Golly Stuff
I really love Gollys, I always have and I get very indignant and grumpy when I hear people getting all pc about them. I miss the Robertson’s Golly and the Golly out of the Noddy books and I resolutely and stroppily buy every Golly related item I can lay my hands on.
There was a programme on Radio 2 last year with Jeremy Vine, where the thorny issue of Gollys was discussed and people rang in with their views. The responses pretty much backed up what I knew from my own friends and suspected about others:
The Golly from Noddy
Black people don’t think they look like Gollys.
I bet that’s come as a surprise.
It doesn’t matter how strenuously the white, liberal, middle classes hop up and down and suggest that everyone is deeply offended by them (the Gollys that is) – I would suggest that it is only they who draw the comparison, not anyone else.
It was in this frame of mind that I embarked on a personal crusade to re-introduce Gollys back into society. I developed a knitting pattern (inspired by a pattern I found in an Australian magazine) and set the Aged Parent and her Cronie to knitting; they knitted the pattern pieces and I made them up and ‘finished’ them.
Two well-loved and one brand new red Golly
I decided to put a ‘slant’ on the traditional style; we called them ‘Gollywiggles’ in homage to Ms Upton, and we made them in lots of different colours, some with contrasting hair and different clothes – as I write, a Girly Golly and a Ghosty Golly are in production. I made very smart drawstring bags, and each toy had a limited edition certificate, as no two are the same, and a history of the Golly. They were very popular, so we’re making some more.
How did Gollys begin?
Florence Upton is generally acknowledged to be the creator of the Golly. Although born in America, she and her mother, Bertha moved back to England in 1889. At the age of 22 Florence illustrated her first book which was written by her mother. It was called “The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls” which was based on her own childhood toys. In the story there is a Gollywog, and the original Dutch Dolls and the Gollywog live at Chequers in Buckinghamshire, the country home of the Prime Minister.
Florence Upton's original Golly
Where does the word ‘Golly’ or ‘Gollywog’ come from?
To name her character, Florence altered the word ‘Pollywog’ which was a dialect word meaning ‘wiggle head’. This came from ‘pol’ meaning head and wiggle which over many years became waggle, woggle, wog. Gollys are tremendously popular in Australia where the Collins Australian Dictionary defines the word Gollywog as “…a black-faced, goggle-eyed, fantastically dressed doll…” .
So altogether now …
WHAT DO WE WANT? GOLLYS!
WHEN DO WE WANT THEM? WHENEVER WE LIKE!
(That should get ’em going)
I came home this evening to find that, because the walls of my house are in really poor condition, my framed WI picture ‘For Home and Country’ had fallen off the wall. As it descended (probably singing “Jerooosale-e-e-e-m” in a wobbly voice) towards my cracked 1950’s tiled fireplace, it took just about everything on the mantelpiece with it.
Wartime Housewife 
