Groovy Things

You can’t possibly imagine how excited we all are here in Whimsieville! We are adopting a new Whimsie!! And not only that, she’s not just any old Whimsie, but I’m fairly certain she’s a friend of mine from long, long ago!

Let me calm down here for just a moment and see if I can relate the details as they happened. As you know, all of us Whimsies came here to Whimsieville by way of the E Bay Adoption Agency. Miss Chrissy started looking at Whimsies, and first she found Tessie (who was an old friend of hers, from long, long ago) and then she found Trixie, and finally me. One by one, our adoptions were set up, paperwork was processed, and we were each sent on our journey to our new home.

Miss Chrissy has always maintained that Whimsieville is just about as full of Whimsies as need be, but still, she continues to look at the E Bay Adoption Agency’s website, to see what Whimsies are up for adoption. We asked her why, and here’s what she said: One, because she just likes looking at Whimsies, and Two, because you never know when a Whimsie might come up for adoption that for one reason or another would make a wonderful addition to our little family. She’s not actively looking to adopt another Whimsie, but if all the signs are pointing in the right direction, she would consider it.

Well, this past week, I happened to look over Miss Chrissy’s shoulder while she was visiting the Adoption Agency on the computer, and my jaw dropped and I gasped as I had never gasped before! Never in a million years did I expect that I would ever again see Trudi or Tootsie, my two Whimsie friends from way back, when Jennifer and I used to go over and play at her friend Patty’s house, or they would come over to play with us. But there, before my very eyes, on the computer screen, was a Whimsie who looked for all the world like my old friend Tootsie.

Of course, in some ways she looked just like Tootsie…light brown eyes, two cute little ponytails, that ever-present smile…but what was she wearing? The Tootsie I knew was such a tomboy! She loved to run and climb trees, and could usually be found wearing “dungarees.” (Back then, blue jeans were called “dungarees.”) But this Whimsie was dressed up all pretty in a cream-colored dress with a green silky bow. The Tootise I knew never ever wore dresses! You can’t climb a tree in a dress! You can’t play kickball in a dress, and even hopscotch is a lot more difficult in a dress.

But then suddenly, as my mind traveled back to those wonderful, whimsical days of long ago, I seemed to remember something. Tootie had once told me a big secret, that “Tootsie” was not her real name. It was only a nickname that Patty had given her, because she loved to go outside after the rain and run around barefoot in the wet grass till here “tootsies” were completely refreshed by the cool rainwater. It’s sort of an odd behavior, because in general, though most Whimsies are not totally terrified of water (like Trixie), still…it’s not a Whimsie’s favorite thing. But Tootsie liked to live dangerously.

As I looked at the picture of this Whimsie and wondered if it could possibly my same friend from long ago, it suddenly came back to me that Tootsie had told me what her real name was. It was…Thelma…. or Temperance …or Tallulah …or something else like that, which sounded very fancy, and totally did not fit her personality.

But then I reflected…well, sometimes people change, don’t do? And Whimsies…do they change too? Was my old friend Tootsie now a proper lady, happy to wear a dress? Well, I have no problems with dresses. I like dresses as much as I like blue jeans, or dungarees, or sweat pants, or whatever other kinds of clothes one might wear. And even though I never supported Tootsie’s penchant for climbing trees and running around barefoot in the wet grass, we could still be friends (as long as she didn’t expect me to join her in these outrageous behaviors–which she didn’t.)

But then again…maybe Tootsie had not changed at all, and she was just dressed up all fancy like this to make a good impression at the Adoption Agency. There are occasions when it’s appropriate to put on your “Sunday Best,” and this would certainly be one of those occasions.

I spent many hours looking at this picture at the Adoption Agency, and told Miss Chrissy the whole story, and went back and forth wondering and wondering if this could possibly be my old friend. At times I would look at her and be totally convinced this was Tootsie, and other times, pretty well convinced this was not her.

Miss Chrissy saw how perplexed I was and felt bad, and went so far as to email the Adoption Agency to see if they could reveal the name of this Whimsie. The reply was that her name was not known. That was very disappointing news.

Later on I found out that because she did not want to increase my disappointment, Miss Chrissy secretly began the adoption paperwork on this Whimsie. She kept it a secret, because sometimes the adoption works out, and sometimes it does not, and she didn’t want me to get my hopes up in case it didn’t work out. But a few days more passed, and then…guess what? Miss Chrissy came to me and said, “Tillie, I have a surprise for you. You know that Whimsie at the Adoption Agency you feel pretty certain is your old friend Tootsie, but nobody knows her name for sure? Well, you yourself are going to get to ask her what her name is, because she’s coming to live here with us in Whimsieville!”

I was overjoyed to hear this!! Whether she is in fact my old friend Tootsie, or whether she is in fact Tootsie, but has changed so drastically that she now prefers dresses to dungarees, or even if this is not Tootsie at all, but some other Whimsie who just looks like her—no matter what happens, we have a new friend coming here to live with us!!

I guess I should also mention that Tessie and Trixie have been in on this the whole time, and they are equally excited. But not as excited as I am!! We have only a few more days, and so much to do to get Whimsieville all spruced up for our new friend’s arrival. Whether this Whimsie ends up being my old friend or simply a new friend, it’s always a wonderful thing to welcome in more friends!

Already our New Year’s Resolutions are working out for us! If you’ll recall, last time Trixie promised that she was going to try to be a bit neater. Since then she’s spent a good deal of time cleaning up our room, and once the bed was cleared, Miss Chrissy surprised us with a special blanket! Not only is this a groovy new blanket for us, but it also has a deep History. And I’m going to tell it to you now.

As you know, “Tie-Dye” was a very popular theme in the 1960’s—back when Miss Chrissy was a girl. But, no, wait! This is not her blanket! This blanket actually belonged to her daughter, Mary, when Mary was a girl, back in the 1990’s. What does that tell us? That some things, that are truly groovy, never really go out of style, they just keep looping around and around, for each new generation to enjoy.

Mary enjoyed this blanket when she was a teenager, but now she is grown, and planning soon to move Cross-Country with her husband. She has held on to this blanket for all these years, simply because it IS so groovy, and because it has Sentimental Value. So she doesn’t want to get rid of it altogther, but at the same time, when you are planning a Cross-Country Move, it’s not always possible to take every little memento with you. Sometimes you have to make some harsh decisions.

But Mary is a smart girl (just like her mother,Miss Chrissy!) and came up with a way to “Have Her Cake and Eat It Too.” You see, a few days after Christmas, Miss Chrissy and The Man took a trip to visit Mary in the next state over, and while they were there, the Tie-Dye Blanket made an appearance. Miss Chrissy admired it, and said, “If you’re planning to get rid of that blanket, I’d like to have it! It would look great in the Whimsies’ room!”

Mary said, “I’m not planning to get rid of it, but tell you what: would you ‘babysit’ this blanket for me? The Whimsies can enjoy it as much as they like (as long as they promise to take good care of it), but it ever happens that I want it back—”

And Miss Chrissy said, “Yes! Yes! That will work perfectly!”

So, in this case, everybody wins. Mary wins because she has one less bulky blanket to pack up for her Cross-Country Move. Miss Chrissy wins because she now gets to enjoy this beautiful Tie-Dye blanket which not only reminds her of when she was a girl, but also reminds her of when her girl was a girl! And we Whimsies win, because we have a groovy new blanket here in our room in Whimsieville!

And one more thing: Miss Chrissy says she also wins because if it ever happens that Mary says she is ready to have her Tie-Dye blanket again, instead of simply boxing it up and sending it Cross-Country, she may just have to consider whether or not it’s time to make a Cross-Country vacation to deliver that blanket in person! Not that she ever needs an “excuse” to visit her daughter, but such a situation could be the proverbial “Killing Two Birds With One Stone.”

(Editior’s Note: No actual cake was eaten, and no actual birds were killed during the writing of this blog post.)

So, here we are with our new blanket! Actually, it’s not our blanket, it’s Miss Chrissy’s blanket, but she found it the other day when she was cleaning out the Linen Closet, and said we could use it. You see, till now, we’ve just had this very thin, very light blanket to cover us when we sleep at night, and that was just fine during the hot weather months, but now that the weather is getting colder, sometimes we need to cuddle up a little more! And this blanket does the trick.

You see, it’s not just a blanket, it’s actually a quilt. Actually…a patchwork quilt! That means it has many layers of material, and they are all held together quite nicely with a lot of stitching. And there’s some padding in between the layers. Miss Chrissy knows, and told us all about it, because, you see, years and years ago she actually made this blanket! Years and years ago she liked to sew a bit, and even had a sewing machine! And it was simply fascinating to cuddle up under this blanket and listen to her tell the stories of all the different patches in this little quilt.

First of all, do you see all the sort of orange patches with little ducks on them? That’s from a skirt she sewed for herself. And do you see the sort of turquoise striped patches? That’s the leftover material from a dress she sewed for herself from years ago when she was pregnant with her son. It was during the Summer, so that material is very light, not only in color, but also in texture. It was a pretty Summer dress that also gets to live on in this little quilt.

Now take a look at the crazy stripes just below Trixie. That one has a good story! A long time ago, when Miss Chrissy’s kids were very little, they had a white couch, and as anyone knows, you should never have a white couch with little kids. Too many spills! So one day when Miss Chrissy was in the store she found these king sized bed sheets at a very good price, and took them home and cut them up to make covers for all the couch cushions. In fact, she covered the whole couch! And then, if there were spills, she just took off the covers and washed them. It was a lot of work, but the couches looked great and stayed fairly nice, and were extremely comfortable. Afterwards, when they got new couches, she didn’t need to covers anymore, but saved a few pieces of material to work into this little quilt.

Now, another material that figures prominently in this quilt is the pink and white stripes. Miss Chrissy thought for a long, long time about that pattern, then finally had to admit…she has no idea where that material came from! But it certainly does look nice.

Anyway, we are just so happy to have this new little quilt (which is really very old) because it’s very warm, and just perfect for us! This one definitely goes down in our book as one of life’s “Groovy Things”!