Weekend Traffic Jam - Week 158

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

Isn't it amazing how simple pictures like these can take you back in time (my sister also took them in the old neighborhood, well, old for me)?
This used to be part of my way home from my best friend. I could have taken a shorter one, but there was no "zebra stripe" (aka crosswalk) on the busy road there, so I always took a little detour to be on the safe side.
Today I watched a video about how some people read (leave out prologue and epilogue, only read the dialogue ... how weird), and the creator mentioned reading in the street.
That's what I used to do, have my nose in a book on the way home or make up stories for myself which were usually based on favorite books.
I can never see this part of the street without remembering a neighbor kindly warning me not to read while walking and watch my step instead. Yup, that's what I have to do nowadays, but back then I didn't listen 😉
 

Are you ready for the weekend?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on bushel and a pickle.

Linda from bushel and a pickle says: "Welcome! I’m Linda and I’m so glad you stopped by.
I live a rich and full life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in a very, very old farmhouse. Bushel & a pickle (named for my daughter’s childhood saying) is my story of life experiences, family, travels and faith."

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

Judee really makes me want to try frozen limonana, it sounds so good!

I think it's great that Mireille is trying to have a solo picnic each week.

Joanne's post about Bryce Canyon gave me a flashback, such beautiful pictures.

Have you ever heard about croissant s'mores? Laura has tried them.

Nancy shows us a modern take on countryside chic.


Let's link up!

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Silent films - Mary, Queen of Tots (Our Gang Comedy)

Do you remember "Our Gang" or maybe they are more familiar to you as "The Little Rascals"?
I think it's about time we had a look at one of the films from this popular series!
Today I got "Mary, Queen of Tots" from 1925 for you.

Public domain via Wikipedia

"Little Mary of the Big House - - Father and mother are always too busy to remember that they love her - -"
Mary is lonely in the big house. Her governess is very strict and doesn't even allow her dolls. Her only friend is the gardener.

After finding Mary in the bathroom with a very wet dog, the governess tells her to stay in her room. Mary kicks a few things with a lot of verve and then sits on her bed crying.

Not to worry, though. Her gardener friend is approached by a lady who makes dolls together with her husband, and he buys four and sneaks into Mary's room to give them to her.
Mary reads to her new friends, but gets tired and falls asleep on the floor. The dolls and two plush animals, a dog and a donkey, come to life and explore the room.

When the governess comes in to check on Mary before going out, she finds the dolls and throws them right into the bin (which is an absolute shame as the dolls look really amazing, also she could have put Mary on her bed ... we don't like her).

Mary wakes up and runs outside to look for her dolls, but she just finds four boys who look like them!

She hugs them which confuses them highly, asks them why they ran away, and takes them back to the big house showing them around. "- - And this is the dining room." I love the reply. "That interests me - Let's eat! - -" (That could have been me.)
While Mary goes to the kitchen for food, the boys - Joe, Jackie, Mickey, and Little Farina - explore the house. They use the tea trolley as a scooter, Farina struggles with a chapeau claque - an opera hat that keeps folding and unfolding by itself -, they all take turns falling down on what Mickey is sure to be a magic rug (in fact just a rug on a very slippery floor), and they get nervous about a very loud wireless shouting HEY at them.
When the governess returns, she's shocked to see the boys who so much look like the dolls she has thrown away. Mickey tells her they have been invited to dinner, but she goes off to fetch the police.
Meanwhile, the gardener has found the dolls in the bin and Mickey explains that they model for the dollmaker couple. He also warns them that the governess will bring back the police.

The boys quickly hide in the kitchen, so the policeman only finds the dolls. He asks Mary if the governess is crazy. She tells him she doesn't know for sure, "mebbe", and he takes the governess away.

In another short it says "Mary - - She causes all the fights in the neighborhood - And there's lots of them - -"
Mary Kornman was the leading female character in the "Our Gang Comedies" from 1922 to 1926. Although this short is from 1925, I know I read somewhere that it might be the story how Mary came to join the gang, if only I knew where!

"Our Gang" was created by Hal Roach who also worked with Laurel and Hardy and with Harold Lloyd.
Roach said that he saw a few kids fighting about the best stick in a yard and thought that although they would have forgotten about those sticks in a few hours, they were so important to them now, just because that's the way kids are. This gave him the idea of a kids and pets series.
While of course dated in some regards, "Our Gang" is simply about kids from a working class neighborhood (which can lead to fights with wealthier kids) - playing, being themselves, full of fantasy, ideas, and enthusiasm, but also innovative in avoiding chores or schoolwork.

Between 1922 and 1944, there were 88 silent shorts, 132 sound shorts, and one feature length film.
Obviously, there were different children involved over such a long time.

We watched "The Little Rascals" on TV when I was a kid, but I don't remember anything (but the dog). I watched a few of the films and chose this one because it's just cute, especially the scene when the dolls come to life and explore Mary's room.
I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't pop up on the blog every, now and then ...


Sources and further info:

1. The Our Gang Story: A History of "The Little Rascals". On the YouTube channel of Legend Films
2. Our Gang/The Little Rascals (Partially Lost 1920s Silent Short and Foreign Prints). On: Lost Media Archive

Heat

I don't function in the heat and I complained and whined more than once about it here on the blog. I always start early, too. If temperatures in my place go higher than 20 °C/ 68 °F, I'm beginning to fall apart, can't help it.
Luckily, I don't live in a really hot region!

A sunset sky from 2011.
That's how heat feels to me.

As my brain is in a puddle on the floor somewhere at the moment, I haven't been able to finish any of the blog posts I started.
So I'll be taking the easy way out instead today and share some "hot" items with you that I made over the years.

Now excuse me while I'm going to look if I can find and mop up my brain anywhere. Do you think it'll come together again if I put it in the freezer?

Random Saturday - Nachtkrabb

Do you know the "Nachtkrabb"? No? I'm not surprised.
Although the Nachtkrabb has always been familiar to me, there's really only one story I remember from my own family. My little brother was probably around five years old at the time (we're talking late 70s). He was sitting at the kitchen table, ready to eat an egg, when one of my other brothers came in and told him that if he cracked the egg, a Nachtkrabb would come flying out. Little brother freaked out and actually stopped eating eggs for a short while (but got over it quite quickly).
What I don't remember is if he had been told about the Nachtkrabb before and if that was what shocked him so much or if it was just the idea of anything at all flying (!) out of that egg.

You must know, the Nachtkrabb is a mysterious and dark creature, a bugbear in the folklore of southern Germany and Austria.
Other names for him (I have only seen someone call it her once) are Nachtkrapp or Nachtrabe which translates to "Night raven". I'll stick with the "bb" spelling for this post.

I love ravens and they were the inspiration for this
bead embroidered necklace, not the Nachtkrabb,
but I have been thinking about a Nachtkrabb
version for a while ... if only I had a good idea!

As it often happens in folklore, the tales can differ more or less from region to region.
I don't even remember if we only knew the name or if we were actually got told a story. If we were, it would probably have been the one that prevails here - of the huge black birdlike creature flying through the night looking for children who haven't gone to bed - and it would have had to come from my father's side because my mother wasn't Swabian.
In short, it's one of those stories made up to get children to do or not to do certain things, in this case staying out after dark. In some regions children who don't obey get caught in a big sack and carried away. What happens to them isn't said, but they don't make it home which leaves the outcome open, but doesn't bode well. Other regions are more explicit, there the Nachtkrabb takes the children back to his nest where he devours them.

Other countries have their own versions of the night ravens, by the way.
The raven and other corvids have always been part of folk tales, in good or bad ways.
Just think of Hugin and Munin, the ravens of the god Odin, sent out by him to bring him news of the world.
In some cultures, ravens were used in oracles to predict the outcome of battles or help to make important decisions.
Some Native American tribes see the raven both as a creator and a trickster.
The positive image changed in Christianity. Corvids fed off carrion, animals but also humans after battles or excecutions which didn't help their reputation. They were seen as messengers of death, disaster, and plague, and also as familiars of witches.

Contemporary art depicting two ravens,
such as Hugin and Munin, by Kim Diaz Holm
(the young Mr. Holm). CC BY 4.0 

So with that negative image in mind, the idea of a huge kidnapping variety could easily frighten you as a kid.
But why did I describe the Nachtkrabb as a birdlike creature and not as a ravenlike one?
There are not just different tales about what he does, but also different theories about his origin.

One of those is that it doesn't have anything to do with ravens at all, but with the Northern Bald Ibis, a bird that used to be widespread, for example across parts of Central Europe such as Southern Germany or Austria. Hunting the ibis for food, the beautiful feathers or taxidermy, and the destruction of its habitat brought it to the brink of complete extinction.
There is a population in Morocco and smaller ones elsewhere thanks to reintroductions, but the species is still endangered.
The Wilhelma, a big Botanical-Zoological Garden not far from here, has always had a big aviary with them in front of which you often heard people commenting how ugly they were. I think they're fabulous.
Anyhow, their looks may have inspired spooky stories.

Picture by Len Worthington, CC BY-SA 2.0
via Wikimedia Commons

So who knows what's the truth.
Today people (hopefully!) try to avoid scary stories like that in the raising of children even if it's supposed to be for their own sake, but nevertheless the Nachtkrabb hasn't been forgotten completely.
He still has a place in some local carnival celebrations, for example, where some of the masks remind of ravens, others of the bald ibis, but also stories, songs, or amusement parks!
You won't be understanding the lyrics of this song as it's in a German dialect (not mine), but I like the video.



To be honest, back then I thought the idea of a tiny Nachtkrabb flying out of an egg was rather cute than scary, but I couldn't tell you what image exactly I have in my head (which is the reason why I haven't managed to make my own version yet).
You know me, though. I can't tell you a story with animals without bringing a cat into it.
This is a painting by my friend Heather - the one from the HeatherCats - which I had to own. I could see my Ponder spreading his wings and flying into the night like that. I love this little painting so much.
On the other hand, I also think it would be a good inspiration for a Nachtkrabb piece ... I'm not going to give up on the idea yet.

Are there any regional bugbear stories where you are?

Silent movies - The Freshman

Two weeks ago we had a college football hero, last week Harold Lloyd, how about Harold Lloyd at college today?
Here's "The Freshman" from 1925.

Public domain via Wikipedia

Today we have a proper plot. As Lloyd says in his autobiography, films like the "Lonesome Luke" ones are gag type comedies, films like "The Freshman" are character comedies which start more slowly and develop.

Harold Lamb is a young man excited for college. He copies a greeting - a little jig and a handshake -, the outfit, and the nickname "Speedy" from his favorite college movie, he has saved some money, he has high expectations about becoming a "college hero" like his movie idol.

On the train he meets Peggy, he gets interested in her crossword puzzle and they get along splendidly.

Once arrived in town, Harold falls right into the hands of the College Cad (no names, it's practically a tpye) for whom he's the perfect victim due to his desire to be popular in connection with his incredible naiveté.

The Cad shows him the "car assigned to him" which is in fact the dean's car and lures him on the stage where the dean is supposed to hold the opening speech by making him save a kitten from a height (if that wasn't enough already to hate the Cad, just wait, there's more to come), then tells him he has to make a speech during which Harold is laughed at by the whole assembly.

Harold holds the rescued kitten, but puts it under his sweater when he needs both
hands free. Mama Kitty urgently wants her baby back.
You understand that I was legally bound (by Gundel) to include these pictures
(and it was hard to keep it down just to these two, the kitten is adorable).

The Cad and his friends - male and female - cheer for Harold who thinks he's on the best way to be popular and invites the group for ice cream, but the Cad keeps inviting more people on the way to the ice cream parlor.
Look who follows them, too!

Again, legally bound.

After spending a good deal of his savings like that, Harold has to downgrade in regards to his living quarters.
There he meets Peggy again who happens to be the landlady's daughter. Harold's shirt has been ripped up when the kitten climbed up it under his sweater and Peggy sews the button on for him. You see him secretly cutting off more buttons.

To up his game, Harold tries out for the football team, but the coach isn't impressed. When their only tackle dummy is damaged, however, they use Harold as a live dummy and even the coach is impressed by his unbroken spirit at the end of the day. To "reward" him, they make him water boy and let him think he's one of the substitutes.

Harold thinks his leg has broken apart, but it's the dummy's leg.

Do you remember Pete from "Our Gang"?
This is his dad, Pal the Wonder Dog, at
six months old. He actually had a three
quarter ring around his eye while
Pete's ring was makeup.
(Gundel wasn't sure you needed to know
that. Always those dogs.)

Harold hosts the "Fall Frolic" dance.
He gets a new suit for the occasion, but his tailor has dizzy spells and therefore can't make it in time, so the suit is only held together by basting stitches and finally falls apart.
From the phone booth he has hidden in, Harold sees how the Cad tries to force himself on Peggy and teaches him a lesson.

The Cad retaliates by telling him that he has never been popular and that it all has just been a big joke.
Harold is devastated, but Peggy comforts him and tells him to stop trying to be someone he isn't and make them like him for what he really is.
Harold sees his chance at the big football game still thinking he's in the team because Peggy who knows the truth didn't have the heart to tell him. When the coach runs out of substitutes because of injuries, he has to send in Harold to avoid the game being forfeited.
Of course, Harold manages a touchdown in the last minute - and with just one shoe on, too!

Sweeter to him than being celebrated by everyone, however, is this note that Peggy slips him while he's being carried into the locker room ...

Let me get something out of the way first.
I hate bullying of all sorts and I really felt for Harold. You are supposed to do that of course, but also still to be able to laugh. Therefore, the scene of him as a live tackle dummy is cut rather short and a scene at the ice cream parlor was actually cut completely according to Lloyd's autobiography because it made the test audience feel too sorry for Harold to be funny.

If you read my post about "Brown of Harvard", you may wonder why I even watched another college movie (by the way, it's said that "The Freshman" kicked off a college movie vogue).
The difference is that I knew bits of "The Freshman" from the olden days when I was still an innocent, fresh-faced kid. Seriously though, I did know parts from the old compilation films. This was Lloyd's financially most successful silent movie and I knew it would be hilarious.
Tom Brown annoys me, but I route for Harold even though they both end up in a big football game, a sport I know even less about than others.
Also Harold's football game is fun because he's still Harold. He's not athletic, he's struggling, and it's a miracle that he suceeds. Tom's isn't because he is a sportsman and we know that he just needs to shed off the old wisecracker's shell, get serious and do it. You know what I mean.
Something that I thought was funny, though - Lea Stans from "Silent-ology" also pointed it out - was that there was absolutely no mention of studying. Even Tom held a stack of books once even if not for long 😂
Then again one of the intertitles said: "Tate University - a large football stadium with a college attached." I wonder if that was the reason why the Germans literally called the movie "The sports student".

Most of all, however, Harold is relatable. He is the ordinary guy who wants to be popular, who wants to be liked, who wants to show what he can do. Probably we all have been there one way or the other, haven't we (I mean, isn't blogging and hoping for reactions a rather good example 😉)?
We can relate to his reaction when the Cad tells him the truth, the shock, trying to laugh it off like it's nothing, then the breakdown. And it's so sweet to see Peggy comforting him and building him up again. The chemistry between Harold and Peggy (Jobyna Ralston) is great.

Yes, and then it is just nice to see the ordinary guy succeed even if it's not very realistic and we know it. It's something we maybe hope for sometimes in our own lives.
"Wait a moment, though," I hear you say. "What was it you said about sports heros?"
The difference for me is that in the end you don't find Harold letting himself be celebrated in a crowd or a parade. You find him alone in the shower - which he turns on by accident without even noticing - with what's important to him. Peggy's note.
 

I love this movie and think it's really funny and sweet.


Sources and further reading:

1. Stephen Winer: The Freshman: Speedy Saves the Day! A Harold Lamb Adventure! On: The Criterion Collection. Essays, March 25, 2014
2. Lea Stans: Thoughts On: "The Freshman". On: Silent-ology, May 23, 2016
3. Harold Lloyd (in collaboration with Wesley W. Stout): An American Comedy, New York, NY, Dover Publ., republication of the 1928 edition

Cats, cats, cats, and more cats, part 4

Over half a year ago I wrote I wasn't done with showing you cats and more cats from my place.
If you are interested, you can find part 1 to 3 here, here, and here. There I said "I have quite a few around the place, some because I fell in love with them myself, others because for some weird reason people think I like cats and have given me a lot of items over the years. Really strange, I know. Why would they think something like that? 😂"

Let's start with a tiny one. An online friend had sent me a surprise parcel and among other things it had a cute little glass cat in it.
The very first miniature basket I crocheted from wire in 2010 had a little black polymer clay cat in it and some colored wire loosely stuffed in to mimic yarn. I thought I still had a picture of it, but it's probably in a "safe spot", too ... anyhow, it was my first clay cat, a little creepy looking because I was really bad at it then, and also my baskets have improved a lot after that. So this single earring is kind of a homage to my (very humble) beginnings.
I have been searching for similar glass cats since then, but never found one that worked as well as this one (it's not a bead and I don't use glue, so it needs to be a specific way for me to attach it safely).

This sweetie with the sparkle eyes was a gift, but I have to admit I'm not sure anymore by whom. It's rather heavy, so I think it would work better as a bag charm.

Bikky's print has been on my blog before, but I love it so much that I want to show it again. Bikky's model for her digital paintings is her own cat Broccoli which also gave her shop the name - "Broccoli Cat Art".
A cat on a book holding a teddy, could it be any more perfect for me?

As a kid, I had one of those animals which collapsed if you pushed on the hidden spring with your thumb although I don't remember which animal it was. I had to look up what they are called - one name for them is push puppets.
A Swiss toy maker invented them (some sources say 1926, some 1932) and called his company Wakouwa using the first letters from his name Walter Kourt Walls. Originally, they were from wood, but soon other companies began making them as well, and plastic was used, too.
Here's my (nameless) cat.

The last two are from the MUTTS universe and new additions.
I just noticed that I never really talked about cartoons here. I love cartoons and comic strips and like to say that the cartoonists I follow and who so generously share their work publicly (I wish I could support all of them) help keeping me sane in these times.
There are the timeless ones, the bizarre ones, the witty ones, the smart ones, the satirical ones, the silly ones, the creepy ones and so on (although cartoons and comics can be more than one thing, of course) - and if I could share just one word for MUTTS, it would be "warm-hearted".
Patrick McDonnell created MUTTS in 1994 telling the everyday adventures of Earl the dog (based on his own dog), Mooch the cat, and the animals and people around them.
On the website it says that "Compassion for all creatures is at the heart of MUTTS. Throughout their adventures, Mooch and Earl befriend an adorable array of creatures, including neighborhood pets and their guardians, wild animals, adoptable shelter pets and rescue workers, animals at farm sanctuaries, and more."
The stories make me smile, laugh, and sometimes cry, like the story of Guard Dog, for example, or the pleas of Shtinky Puddin', the kitten "who cares passionately about protecting endangered animals".
This magnet of Shtinky gazing into the night sky is now on my fridge.

"Hopeful Stargazing"

Then there was this comic strip.
When I looked in the shop, I couldn't find it as a print. So I reached out to the team on social media. They said they'd put in a request with the design team to resize it for a print, confirmed shortly after that it would get made available, and a few weeks later it was.
It only arrived a few days ago - much faster than I had expected, though - so I haven't chosen a frame for it yet, but I just had to show you.

For personal reasons that I don't want to go into, this strip hits really close to home in more than one way, therefore I was so glad they did that.
"Some days you hold your cat. Some days your cats holds you." 💕

You can find MUTTS on their own website, on Instagram or Facebook, you can also subscribe to a daily comic strip (I really don't have many email subscriptions, but this one gives me a boost).
I should add that I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I'm just a huge fan, and if you are an animal lover and don't know the strips yet, you maybe should have a look, too.
Also, as usual I asked beforehand if it was okay to share this.

A little warning at the end, there will definitely be a part 5.

Nostalgia - Frankenwolf and friendship

Let me tell you a bit about my girl Frankenwolf.
Frankenwolf has to thank my friend Jenn and a mutual friend of ours for her existence. Said friend - also a collector - had asked her at one time to take a Steiff puppet and a Steiff figure and turn them into a new creation.
That inspired Jenn to do the same with Frankenwolf.

Now that might sound quite gruesome to you, beheading two Steiffs and sewing them together, but of course that's just part of the story.
Let's have a look at Frankenwolf's donors.

Steiff has a long history of making German Shepherd dogs, they have been around for over 100 years. Their ancestors, however, still had a bad image which was probably the reason why it took until 1956 before they appeared in Steiff's production.
The first Steiff wolf was a hand puppet named Loopy after the Latin "lupus" which means wolf. That's not surprising to me as there weren't just nice, cuddly puppets, but it could also be useful to have a "villain" (like our childhood non-Steiff devil who was my favorite with his red head). Loopy was produced from 1956 to 1978. He had an open mouth with four fangs and a long red felt tongue. It wasn't unusual for fangs and/or tongues to get lost during play eventually, though.

I always called the one on the right Grandma Wolf,
she seems to be a very happy wolf.

The wolf remained a rare animal in Steiff's line. There are two sizes of a standing Loopy - the smaller one has a closed, the bigger one an open mouth - which were only made for one year in 1964 (one of my personal favorites). Later wolves sometimes turned up as a companion, for example with a Red Riding Hood doll or a polar bear.
The puppet used for Frankenwolf was in very bad shape. Actually, it's surprising that it still had all the fangs. Before throwing the head away as well, though, this was definitely the better choice.

The body was taken from a Micki figure who had a different problem.
First a (very short) word about Mecki. He's a hedgehog who originally came from a German puppet film and became the mascot of a TV magazine where he got his own cartoon. Mecki's wife is called Micki, the children Macki and Mucki. The character had always been quite popular (to be honest, I have never been a fan myself), so Steiff got themselves the licensing rights and made their own versions of the whole family from 1951 on.
Now the early versions had a little problem. The heads were made from rubber which tended to dry out and deteriorate. Later versions were made of a different material.

Pictures by NoName_13 via Pixabay

Well, and Micki had the same problem, but her body was quite okay (even if she had lost her apron and her shoes are a bit scuffed).
Jenn also added a tail and different arms.

Frankenwolf means more to me, however, than just being a unique addition to my collection.
A few years ago I told a little about how I met Jenn. The ex and I were in the USA for the first time and got the chance to visit FAO Schwarz in San Francisco (which closed down over 20 years ago). Steiff made some wonderful and desired FAO Schwarz specials over the years some of which you can see in this video. We were like children in a candy store ... no, wait, toy store 😉

FAO Schwarz Manhattan, picture by Rob Young
 from the UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia

When we had exhausted ourselves (and our wallets just a little bit), we asked if there was something like an American Steiff club or a way to get in contact with other collectors. They didn't have any information on that, but they gave us Jenn's number (let me remind you that data privacy wasn't such a big thing yet back then and in this case I'm very glad about that). Jenn had repaired studio Steiffs - amazing lifesize plush animals - for them before.
Then we sat in our hotel room and the ex decided I had to call Jenn. I was so nervous. How do you explain best to a stranger that you got their number from the toy store because you are a German Steiff collector? I needn't have worried. After five minutes, she offered to show us around everywhere. I told her that unfortunately we were leaving the next day, and that could have been the end of it - but it wasn't.
We exchanged addresses and started writing each other letters, then we went from letters to phone calls which might show you how important this had become for us. This was before cell phones and texting, emails or chats.

The next year we went to the US again and that time we would meet Jenn in San Francisco and I would go home with her where the ex would join his conference was over. That was also when I fell in love with White Dude, by the way, the cat that the previous residents had left behind at Jenn's place and who went back to Germany with us as her own cats didn't want him there, little punks (I loved them, anyway).

That was almost 35 years ago.
We visited Jenn, she visited us, later just me. We have a lot of stories and memories, good ones and not so good ones because that's how life is.
I wish we didn't have about 5,800 air miles between us and could just hang out, have tea (or tap water that she insists on 😉) and cake, talk, laugh, and do fun stuff. The distance makes spontaneous dates just a tad difficult. Time difference and work schedules can also make it difficult to talk, but when we do, we get a lot of stuff covered.

When I said that Frankenwolf means more to me than just a toy, this is what I mean. Friendship. She does ... and my little gnome you have seen before does ... and the surprises Jenn got me on fleamarkets, the teddies she taught me how to sew, and the time she gave me a duplicate key to her place as a sign of her friendship which actually made me tear up.
Can someone please finally invent that transporting device that I need so badly?
But even if we haven't seen one another for several years, we think of each other, and I sure hope I made her ears ring now. As we always say to each other at the end of a call .... love ya, my Jenn.