Royal Doulton Flashback

it’s interesting to me how our minds take one thing and somehow, we make connections where seemingly no connection existed. Here is a case in point.

My friend Gilles Goddard, whose memoirs I just helped write and publish, moved recently to Vancouver Island. Before that he had had several garage sales to downsize. His wife Betty loved beautiful things and had a lovely collection of Royal Doulton figurines. For those that don’t know, these are small porcelain sculptures of woman in elaborate ball gowns from the Victorian and Regency era and they are quite pricey.

I didn’t buy any, but I had a flashback to my childhood that involved these delicate statues. When I was a child, our family vacationed at Waterton National Park almost every summer. I visited there dozens of times right up until I graduated from high school. One of my special memories was going to the Prince of Wales Hotel, a fairytale castle nestled in the Rocky Mountains. My favourite part of the yearly visit to the hotel was staring at the Royal Doulton figurines on display in their gift shop. I never tired of the swirling gowns and detailed flounces as my mind swayed with the figures to the music at an imaginary fairytale ball.