Third Place: Creative Nonfiction
Two Dolls and a Girl Ashley Patzwald
In 1918, Johnny Gruelle, a cartoonist and illustrator, introduced the world to a rag doll named Raggedy Ann. Two years later, in 1920, Gruelle would introduce the world to her brother Raggedy Andy. The two rag dolls were very recognizable, because they both had red hair and triangles for noses. Andy wore solid blue pants, a checkered red shirt, and a white sailor hat. Ann wore what is called an apron dress. Both dolls had black shoes and leggings that were red and white strips. I’m sure that when Gruelle created the stories of Ann and Andy, he didn’t know that eighty-six years later, he would be giving a little girl two companions. I was six years old, when I received my own Raggedy Ann doll that once belonged to my great grandmother, who I called Nana. I knew who Raggedy Ann was, because I had some plastic dishes with pictures of her and her brother Andy. My Raggedy Ann was not like the doll she was based off. My Ann was made completely out of cloth, and her dress was navy blue and white checkered. She wore an apron that tied around her waist, and pantaloons under her dress. Her hair was not red, and her nose was not a triangle, but a circle. She had round eyes and freckles. I wouldn’t find out, until I was older, that my great Aunt had handmade the doll for Nana. Nana didn’t really take to Ann, for some reason, so Ann was sort of rejected. When I received the doll, I was going through a time in my life where my father had left me behind, and my mother was going through difficult health issues. With these events happening, I found myself being handed over to my grandparents to be raised. My six-year-old heart was given a little comfort, each night, as I would go to bed with Ann laying next to me. A year later, I would reach an age to start getting invited to spend the night at various friends’ houses. Due to being moved around to various family members, when I was a little more than a year old, I had major separation anxiety. This anxiety made it difficult for me to spend the night at any house that was not my own. It didn’t matter how close or far away the house was from home. So, each time I would make the trip to someone’s house, Ann would be safely packed away into my overnight bag. Any time I would wake up with a feeling of unease, I would find Ann lying next to me, and pull her close to my body. I also did this, when I was at home, if I woke up from a bad dream. Ann became more than just a rag doll. She became my protector from monsters that might be under my bed or in my closet. That same year, I began to feel that Ann was lonely, because she had a brother, but he was not with her. As far I could tell, there had never been an Andy that went along with my Ann. That Christmas, the top item on my list for Santa was a Raggedy Andy for my Raggedy Ann. I was not disappointed. 100 Inscape 2019
