My name is Rachel and I was born almost 50 years ago, in 1971. At some point in my childhood, I received the gift of my dolls house; I believe it was a birthday present, and I LOVED it! There was no such thing as a doll/house lifestyle experience (that I knew anyway), so there was all types of furniture and dolls all in there together. I have wonderful memories of hours and hours kneeling in front of it and running the lives of all who lived in there!
At around the age of 14, we moved to Clare; we ended up renting for a few years, so the dolls’ house (along with the majority of our furniture etc.) remained in storage until we moved into our newly built home when I was 17. The dolls house went straight up into the attic over the garage… and stayed there.
Roll on thirty, yes, thirty years and I had a daughter of my own, Aoife, who was turning eight years old. One day, when visiting my parents, I realised Aoife was growing out of the toys they had, and I suddenly remembered my old dolls house; was it still up in the attic?! I immediately went up and found it, with all the furniture and dolls etc. stored beside it in a plastic bag… resting just where they had been put (and untouched since then) all those years ago!
I am not sure who got more enjoyment out of putting everything back in its rightful place again, Aoife, or myself, but we had a wonderful hour or so together as I reminisced about the dolls’ house between us. The little brown TV was so like the real one we had in the 1970s; Aoife wondered how any of us survived with only two channels… and no remote! However, it was the little orange drinks’ cabinet that caught my eye; although I grew up in a tee-total house, lots of homes I visited growing up had a drinks’ cabinet in the ‘good’ room. I wouldn’t, therefore, have thought anything of my plastic imitation one in the sitting room of my dolls house. You can see all the different bottles and glasses (wine, cognac and cocktail) etc., detailed in the cabinet; it definitely would not be acceptable these days!
Speaking of ‘these days’, in 2019, my daughter bought a LOL dolls’ house with some of her Communion money: it had three stories, a lift, roof-top living, with a helicopter pad at the very top no less; she loves it… and not a drinks’ cabinet in sight! Ah, the times they are a changin’, for sure!
One piece in particular always makes me laugh, ie the well-stocked drinks cabinet! I think it’s a great piece to explore what was culturally acceptable in the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellarette
