. Co. >
      • Queen For A Day
    • Horsman Dolls >
      • Cindy
      • Peggy Pen-Pal
    • Ideal Dolls >
      • Baby Giggles
      • Bizzie Lizzie
      • Giggles
      • Magic Lips
      • Patti Prays
      • Play'N Jane
      • Saucy Walker
      • Timmy Tumbles
      • Tubsy
    • Irwin Dolls >
      • Irwin Non-Inflam
      • Irwin Walker
    • Madame Alexander Dolls >
      • Chatterbox
      • Ireland
    • Mattel Dolls >
      • Baby First Step
      • Charmin' Chatty
      • Dancerina
      • Hi Dottie
      • Randi Reader
      • Tippee-Toes
    • Mego >
      • Baby Sez So
    • Minifon (unknown - made in Italy)
    • Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls, Inc. >
      • Colonial Dame
    • Remco Dolls >
      • Remco Company Background
      • Baby Grow-A-Tooth
      • Baby Know It All
      • Dune Buggy Baby
      • Jumpsy (1 and 2)
      • Mimi
      • Tumbling Tomboy
    • Schilling Dolls
    • Sun Rubber Company >
      • So-Wee
    • Uneeda >
      • Saranade
    • Unmarked Dolls >
      • 50's Walking Doll with Teeth
      • Ballerina with detached feet
      • Unidentified Stuffed Rubber
      • Unmarked 24" - "Stumpy"
      • Unmarked Oilcloth
      • Unmarked Wood & Bisque
    • Valentine Dolls
  • Interesting Accessories
  • Hard Plastic Disease (HPD)
  • Useful Tools
  • Cleaning Supplies
  • Hair Care
  • Clothing
  • Doll Houses
    • Littles Dollhouse
  • Storage and Display Tips
  • Stories
    • Cars and Trucks
    • Creature and Whitey
    • Construction Toys
    • Foxy Grandpa
    • Grandma's House
    • Gumby and Pokey
    • Liddle Kiddles
    • Miscellaneous Toys
    • Playhouses
    • Puppets
    • Sock Monkeys
    • Toy Guns
    • Toy Trains
    • Trolls
    • Western Toys
  • Tips for Buying/Selling Dolls
  • Other Vintage Toys
    • Dial Master Telephone
    • Tricky Doodle Duck
    • Tricky Peter Penguin
  • References and Resources

Playhouses

Our family had both an outdoor playhouse and an indoor playhouse.  The outdoor house was sheet metal with a large window with a counter in the back.  The side windows originally had plastic flower boxes.  The windows had awnings.  It served as bakery, ice cream shop, grocery store, train station, jail and any other buildings our young imaginations required (our tree house, tangle bars, and swing set also contributed to our architectural props).  We thought it was pretty cool to hide in the playhouse in the rain and listen to the raindrops hammering on the metal roof.
Picture
This is our backyard playhouse when it was new in 1965. It seemed quite spacious when I was only a few feet tall. It eventually rusted out. That is my younger brother in the stroller.

Indoor Playhouse

Before my Dad finished the basement, our "playhouse" was the whole basement.  This photo shows two of my older sisters playing house with litho on metal appliances.  The sister in the red apron is washing dishes in the sink.  The sister in yellow is doing some serious baking.  Apparently a big feast was in the works.  We had a litho refrigerator as well.

An odd imaginary game that we used to play was "Mechanics".  We would crawl under a sofa in the basement wearing our strap on tool belts filled with rubber and plastic tools and lay on our backs pretending to fix cars, firetrucks, and airplanes.  After a hard day's work repairing an endless string of broken vehicles we would have a "spaghetti dinner" prepared in the playhouse and served picnic style.
Picture
The indoor playhouse was unique.  My father built it into the space under the basement stairwell.  It had built in shelving that acted as a pantry, a door bell, a mail box, a pay phone, a kitchen space, a fake window, a high chair, a doll bed, and even a mouse house complete with a toy mouse.

Buggies and Strollers

My sisters may disagree, but I always connect doll buggies with playhouses.  Not only would my sisters, and their friends, use their doll buggies to stroll their dolls around the neighborhood but they would wheel them up to the playhouse and park them while they went inside and played house or chatted while seated in play chairs.  We boys and our friends would use ninja like stealth to sneak up below the window line and capture the dolls and stuffed animals (or even the entire buggy) and make the girls chase us around the yard to get them back.  This usually ended badly with the girls calling for my mother to intervene.  The neighbor boys would get sent home and we would be sent inside to reflect on what we had done (and how to avoid being caught the next time...).
Picture
This photo was taken a month before I was born. Two of my older sisters received a stroller and a buggy. Little did they suspect that their pending sibling would someday push these vehicles at high speeds and even "pop wheelies" while their dolls, dogs, and teddy bears held on for dear life.
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