How do your dolls from different time periods interact?

[QNPoohBear]

I'm a historical purist, so I don't swap out clothes or anything but they get together for tea parties. They're all close enough in era so that their cultures are similar (except Kaya). Susanna, a modern girl, must time travel back to the past in order to visit the others.

[Jane Hart]

Hmmm...an interesting question! My dolls are all fine together, when taking pics I like them to be close in time period, like molly and kit or kirsten and addy, etc. Although they all are shelf bound together and I like to think they all get along well. Although I don't like them to share clothes. I have tried it once, but quickly changed them back, it just wasn't right, with the exception of AGoT dolls because they have no history I think they can were what ever and be what ever!

[christhedolllady]

My dolls used to be just for display, now, thanks to this board, they are a lot more than that. Since they have been intermingling for some time, I'll follow Cherry's lead and make them all time travelers.

[Dancingfewl423]

My dolls are all sisters and love each other dearly. I think it would be a very lonely world for them if they were constantly seperated. They are 4 best friends, despite historical "situation".

[vew-tori]

Our girls stick to their own time or wear AGT. They never swap historical outfits. I like Laura's philosophy about being in the present with a particular background. We may have to adopt that.

[Sail-Away]

My girls are an absolute mess! LOL.

Sam and Nellie pretty much stay in their clothing.

Kit has NONE of her own clothes. We are waiting for some to arrive still. She is in modern stuff.

Josie is an OOAK so she floats around too.

Kirsten is the adventurer of the guop. She is all over the place and into everything.

[Katie148]

I pretty much keep my dolls in their own historical clothing, but they definitely interact and are friends. Someone else posted about pretending her dolls went to boarding school at her house from all different times and places, and I guess that's kind of how I imagine them - just as girls who all somehow made their way to my house to be clothed and sheltered. [img]wink.gif[/img] I never think, "oh, Felicity can't be friends with Kirsten because they come from different times." After all, I've had them both for years and years now, and they can't help but be friends after all that time - I couldn't pretend like they didn't even know each other. [img]redface.gif[/img] I don't really think of them as still living in their time periods - they live in the modern day, but have somehow traveled here from the past and continue to follow the traditions of their time.

[judiaci]

It is funny how most of us have to make some sort of logical sense out of our dolls' "situations." I still ponder how Marisol and Maisie (AGOT23) can be sisters. My daughter said they are sisters, so I find myself trying to think of logical scenarios that would make them sisters when Marisol is an only, hispanic child and Maisie looks Irish to me. I am deciding if they are both adopted, if just one is adopted or if one of the parents is Irish and one is Hispanic. I haven't read all of Marisol's book, yet, but I know we will creatively fit Maisie into Marisol's story, somehow. [img]confused.gif[/img]

[carolinapooh]

I saw a similar thread earlier (I am board surfing and loving it!) and I think I picture my dolls as from their own time periods (like when I put Molly in the Go Anywhere outfit and apologized for the lack of Harry Truman) but together in the present. As if they're spirits from another time, but are "real" little girls in the here-and-now.

Once I asked my mother, who would be Molly's contemporary, what was it like to grow up during the Second World War in Norfolk, VA with Headquarters Atlantic Fleet right in her backyard and German U-boats in the Chesapeake Bay. She countered by asking me what was it like to grow up during the Cold War, with the threat of the bomb and a brother working on a nuclear submarine. Neither of us could imagine it for the other. So I wonder what these girls whisper to each other (as all girls do) when the lights go out.

I would love to hear a conversation between a still-longed-for Felicity and my Molly...how can we be such close allies with our former enemy? When I get Addy, what will she think about living in North Carolina - and in Durham, of all places, within walking distance of the university that tobacco built (Duke)? Felicity would love a trip to Edenton; we had a tea party there in her day, too! And to know that we're still a free nation...but what could Addy teach her about freedom? What could courageous little Addy teach them all about the privilege it is to be an American Girl? What would she think of neighboring Greensboro and a soda counter in a Woolworth's there, the site of the first sit-in?

Molly is stunned to know that her doll ancestors were built in Germany, a nation she considered her enemy but is now proud to call her ally. Samantha is fascinated with modern cars and the fact that you now buy ice cream in the store! She also is excited that women can drive now, as it was frowned upon in her time! Sam is relieved that children are now protected by labor law and is anxious for Nellie to arrive so she can share the good news.

I think Samantha secretly loves wearing jeans; I think Felicity would too! Imagine clothes that you can run around in without fear of ruining them!

I think you've hit on why these dolls appeal to me so - they're US in a way; they've always been us, even before Pleasant Rowland dreamed them up. I would love to talk with my mom as a little girl; my grandmother was born in 1917 and the 20s must have been fascinating to a child. We would all love the chance to speak with our grandmothers and great-grandmothers - now we almost have that chance.