Susie Scribbles has written a special message.
During a visit to a local toy store in the fall of 1988, my daughter, who was 11 at the time, and I saw Susie Scribbles on display. I briefly considered purchasing one for her as a Christmas present, but she did not seem impressed and did not express a desire for it.
Susie's body houses a cassette tape player to play the tapes designed to activate her writing mechanism. She sits in a white wooden school desk, has a writing tablet, an ink pen, and the Meet Susie Scribbles cassette tape. Additional cassettes were sold separately.
After being bitten by the doll-collecting bug, I eventually purchased the Susie Scribbles in the early-to-mid 1990s from another collector for myself. As a lover of the written word and a writer of it as well, I have enjoyed seeing Susie scribble.
In 1966, longing for a penpal, either domestic or international, I wrote the Boston, Massachusetts branch of the International Friendship League (IFL), an organization that, among other things, still pairs individuals as penpals. I scribbled the following letter to IFL, which they returned along with the name and address of my new 10-year-old penpal, Colleen Thompson of Norway.
My 1966 letter to IFL (click to enlarge)
Colleen and I corresponded for at least a year, maybe longer. I kept every letter she wrote until I left home.
I hope she enjoyed receiving my letters, learning about me and my family, my interests, and other aspects of my young life as much as I enjoyed this from her. She liked horses and, like mine, her penmanship wasn't the best either.
To view a video of Susie Scribbles writing her special message, click here and press the Play arrow after the video loads.
