{"id":57191,"date":"2016-02-06T00:09:16","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T08:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=57191"},"modified":"2016-02-06T00:09:16","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T08:09:16","slug":"young-cultivators-merit-badge-toys-beginner-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/57191","title":{"rendered":"Young Cultivators Merit Badge: Toys, Beginner Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/span><\/span><\/a>, now with\u00a06,825 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,626 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u2026\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For this week\u2019s Young Cultivator Stitching and Crafting\/Toys Beginning Level Merit Badge<\/u><\/a>, I decided to make it easy on myself and hand the reins over to my niece, Piper. In order to earn her very first Young Cultivator badge, Piper needed to interview an adult about the toys they played with when\u00a0they were young.<\/p>\n

Ahhh, nostalgia, thy name is toys \u2026<\/p>\n

\"556px-The_Original_Advertisement\"

Photo by Webms via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Take it away, Piper!<\/p>\n

*tap, tap, tap*<\/p>\n

Piper: Testing, testing, 1 … 2 … 3?<\/p>\n

Jane: Isn\u2019t that a plastic karaoke machine, Pipes?<\/p>\n

Piper: I\u2019ll do the questioning, ma\u2019am. First question: what was your favorite toy growing up as a youngster in the 1850s?<\/p>\n

Jane: Yikes! I\u2019m not that<\/em> old. My favorite toy only recently, as I am very spry and youthful, <\/em>was my dolly, Adelaide.<\/p>\n

Piper: I see. And what was said Adelaide made of? Wood?<\/p>\n

Jane: Wood?<\/p>\n

Piper: Yes. It\u2019s my understanding that toys that long ago were likely actual sticks.<\/p>\n

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Stick doll or penny doll. Photo by Wolfgang Moroder via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jane: A stick toy?<\/p>\n

Piper: No, a stick used <\/em>as a toy.<\/p>\n

Jane, feeling ornery and deciding to go with it: Yes, Adelaide was a lovely stick. She was cherry mahogany, you know.<\/p>\n

Piper: I see. And did you play with your stick for hours at a time?<\/p>\n

Jane: Oh, yes. I dressed her up and braided her hair, which of course, was made of moss. Once I misplaced poor Adelaide and had to go looking for her. After I walked to school uphill both ways in the snow, naturally.<\/p>\n

Piper: Goodness. Did you find her?<\/p>\n

Jane, shaking her head sadly: It was a tragedy. It turns out my father had gone to gather kindling that morning for our stove while I was writing chalk verses on my slate for school.<\/p>\n

Piper, gasping: Oh, no! Poor Adelaide!<\/p>\n

Jane, chuckling: Just kidding. Adelaide was a real doll, and a posh one, too. She had little leather boots and a bunch of different outfits.<\/p>\n

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Vintage Bradley brand dolls from Japan, Photo by KeiBi via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Piper, looking relieved, and also disappointed: Oh. Yeah, I have one like that. I don\u2019t really play with her, though. I mostly play my iPad and stuff.<\/p>\n

Jane: Really? Have you ever told her your secrets? Or sent her on secret missions for you?<\/p>\n

Piper, looking slightly interested: Nooo \u2026 that sounds kinda fun, though. What else did you do with your stick? I mean, with Adelaide?<\/p>\n

Jane: Well, I also had an old tape recorder. Kind of like the one you\u2019re using now to interview me, except mine was way cooler.<\/p>\n

Piper: Hey!<\/p>\n

Jane: Just keeping it real, kid. Anyway, I was always transcribing stories into it, or rehearsing play lines, or predicting the future. Sometimes, my friends and I would sing songs or tell ghost stories into it.<\/p>\n

Piper: Neato! Do you still have the tapes?<\/p>\n

Jane: I think I may have buried a couple.<\/p>\n

Piper, frowning: What\u2019d you do that for?<\/p>\n

Jane: Like a time capsule. You\u2019ve never done a time capsule? You mean to tell me iPads can\u2019t do time capsules? Huh. Well, anyway, we buried a cigar box full of tapes and Polaroid pictures and nifty stuff. We buried it under that old oak tree out back.<\/p>\n

Piper, looking mischievous: Really? Well, that\u2019s enough interviewing for one day \u2026 thanks, Auntie Jane.<\/p>\n

Jane: Anytime, pipsqueak. What are you doing the rest of the day?<\/p>\n

Piper: Oh, you know, the usual. I thought I\u2019d take the iPad out to the yard. Maybe sit under that nice, shady tree there.<\/p>\n

Jane: Hmm. Is that so? Well, don\u2019t forget your stick.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with\u00a06,825 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,626 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\u00a0 Wondering who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}