B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 13,1982
81-ym-oM greaf-great-grandma says
Too old for dolls?
BY PATTY GROSS
Staff Correspondent
Mildred Nocks likes dolls. That
may not sound unusual lor a young
girl, but the Tyrone woman will
celebrate her Kind birthday next
month.
Mildred doesn't have time to
play with dolls. She is far too busy
making them instead. The vivid
colors of the “boys and girls’’
adorn Mildred’s apartment. She
has no idea how many of the dolls
she has made over the years,
however, hundreds have found life
through Mildred’s nimble fingers.
The demand and popularity of her
products have grown immensely
since the first doll she stitched-up
backmthel9so’s.
The great-great grandmother
has not trouble selling or t 'ng
away the dolls. Her 44 giv
grandchildren keep the supply low,
and Mildred admits she can't keep
up with her growing family, which
spans 5 generations.
The woman, elderly in age only,
likes to keep busy. “I don’t like to
sit around holding my hands,”
confides Mildred. At Christmas
time she bought herself a new
sewing machine.
Many tunes the Blair County
woman designs the dolls herself. It
is obvious that Mildred enjoys her
work as she lovmgly sews the dolls,
taking tune for the smallest
details. One proud pair looks as
new as the day she made them 22
years ago.
The dolls, so very lifelike, are
freckle-faced and complete with
ears, painted finger nails, and
hair. An example of the tedious
4
V'
and hair. No truer dedication to her task can
Never!
tasks. Mildred says, is the 12 hours
she labored securing the hair. *
Mildred explains that she has
bought felt hats at rummage sales,
washed and pressed than, and
uses the material to make shoes
and hats for her dolls. She com
pletes the dolls with ruffled un
dergarments and sheer and
feminine dresses. The wide-eyed
boy is dressed in short pants,
covering his striped legs.
The 81-year-old woman has been
making her own clothes since she
was 12 years old. She learned to
sew in the early 1900’s by making
doll clothes. Mildred says she was
ten years old when she learned to
crochet.
Known as “grandma,” Mildred
remembers her very first doll. It
was 72 years ago that she received
a |3 doll from Germany for
Christmas. That doll with the china
head and long curls on a kid body is
still around today. Mildred trusted
it to her oldest daughter.
She never wants to stop her
facmation for the dolls. “I hope I
never get too old to like dolls,”
jokes Mildred. Even when she was
in a car accident years ago and
came away with severe 1 broken
bones she never slowed down.
Mildred enjoys telling the story
of one of her “girls” going to
college. She has made three dif
ferent dolls for a girl. While the
others had a time surviving
childhood, the most recent one was
wisked off to a college dorm. “I
hope she gets a better education
than her creator,” muses Mildred.
She explains she never finished
high school.
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Mildred Nocks of Tyrone . y OL
ever too old to appreciate dolls, and she is her
own proof of this belief - the great-great
grandmother celebrates her 82nd birthday
She may not have a diploma, but
she says she feels she has
everything of real value in life. The
mother of eight has family not only
in Pennsylvania, but Arkansas,
Virginia, Flonda, North'Carolina,
(Turn to Page B 4)
, , -N
This great-great-grandmother says "I hope I never get too
old to like dolls." Perhaps the two characters above are a
couple reasons why. They are cute, playful and huggabie and
will be scooped up very fast by one of Mildred’s 44 great
grandchildren.
wmesiead
next month. A. . says, jas made
so many dolls through the years, she has lost
count.
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