To Collect and Last

all images from www.sylvanianfamilies.com

I'm an only child. I have things and these things are my things: I really don't like to share. I took care of things: I didn't cut my dolls' hair, didn't colour on Barbie's face, didn't forget those small accessories, ruining outfits. I bordered on obsessive. I come by it honestly: my mother really did teach me the importance of respecting things and being careful. Ah, we'll get back to my mother in a moment.

I had a collection, a small collection, but a poignant collection, nonetheless. It included, from memory, the Wildwood Rabbit Family, one Slydale Fox Family member (he was like the Creepy Uncle), and the Honeybear Brown Bear Family. I had furniture as well. If I recall correctly, it was the green dining room table and four chairs. These precious little numbers were known as The Sylvanian Families. I can still recall the song that went with the advertisements: "Sylvanian Families: to collect and last." Oh, what's that? To COLLECT and LAST? That's funny, because I seem to recall that I don't have the Sylvanian Families anymore. Hmmm...I wonder what happened to them?

When I was a child of about eight (too old to play with this stuff, but not to old to marvel in it's beauty), my mother did something so horrible, so nearly unspeakable, that it has taken me until NOW to come forward about it. I've never quite forgiven her for this, though you may think I've taken the hurt a bit too far. Too far is never enough when it comes to pain of this magnitude. Yeah, my life was a bit sheltered.

She gave them away. And worse, she gave them to my neighbour. Lacey was close enough to me that I could have asked for them back, but I knew (and my mother, of course reminded me) that I just couldn't ask for it back. It was a gift. And it was gone.

I always wondered by I love gingham as much as I do: mystery solved. I had the couch too. Sigh.

So who cares, right? It was twenty years ago...eventually I should be able to get over it. Should, but can't. Because now I live in Korea, the land of foreign things; the land of "Gee, nothing here looks familiar". Until now.

I went to Namdaemun (pronounced, "NUM-day-moon") on Saturday. One of the reasons we wanted to go was to visit the six-storey art store there. It was remarkable. Unexpectedly, they had a massive toy section (note to parents: I would gladly have bought a GREAT gift for Avi and Mia, but everything was made in China [read: lead paint warning], so I refrained). And what do you know...I found the long-lost Sylvanian Families. Not just ONE family, ONE furniture set...the WHOLE enchilada, baby. The selection was astounding.

Not wanting to be a creepy lady, I didn't buy the Sylvanian Families. But I'm tempted to go back and scoop them up :) I KNEW there was a reason I came here!