Doll Dramatics: Shirley Jackson's "Charles"

 This story is the property of the Shirley Jackson estate.  I am doing this as a homage to one of my favorite writers and making no money from it. 

Charles was first published in 1948.  I've updated certain details and altered it to fit this format.  

Mother: Do you think kindergarten is upsetting Laurie?  All this tough act, bad grammar, and this Charles boy sounds like such a bad influence.

Father:  He does.  Cussing, hitting the teacher, bouncing a seesaw off someone's head, disrupting lessons, and throwing chalk.  But it will be all right.  Bound to be people like Charles in the world.    Might as well meet them now as later.

Laurie: Charles yelled.  The teacher from first grade sent a boy to tell the teacher to keep quiet and Charles had to stay in at recess.  

Laurie:  Teacher had a friend come to see her at school today.  It was a man who came and he made us do exercises, we had to touch our toes.  Charles didn't even do exercises.

Father (coming in): Didn't Charles want to do exercises?

Laurie: Hi Pop, ya ole dust mop.  Charles wasn't allowed to do exercises because he kicked the teacher's friend. 

Mother: I want to go to the PTA meeting but the baby and I are sick.  I wonder what they're going to do about Charles. 

Laurie: Throw him out of school, I guess.

Father: What else has Charles gotten up to? 

Laurie: He yelled during story time and hit another boy in the stomach.  

Laurie: Charles was so good today the teacher gave him an apple.  

Mother: Really?  Charles?

Laurie: He gave out the crayons and collected the books and Teacher said he was a helper.  

Laurie: Yesterday, Charles told a girl to say a bad word and she said it! Charles told her to say it twice and she did. She had to sit in Time Out.  

Father: What about Charles?  

Laurie: Nothing.  He was passing out crayons.  Then, today he said it a few times and threw chalk.  

Mother:  I'm definitely going to the PTA meeting, cold or no cold.  

Mother looks for Charles's mother at the meeting, but no one looks haggard enough.  No one stands up to apologize for the way her son was acting.  No one mentions Charles.  After the meeting, she seeks out the kindergarten teacher.

Mother:  I've been so anxious to meet you.  I'm Laurie's mother.

Teacher: We're all so interested in Laurie.

Mother: He certainly likes kindergarten.  He talks about it all the time. 

Teacher: We had a little trouble adjusting, the first week or so, but now he's a fine little helper.  With occasional lapses, of course. 

Mother: Laurie usually adjusts very quickly.  I suppose this time it's Charles's influence.  You must have your hands full in this kindergarten, with Charles.

Teacher: Charles?  We don't have any Charles in the kindergarten. 

What I've Been Up To

 I'm finally making some progress on getting back to this blog.  I've written a few on that other blog, but my poor neglected dollies are mad at me.  Good news on that front... one of these books holds the story I've decided to doll dramatize!

I had another really good idea for a doll drama but it jumped right outta my head.

I did finally get around to fixing the grocery store.  The cold unit is a Shopkins display, if I recall correctly.  The shelves are Zoe lockers and the trophy case/amplifier from a Monster High playset.  Groceries are assorted minis.

Second Sister's church held a rummage sale.  Rusty got a new dress!  When I said I had no idea for what occasion she might wear it, my Eldest Sister contributed a Masque.  She can go to a Mardi Gras ball!  (You'll see the full dress in a few.  I'm having some issues getting my digital camera to talk to my new computer.)

The Mother of The Boy has taken up sewing.  Previous blog posts showed the Barbie size quilts she made my dolls.  She asked about Barbie clothes patterns to use for her scraps, so I nabbed these.

McG is modeling a Gear Shift Hoodie.  The dolls also want the skeleton and I believe there's a galaxy one. The Hoodies also come in solid colors, but where's the fun in that? (This was picked up at Auto Zone on my way home from the rummage sale.)

Rusty in her new fancy dress.  Ain't she purty?!

Teeny Tinies

Five Below sells "Teeny Tinies".  They are sets of minis.  The scale varies even within the set, but most of it works with Barbie scale and a little imagination.

Ty with the TT kitchen.  It's the perfect size for my Chelsea/Zoe hybrids. 

This grill was way too short for Barbie.  So I glued on some legs and we're good to go.

Besides the grill and kitchen, I have bought things like Greek Food, for the more unusual pieces. Today I picked up Holiday Party.  For the big ole ham and the lamb, mostly.

Front of the package. We can see all the goodies!  I usually pick the set with the best stickers/paint, but this was the only Holiday Party and I had to settle.  Most of the pieces are painted plastic.

The back identifies everything so an ignoramus like me knows what she's getting.  I will take the fifth on some of the silly mistakes I've made with these sets.

Behind the plastic tray holding the goodies, we find a lovely scene that matches the box front edges. Not sure why it's so orange, but they're all like that.  The lovely Aegean villa in Greek Foods was very blue.  Like we're looking through colored glass.

Dolls for scale comparison. Pumpkin pie and baking setup.

The underside of the gifts.  They do come apart but then have things sticking out the sides.

Gifts and a cracker.  The lids do come off the boxes! The cracker does nothing if you tug the ends because it's solid plastic. Imagination is required. 

Glass of milk, mug of cocoa, donuts, shaped sugar cookies, and (chocolate chip?) cookies.  

Frosting bag, sprinkles, and wafer twists. Labels are stickers.

The box of cocoa is just that - a box.  The macaroni and cheese is a sticker.

Fruitcake and mince pies.

Lamb and Ham.  Yummy! 

    

 

Madame Morrible

 

WARNING! NEKKID DOLL BOOBIES!

I've been trying to get my mitts on Morrible since before Christmas.  I don't care much about the other Wicked dolls, or about Wicked.  But the folks politely referred to as "older" are rare in doll form.  When I saw Morrible reviewed on YouTube, I instantly added her to my wish list!

A friend in Pennsylvania took pity upon my quest and mailed her to me.  She was supposed to be here on the 15th but got here on the 20th, after a bizarre side trip right through Ohio and back.  Dumb post office.

Side Note: I had two empty roles for an Asian grandma when my Barbieville soap opera was a thing.

  Discounting characters like Severus Snape, who were much younger than the actor who played him, I had five "older" folks.  Now I have six and the boys are outnumbered!

Here she is!  Her hair comb jumped right back off her head and vanished, but otherwise she's intact.  Her clothes will be put up with Albus and McG's robes.  She gonna get some civvies.

Closeup of that lovely face.  It's a good likeness of the actress, Michelle Yeoh.  

I managed to get her out of the packaging without ruining the backdrop.

These boots are made for walkin'.  So are the knees.  Dolls in Jeanie Land must have working elbows and knees, with few exceptions. (Looking at you, Tris.) I keep a bin of donor bodies, usually from thrift stores and yard sales

I've been putting off McGee's boil wash (to straighten the updo) for almost as long as I've had her.  She joined Morrible.  I'm not very good at these - I'm always afraid of melting heads. 

Susan B volunteered to do the same.  The historical Susan B. Anthony was in her fifties during the Suffragette Movement, but this doll looks way younger.  Maybe the Inspiring Women dolls are Barbie cosplaying?  

Morrible is happy with her new friends.  Boiling water poured over the head is a great bonding experience, I guess.  I'll take their word for it.

Sunflower and Iris like their updos up.  I agree.  That hair was a big selling point for me on both of them.  And Sunflower had to raid the donor bin because she was a Fashionista! 

I and Morrible both thank my friend for her generosity.

 

  

Playing With Yourself

 

I've seen this meme, and others like it, and they always make me giggle.

We can always use a little giggle.

So I decided to see who could come to my house and do this.

Sadly, Sir Ian did not make the cut. 

We'll start outside the dollhouse.  (I did limit this to live-action characters.  Mainly because I haven't got the slightest idea which doll lines have animated versions, or how to qualify it.  Would my 1990s Midge count as Life In The Dreamhouse Midge?)

Here we have a couple of Robert Englund, Litefoot, Andre The Giant, and Kevin Peter Hall.

Steven Yeun, Norman Reedus, Andrew Lincoln and Jeffery Dean Morgan.

Two versions of Danai Gurira transitions us to the dolls.

Seated: Susan B. Anthony, Jimin, Jung Kook

Standing: Sir Christopher Lee, Theo James, Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin, Gal Gadot, Eva Marie, Becky Lynch, Samuel L. Jackson

Standing: Robbie Coltrane, Gary Oldman, Sir Richard Harris, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Dame Maggie Smith

Seated: Robert Pattinson, Katie Leung, Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch 

3 of Emma Watson, 3 of Daniel Radcliffe, 2 of Rupert Grint 

**And thanks to my friend Leigh, Michelle Yeoh is on the way!**

 

Kitchen Remodel

 

The dolls live in a house intended for 18 inch dolls.  (Made by Wicked Cool Toys.)  While this gives them larger rooms, there are a few logistical issues.  Windowsills and doorknobs are somewhere between shoulder and eye level on the Barbies, depending on body mold.  I guess that's one way to keep the kids from running in and out!

This is what the kitchen looked like at the beginning of my project.  A too-big shelving unit for groceries, the really big door, and a dining table that nobody's legs fit under (because the chairs that came with the table were fragile).

Christmas brought me a bunch of Make It Mini Home items.  The scale varies by item, but that's nothing a little imagination can't fix.  The pink chairs work for my tots and babies, the smaller barstools and blue table works for their toys.  My favorite bits, though, are for the kitchen.

First order of business in my kitchen remodel, cover that door and install the pizza oven.  Poor thing's been languishing on the miscellaneous shelf, waiting for me to get materials to make the door into a covered fireplace or simply an accent wall.

This is 1:12 scale "gray brick wall sheet".  It fit almost perfectly, directly from the package.

Since the groceries would be moving back into the "store", I decided to thin out the dishes and food items.  A lot of the food items are Mini Brands Foodies.  Again, scale can be off, but most of the Foodies are pretty close.  This was a digression from the kitchen project since the bin lives outside the dollhouse, but I got 'er done.

Finished kitchen, after.  Switched out the table and put in a smaller shelving unit.  Many of the appliances were rescued from the food bin - I didn't even remember owning some of them!  The Make It Mini ones I got for Christmas are incredibly detailed.  I glued some of the tiny parts together, even, so they can't be lost.  

My dolls have an air fryer that can fit in their crock pot!  The tiny jigsaw went into the tool bin and so isn't pictured here.

More appliances.  The nightstand is very not-to-scale, so it's a spice rack now.  

The shelf that was too big for the kitchen corner got moved into the living room.  Some decor items appear to have escaped their dots of glue.  Candlesticks, mostly.  Gonna have to go lay on the floor again...