In 1941, when I was 11, my mother, Ruth and dad, Abe, went on a 2 week summer road trip vacation to Florida. We drove down the east coast through St. Augustine to Miami, where I tried to learn to swim in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. While I was able to “ride” on the wave crests a little, I really still could not swim. Then we went to Clearwater Beach on the western gulf side of Florida. There I truly did finally learn to swim in the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
And in a gift shop in Clearwater, I found a beautiful 10″ doll made completely of seashells. This seashell doll was ‘dressed’ like a late 18th century lady in a gown with the edges of each of the white shells rimmed in 1/4 inch pale blue paint; a small shell, painted as a face, was set reversed into a larger shell that acted like a sunbonnet. It was her favorite ornamental doll, through all her many moves over the next 35 years, holding a place of honor on her dresser.
—————– Fast forward to 1972… ——————–
It was late spring or early Summer that Bill Giles, standing beside me at my kitchen sink, said something about his daughter Susan. “Whaaat????!! You have a daughter!!!!!” Bill hadn’t mentioned one word about having a daughter since we re-connected in 1970. Bill loved being secretive and dropping surprise bombs like that.
Bill had moved, with his son Michael, from his apartment on Hamilton Ave., to live with a stripper and his current squeeze, Kitty, in her apartment on Hosea Ave. in Clifton (in Cincinnati, Ohio). He really did not want Susan staying there, so he asked me if Susie could stay with me while visiting him in Cincinnati. Of course, I said “Yes!”
So in 1972, at the age of 8 (almost 9), Susie spent about a month in Cincinnati, staying at my house as she visited her Daddy Bill. I showed her the Shell Doll, but never knew what an impression it made on Susie, how much she must have studied it at some point. When Susie came back to Cincinnati (maybe the next summer), she gave me a 2 3/4″ inch tiny replica version of my original commercial Shell Doll right down to the bouquet of flowers she held in front of her chest; only this one also had lace around the shoulders, feathers in the ‘hat’ and carried a closed parasol!!! ALL this was made, glued together and painted by Susan herself!!
It is impossible to express how unbelievably surprised and touched I was by Susie’s gift of beautiful artistry. I truly treasured this tiny hand crafted shelldoll, placing it beside her larger commercial one in its very special spot of honor on her kidney shaped dresser from 1973 until 2009 and 2013. Having kept and treasured these dolls for 35 & 40 years, in 2009, when Susie came to Cincinnati for Bill’s funeral, I gave the 10″ original ‘inspiration’ Shell Doll to her at that special time. Then in 2013, when I was 83 and Susie almost 50, I gave back to her the tiny shell doll she had made at age 9-10, to keep the two dolls together, and as a tribute to their long years of friendship.