MB

 https://paulineconolly.com/2017/dolly-pegs-by-the-derwent/

A SMALL PIECE OF WOOD

Apparently wooden ‘dolly pegs’ were originally  hand made by Gypsies in the UK, who sold them door to door.  Sometimes they were carved from hedgerow wood, sometimes they were just a couple of sticks  bound together with strips of tin.

In Tasmania  during the Great Depression a  hawker known as  One-Eyed Mrs Brown or Ma Brown followed the same tradition. She sold large clothes pegs  made from willow,  camping  out as she made her way around  the  State.

Mrs Brown off on her rounds. A sight to terrify children.

A Tasmanian friend, Jen Eddington,  told me that her grandmother bought pegs from  Mrs Brown when she hawked them at Parkham,  a rural district near  Deloraine.   I was intrigued to hear this, because my own Grandmother lived nearby at Reedy Marsh, and no doubt bought the pegs too. According to Jen’s mother, people were too afraid to refuse the old lady, because she had a very rough tongue.  Another peg hawker was a fellow known as Yorky’. In the 1940s he peddled his wares around St Marys. He too camped in the bush with his swag.

Mrs Brown’s Willow peg

If  one of Mrs Brown’s pegs broke you could probably just plant the pieces and grow trees. Willow  is so easy to propagate. It reminds me that my mother’s brothers made her a washing stand from willow in the 1930s. Decades later there were a couple of sizeable trees thriving  on the spot at Reedy Marsh.

During those tough Depression years,  children from even the poorest families could have fun with their mother’s  dolly pegs.

I loved this piece,  published in 1931;

Little  dolls and mascots made from clothes pegs are such fun to make.

Pretty crinkly paper (one penny a roll), odd bits of silk or ribbon give charming results.

Figures A and B show how to arrange dollies ‘arms (wound round the neck of the peg)’; these are made from one of daddy’s pipe-cleaners; as the foundation is wire, they can be twisted about in all sorts of positions.

Figure L is the brim of the little boy’s hat, made from  a pair of compasses, and the inside black cut away. Now from this little brim you will find you can make  every kind of hat. The little girl must have pretty hair. I’m sure mummy will find you some cotton wool,  or pieces of knitting wool to show beneath the crinkly paper hat.

I know you will have no trouble making little suits and dresses. They are so simple to stick and sew together, and can be made from any odd scrap of material.