IMAGINARY FRIENDS

My doll Deadly (I made her) and some of her pals.

The blurb on Sunday’s New York Times webpage was this:

Opinion

A Child’s Wild Kingdom

By JON MOOALLEM

Why do our kids still have imaginary animal friends?

 Ha! Imaginary friends! The article was about how children usually have animal figures as imaginary friends and how those children, little animals themselves, relate to the animal world as they grow up.

It has been my observation that it is usually the oldest or only child in the family who has imaginary friends.  The younger ones have the older ones as friends and usually don’t need imaginary ones.  My oldest granddaughter had great imaginary friends: Dench and Shari, and a third one whose name I’ve forgotten. It was a delight to be sitting somewhere near her but where she couldn’t see us, and she would interact with her friends.

My own imaginary friends, I was told later by my mother, were Jesus, Mary and Leadus. Leadus? I guess it could be spelled that way: I got it from “Lead us not into temptation.”  I guess I must have told her that at one time. ‘cause that’s what she told me. Really.

Deadly, in red, with the whole gang.