FOUND: bookcase in mother’s office, behind files
“Tiger and Doggie”. Steiff brand hand puppets made out of I think, wool? Would it have been? Real fabric at anyrate. They came from the iconic toy store, F.A.O. Schwartz in New York, circa 1953.
Tiger looks to me to be a leopard but too bad, they were my very very favourites out of all the ones my mother came home with. I had maybe a dozen or more all told.
Peg named them, wore them, and made them come alive. Imagine Ethel and Albert, her TV sitcom, with a canine and feline slant: Doggie forgetting where he set his bone down, Tiger running out of catnip just before a dinner party and so on. I never tired of them, ever ever ever. Every long car journey, train ride, flight—Tiger and Doggie came along to keep me entertained. Think iPad but furry, and with my mother attached.
One journey was a 14 hour flight to Norway, with stops at Gander and Prestwick, and I think Shannon too, to re-fuel, Tiger and Doggie chatting non-stop the whole way. (Peg needed no re-fueling). Eventually half the planeload were hanging over their seats or clustered around ours, even the air hostesses, lapping up every word.
I like how the headline says “Sails” for Norway, like we’re leaving on a ship. Also, my father wasn’t a doctor, he was an engineer, but he must have liked the title because I found about 30 copies of this.
FINAL HOME: keeping, in fa%ct wer&aing thim a I type%6g
LEFTOVERS. Every Thursday on astridronningking. The Full Story Behind Leftovers
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