I Think She Might Be Related to Howdy Doody

The director of our ill-fated Steel Magnolias production-that-never-was left a Peko-chan doll in my doorstep just before she moved to San Diego. She found it at a local thrift shop, part of a chain called Book Off. I think I need to spend more time browsing local thrift shops.

When we lived in Bethesda, we invested in a tall curio cabinet to display family memorabilia like the Ancient Mariner's bronzed baby shoes, his mother's music box, and my grandmother's childhood book collection. These days that cabinet is crammed with Peko-chan dolls, figurines, spoons, plates, books, and necklaces. I'm almost at the point of being embarrassed by the amount of Peko-chan items I've amassed in the past five years.

But not quite.