Matt's blog post brought to my mind when I was in fourth grade and entered a poster contest. I was very proud of my crayon drawing of Esmerelda, J. P.'s rag doll. I had my own Raggedy Ann doll that I hadn't given up still in fourth grade so I loved drawing Esmerelda. My poster won "Honorable Mention" - I believe this was the first time I'd ever heard that term. I was thrilled to go up on stage and recieve a Patches Pal iron-on transfer from J. P. Patches himself. I don't have a photo of my poster nor of me on stage but I mentioned to Matt that I thought I still had my sweatshirt that I ironed it on to somewhere. So, Matt, here it is!
From Visiting Vintage |
In a way, J. P. Patches connects me to my Grandpa, too. My Grandfather, Howard Johnson died when I was eight. I don't have a lot of memories of him but he enjoyed paint-by-numbers in his free time. He painted a clown for me. I actually never really understood sad clowns but this is the one painted just for me - he signed it Gampa which is apparently what I called him when I was two. So despite the frown on this clown, it resembles J. P. Patches to me.
From Visiting Vintage |
1 comment:
That painting is such a sweet thing to remember your grandfather by. That takes me back. I remember paint-by-numbers sets, the smoothness of the paints -- they must have been acrylic. The sweatshirt really is in good shape after all this time. Thanks for the plug, btw.
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