Creating Beauty

As a child, I was frightened by a humongous Kissy doll. At 3, it was as big as I was and when you pulled it's hands together it made a smacking or a supposed kissing sound. I was sure it would get up and get me......making smacking sounds as it neared my bed.

Now I make dolls.....some are supposed to be scary, but most just reflect how I look at beauty. To me we have a very narrow view of what beauty is and is not. I have cerebral palsy and don't think I'm whining about it I'm not. I'm lucky my case is very mild compared to some people's. But you can pick me out as different, I walk awkwardly, but my arm and leg work correctly.....for someone with a partially paralyzed arm and leg.

I look like someone with CP is supposed to and in my way I'm attractive. I try to reflect alternative beauty in the dolls I create and so in some ways I'm still dealing with fear, but now it's not my own.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Season of the Ghost- Gary

I spent 8 yrs working in a Salvation Army Thrift Store as manager. Ran into Juanita the ghostly store manager, who'd been there for yrs.

Well. Gary was my ghost so to speak. I hired him during the 4th summer I was there. He was a nice man, with a nice girlfriend, who was raising 3 kids with her.  Everybody liked him and he was a great worker.  
My elderly ladies just adored him and he was good at defusing any difficult customer situations. Gary was also great with merchandising and organizing the furniture and very reliable.

So, his not showing up one morning when he was to open the store with me was worrying. It was raining when we closed the night before and I know he was saving up for new tires. Yeah. His girlfriend called me later that morning. Damn old tires.....he died instantly. 

After about 2 weeks his favorite customers started telling me that Gary was stopping in to say "Hi".
I had him yell, "Bye" one night as I was leaving, but we never interacted after I found the bag of clothes he bought for one of his stepson's birthday and got it to his girlfriend. 

Gary was a pretty grounded person so I think he moved on pretty quickly, because after about 6 months his customers said he wasn't saying "Hi" anymore.





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