A good spot to stop on the way to Adelaide is a town called Keith. Cool name for a town eh.

Keith is where we stop after we have crossed the border into South Australia from Victoria.  We always buy a Golden North Giant Twins icecream because you can’t buy them in Victoria and My Man likes to relive the days of yore in Adelaidia by celebrating this way.

Keith is a bit special. It is very small and always seems very quiet. But it has a cracker of a wee metal railcar on tracks for children in the local park and two pretty good op shops.

Last time we found a wooden garage for two dollars and this time we found freshly knitted dolly clothes for fifty cents a piece.

Some good person has knitted these out of scraps and to fit a range of dolly sizes. I was a bit outraged about their cheapness and the underselling of skills but before I got too huffypuffy, I realised the clothes weren’t priced for me…they were priced for children.  Fifty cents is kid money.  Oh, you dear, dear person, making something handmade for the children’s economy, something special for a beloved dolly.

I also stumbled across a collection of magazine pages, carefully torn out and folded together…more dolly clothes to crochet and knit.  Well of course, I had to buy those. Maybe they are from the collection of the dear dolly clothes knitter.

And a great book from 1973 Things to Make for Children with detailed plans for the best modern doll houses I have seen.

Oh Keith, you big softie.