Betsy McCall Doll Patterns Opened New Worlds

Reader Contribution by Cynthia Curry
Updated on April 27, 2022
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courtesy Cynthia Curry
Within the pages of McCall's magazine, little Betsy McCall experienced numerous adventures, sharing them with girls like Cynthia.

When I was 6, my family’s home was in the middle of a farm in the middle of Missouri in the middle of the United States. Many people might have thought we lived in the middle of nowhere.

On Halloween of 1957, I was proudly dressed as a bumblebee. My sister, who was a mere 13 months younger, dressed as a clown. Since we lived in a rural area, there weren’t many houses around, so pickings that year were going to be slim at best. We were as likely to get fruit, homemade honey or toothbrushes as we were candy.

There was one house where, although the lights were on, no one answered our first or even our second knock. Just as we were about to walk away, a woman wearing a suit and high heels opened the door. She looked surprised to see us.

“Trick or Treat!” we gamely shouted, keeping our fingers crossed in hopes that she had candy and not an apple.

“Oh, my, is it Halloween?” she asked, looking very distressed.

My hopes plummeted. Not only would we not get candy, we probably wouldn’t even get fruit. She looked at my mother, who was walking with us that night.

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