Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend was a long weekend because Monday was Labor Day. We had to find something else to do with ourselves because our elaborate plans for a nice long camping trip fell through because it was supposed to rain. We have only gone camping once, and we didn't actually go camping; we just slept in the tent in our backyard. It stormed and rained all night, and that is how we knew that our tent leaks and that we were not going to risk three such nights. So instead, we stayed home, watched movies and read, and I worked on the blog and the site I am webmastering for George Singleton. I got word that I won second prize in a literary competition, and was almost too excited to sleep because I now have enough money for a ticket to Prague. We went to White County to the McConnell farm in the mountains of northeast Georgia on Sunday and hiked around and played in the creek all day Monday. The McConnell boys are extremely fond of building rock dams on the creek, and they will spends hours at it. In fact, this interest in moving rocks has been going on for four generations now, and messing around with the rocks isn't limited to building dams in the water. Bram's grandfather once spent a summer hauling creek rock up the hill to build a nice long wall. I confess, I enjoy it, too. It is a soothing activity which gives me time to think about things.

On the way home it seemed an approriate celebration of Labor Day to stop by Babyland General Hospital, "one of the Travel Channel's top ten toylands" and to witness the birth of a baby doll. As you might imagine, Bram wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it, and he made a point of saying to the adults who spoke to him that he was only there under duress. You can't blame him; it is a doll factory, after all. These toys, called Cabbage Patch dolls, were originally created and hand sewn in Cleveland, Georgia, by Xavier Roberts, who called them "Little People" dolls. They were never cheap, and these days if you want one, you don't buy it, you adopt it for a fee. The adoption fee for a handmade Cabbage Patch Kid ranges from $170 to $350 (from 3570 to 7350 Czech crowns). And you have to sign papers and swear an oath to promise to be the best parent you can be to it. Mass produced versions with plastic heads go for $50 to $80 (1000 and 1600 crowns). A few very special ones have been known to demand a $25,000 adoption fee. That's five hundred thousand Czech crowns! Amazing, isn't it? And all I can figure is how many of these dolls equals one trip to Prague. Babyland General really is a cute little museum which offers as part of the free tour the chance to watch the birth of a real Cabbage Patch baby. Each of these dolls is given its own unique name, usually by a child who is present, and a birth certificate. The baby we saw being born was named Aiden Zeke, and there were lots of jokes about the "A to Z" baby who will have everything. You can see the most exciting moment of the birth in the video here. Let me know if you would like to see the entire ordeal.