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Lil Chisholm's Toy Camper |
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Lulan Royle Chisholm made toys for her grandchildren. I was one of the grandchildren so blessed and this page describes a toy she made for me.
Here's the story of how this toy came about.
In March of 1960, my father and sister finished building a camper that went into the truck. Campers like this were rare in those days. So rare, in fact, that most people had never seen one. The camper had been built to take a trip exploring bird sanctuaries down through California and elsewhere. (My sister, Bonnie Rose Chisholm, had just graduated from college with a degree in ornithology--the study of birds.) First leg of our trip was to Granny's house in Renton. ("Granny" is what I called Lulan Royle Chisholm.) She came out and delightedly explored the camper and was shown all of the amenities. We left her house with her handing over a package for my sixth birthday, which was to be in a few days. (The package contained aprons for my Raggedy Ann doll, and I opened it in Bakersfield, California at the house of my maternal uncle John Whitfield.)
The trip lasted for 60 days and Jack (my father) wrote letters back to Alice (who read them to Granny)about where we'd gone and what we'd done. The whole story of the trip would be a tale for a whole subsection of this website because there were thousands of photos and many adventures.
After we got back, I was given the little toy camper. (I don't remember when exactly, maybe it was for the next Christmas.) Since Granny had only seen the original once, the copy isn't exact. There's also a limit based on materials, which were mostly re-used, and creativity getting inexpensive materials to resemble the original.
Materials used: The pull stick was an old cane. The hubcaps are bottle caps. The wheels are wood and paint. The axle is a stick and the wheels turn because of the nail that goes through the hub, through the wheel into the wooden axle. The body of the camper was an old cardboard box and some pieces of wood. There are scraps of wallpaper used as the flooring and the walls. The tiny books were made from paper, sewing thread and tiny pictures cut from Christmas wrapping paper. One of the books was made from collector cards about birds. The little suitcases were pill packages with pretty paper glued on. The sleeping bags were hand sewn from leftover bits of flannel. (She didn't have a sewing machine.) The toy food was boughten and was something that was available for doll houses. The toy turtle she made from a walnut shell, paint and some bits I haven't identified. (It originally had four feet, but a mouse got at it and chewed the back two feet off.) The container for the kerosene (above the stove) was an amber plastic bottle with a lid of aluminum foil. Most of the furnishings are made from tiny boxes which were cut, papered, painted.
Given that I was six years old when I was given this (48 years ago now) and that it was actually used as a toy, it's in amazingly good condition. I don't have all the pieces anymore. I'm missing the slide out drawer for the camper roof which is where the suitcases go, for example. I'm missing at least one of the dolls. These items may still be in some corner of the house, or may have been destroyed by a mouse or had some other unpleasant fate.
Photographer: Rowan Ainslie Chisholm
Artist: Lulan Royle Chisholm
Author/artist/designer/programmer of page: Rowan Ainslie Chisholm
This website and all contents copyright 2009 Penelope Chisholm aka Rowan Ainslie Chisholm
This page first posted 13 November 2008
Latest revision: 22 January 2011
