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A walking, talking doll moved by itself, seeking affection.

Date 01 March 1980
Track ID 38014
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1980.51.2

Original Tape ID

SA1980.051

Summary

A walking, talking doll moved by itself, seeking affection.

Stanley Robertson introduces a story about a doll, which he was told as true, by a Traveller called Big Estur [sic] Stewart, with whom he worked in the fish factory. Around 1947, Estur's daughter Charlotte, then a child, was ill. Estur and her husband Johnny were hawking and went to the house of his former colonel in the army. Estur happened to comment on a beautiful walkie-talkie doll that was in the house. It had been bought in the USA for the daughter of the house, now grown up, and it was supposed to be the fairy Glinda from the film, 'The Wizard of Oz'. The woman gave it to Estur for her daughter.

Estur put the doll at the foot of Charlotte's cot, but every morning the child was found cuddling it, and saying that it had come up the bed by itself. Estur and her husband took the child into bed with them when her cough was very bad, and found the doll in the bed in the morning, blinking and saying Mamma. Estur decided it had a soul, and took it back to the woman who had given it to her. The woman told her that her daughter had taken the doll with her when she got married, and it had appeared every morning in bed between her and her husband. The daughter had brought it home to her mother, who put it in an attic, but found it every morning at the door of her daughter's room.

Language

Scots

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good