Senior Class: Wanda’s 1927 Christmas Story

The wonderful Wanda Bridgeforth left us a lot of gifts, including this story.

I came across drafts from my book “Writing Out Loud“ a week or two ago while searching for something else on my computer. I was delighted when notes about one of Wanda’s stories about a special Christmas popped up. In 1927, Wanda received a very special present from Santa. I knew right then I’d be sharing this story with you Safe & Sound blog readers. Merry Christmas!

“I must have been a really good girl in 1927,” Wanda started, going on to describe her new Effanbee Rosemary Doll. “Her curls and eyelashes were natural hair. Every time I sat her up or laid her down she opened and closed her eyes and said, “MA-MA!!!” That was enough to melt a little girl’s heart.”

Wanda gave the doll her Mama’s name: Geneva. “Mama showed me how to wash and iron Geneva’s dress, panties and bonnet,” Wanda wrote. “Life was good for this little seven-year-old until late spring 1928, when her father lost his job. “He liked his drink,” she said. That’s when her Mama started “working in private family” – Wanda’s words explaining that her mother had to live with the family she worked for.

Thus began Wanda’s vagabond years, staying with one relative for a week, a neighbor for another, and, sometimes, with complete strangers.

“I abandoned all of my toys except Geneva,” Wanda wrote, describing her doll as her confidant and bedfellow. “Every Tuesday after school I washed her clothes so she would be nice and clean when Mama came home on Wednesday, her day off. The three of us would sit at the kitchen table and exchange the events of the week.”

Wanda washed Geneva’s clothing so often that they faded. “For Christmas in 1931, Cousin Sugar, the lady I was staying with, made Geneva a new outfit. Mama and Cousin Sugar assured me the new clothes did not need weekly washing.”

Wanda’s friends boasted that their own dolls were made of rubber and could drink milk or water from a tiny bottle with a tiny nipple on it.” I looked at Geneva, her mouth was open and she had a space between her lips. I bought a tiny bottle with a tiny nipple on it from Woolworth’s 5 & 10 cents store and fed Geneva,” she wrote. “After a while Geneva developed a horrible odor and her body became damp.”

Cousin Sugar and Mama cut a slit in Geneva’s body and found the straw stuffing full of mildew and mold. Her plaster body was falling apart. Only her head was intact. “I didn’t realize her straw insides absorbed the liquid instead of passing it through like the rubber dolls did,” Wanda wrote.

“I was inconsolable. Geneva was DEAD!”

Wanda decided Geneva must have a funeral. Dressed in their parents black clothes, she and her friends marched behind a Radio Flyer Wagon lined with black crepe paper. “We sang a hymn and sent Geneva, My Favorite Toy, dressed in her Christmas Outfit to live with the Angels.”