Making a Family
Fifi and Arnold fall in love. With no thought of the outcome of an inter-species marriage, dog and cat wed. Soon afterwards, Fifi has a litter of cat-dogs named Sharon, Karen, Erin, and Arnie Jr.
In her later years, Mom reflected on her decision to marry Dad and take on three more children in addition to her two sons:“I just wanted to make a family.” Like Dad, she had struggled with her prior spouse. Both my biological mother and Mom’s ex-husband had been difficult people, if not impossibly broken.
Sadly, Mom and Dad eventually divorced. And although she was deeply heartbroken, she had succeeded in making not one but two blended families. One of these families is a series of handmade dolls with vastly different backgrounds and of various species, and now living happily ever after.
Her day job consisted of baking bread and organic gardening. Cooking and cleaning. Caring for chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, and birds, or making sure we cared for them. Getting five children out of bed in the morning, making them breakfast, and sending them off to school with bagged lunches. Putting clean sheets on beds and steaming fresh eucalyptus leaves into a lung-clearing steam, when all five of us got sick at once.
Nights, behind the closed door of a closet, she whirred away on her Singer machine. It started with making clothing and toys. One Christmas Eve, she emerged from her tiny sewing room and while we were sleeping, gift-wrapped stuffed pink cotton baby dolls for my sister and me and creatures of some kind (probably snakes) for the boys.
The Beatles movie “The Yellow Submarine” inspired a subsequent Christmas: “Love” for our oldest brother, a Blue Meanie for me, Apple Bonkers for each of my two younger brothers, and for my sister, a hybrid of Love and a Blue Meanie. Made of soft light blue flannel and stuffed with squishy filling for maximum cuddle-ability. Swatches of rabbit fur, felt accents for ears, tongues, and noses, random bits of lace and fabric as the spirit moved her, and the final touch, a small neck bell that jingled softly at bedtime.
One day, a small doll named Marc arrived from France. A gift for my sister from American expats who were longtime friends of my parents, Marc was soon lost. Mom quickly sewed and stuffed a replacement, dressing the new Marc in handmade clothes. She spotted a cowboy boot on one of her foraging journeys, probably at the Goodwill. Knowing she was unlikely to find its mate, she decided to give Marc a peg leg and fit him for the single boot. And because she felt no life was complete without a dog (she had many dogs over her lifetime), she made Arnold to be Marc’s companion.
None of us knew Marc would be the first member and the genesis of her vision for a children’s book, which would also include Fifi the cat (proud owner of 25 hats), her traveling companion Ace Magee; Homer, a black painter; the vivacious Ruby Wah, (a red head); and Aunt Basil, who had no actual nieces or nephews.
The story of The Family begins with the reunion of longtime friends’ Aunt Basil and Ruby Wah following the death of an old friend, Jack. Ruby Wah has been fired from her job and shows up on Aunt Basil’s doorstep. The two friends decide the house Jack has bequeathed Aunt Basil is much too big for for only them and place a newspaper ad advertising rooms for rent.
Marc, a sailor, arrives with his wife, the Spanish Bijou. Marc has lost his leg not on the sea but in a logging accident. With them is the dog Arnold, and new additions Ernie the Parrot and four snakes with useful housekeeping skills. The unlikely crew moves in.
Homer answers the ad as well and arrives with his cat Fifi and her 25 hats. Meanwhile, Aunt Basil and Ruby Wah’s friend Ace McGee, a gold prospector and a gambler, has tired of traveling the world. He arrives with his son O.B. (otherwise known as Dalaboto Pee Flood) and it’s one big happy family. But then Fifi and Arnold fall in love. With no thought of the outcome of an inner-species marriage, dog and cat wed. Soon after this, Fifi has a litter of cat-dogs named Sharon, Karen, Erin, and Arnie Jr.
One day, Marc discovers a mysterious bottle in a storage room. A sign on the bottle reads “Open as soon as possible!” After a lively discussion about genies and wishes, a consensus is reached to wish for a big ranch house to accommodate the family’s growing numbers.
Aunt Basil is elected to take off the lid. Out of smoke, sparks and flashes of light emerges a two-headed genii whose names are Elvira and Jose. Food and drink are given to the hungry, thirsty guests and they ask Aunt Basil what her wish will be.
Elvira and Jose get to work. A month later, at a celebration party, a grateful Aunt Basil and family invite the genies to join them in living on the new ranch.
Mom wrote the first couple of drafts on her typewriter. Like her creator, the narrator Aunt Basil loves cooking, parties and offbeat solutions to problems. In the margins of the early manuscript, Mom made notes for changes and the photographs that would accompany to story.
Frame-by-frame, she constructed each scene in her mind and then built a stage. She installed to-scale wood plank flooring and purchased or made dollhouse-size furniture. With Dad’s help, she learned photography and set up a tiny lighting studio in our very tiny house. For each scene, she made detailed notes of the shutter speed, f stop and lighting, to ensure that the photographs could be re-shot by a professional if she succeeded in finding a publisher.
The story went through several revisions. By the time it was ready to shop around to publishers, Mom had decided to have Aunt Basil narrate as though the reader is looking through a photo album with her as she recounts the story. Storyboards featuring cutouts of Mom’s photographs show her vision of the layout.
In her papers, she made notes about finding publishers. At least one publisher expressed interest but by that time, she was chin-deep in nursing school, fighting a debilitating skin condition and lacking the energy to make the trip to New York. Fifteen years later, she retired from her belated career as a nurse and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
Aunt Basil, Ruby Wah, Ace, Marc, Bijou, Homer, Fifi and Arnold and their little ones, Ernie the Parrot, Elvira and Jose, and the four snakes are packed away in boxes. In our hearts, they spend their days playing Apple On Your Head,* making art and listening to music, and eating Aunt Basil’s oatmeal-and-raisin cookies.
*A game without rules, the fun of Apple on Your Head is in the joy of rolling the dice and moving the pieces around a board grid comprised of one-quarter inch tiles.
Photographs by Mary Lynn Korn
This is amazing you experienced growing up with such a creative force. How wonderful that you could share it now with us.
i love it!!! i could look at their pictures all day