One of the first entries I wrote for this blog when I started it 10 years ago (again, yikes) was about the TV Christmas classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I've always identified with the outsider, the different kid, the freak. I still want to live on the Island of Misfit Toys--I think I'd fit in. This could explain why I have so many Rudolphs.
My first ornament as a child was a white glass Rudolph, and that love of the "different" reindeer carried well into adulthood. The plush Rudolph in front has been around for years and was purchased at Montgomery Ward, where Rudolph's story first began way back in 1939 when Ward's copywriter Robert May came up with the story of the little buck everyone laughed at until they needed him to save their sorry furry asses. That original storybook was sold at Ward's years before the song (most famously covered by cowboy star Gene Autry) and the TV special.
The other Rudolphs accumulated over time. I found the flocked one on the left at Quake (the best second-hand toy store in the world, I tell you--and within walking distance of La Casa!). The semi-plush one in the middle was picked up at the neighborhood Village Discount Outlet for cheap--and it sings! The one on the right? That popped up at Walgreens this year. And all the way in the back? The book that started it all (well, a facsimile thereof).
1 comment:
This is beautiful, brother. And from one Misfit Toy to another, now I know why you have such patience with me. :-)
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