The Benders are back!

If you look up "Benders" on the internet you will find a disposable cup company who are unnaturally excited about the latest technology in insulated paper cups,  a not very good jazz band from Sydney who lasted for two whole years in the 1980's therefore suggesting they weren't very, er, jazzy... and a bunch of Battersea plumbers with a perspicacious take on their company name who drive from leak to leak in bubblegum pink vans.

And best of all, a family (like mine) of serial killers (not like mine) from Kansas called the "Bloody Benders", who owned an inn and a store in the 1800's, and who liked to knock off their paying guests and pop them under the floorboards never to be seen again.

Looking suspiciously like they have been on a "bender" of their own, the Bender tribe arrive at the Mini House,  to be met by the other members of the Bender Family who now inhabit No 1 Heatherside Corner

All this rather puts my own small family of Benders in the shade somewhat.

For those of you who didn't know, once I had started finding my childhood dolls house toys on the internet, I got a wee bit carried away. Not content with purchasing a Mrs Bender, I  went on to buy a Mr Bender, and literally as I was paying for him, my friend Diane spotted a whole family of Benders, exactly as mine had been, and so, you've guessed it, they were reeled in too.

It's more to do with seeing them again after all this time, as I have no real plans to install them in the Mini House (but don't tell them that).

None of them have done anything that I know of, of any note, in the 37 years they have been away. But that is of little or no consequence, as they are back where they belong.

It's good to see them again after all this time, even if they do look a little worse for wear. But that could be said of me these days too, so I can't hold that against them.

And I, at least, did not suffer having my feet repeatedly chewed, nor had my legs gleefully bent the wrong way so many times that eventually the wire popped out of the back of them.

So realistically, I had expected them to bear all the scars of rubber people who had been played with for several decades, by small enthusiastic children who have no concept of the polite way to play with folk smaller than you.

But I have to admit it did come of something of a surprise to find that Tommy and Sally Bender, the smallest members of the family, whom I spent my formative years bending into funny shapes,  now bear an uncanny resemblance to two people I rather admire as an adult, art critic Brian Sewell and comedienne Sandi Toksvig.

Oh God, does this mean that I have finally grown up? I do hope not....

"Sandi" and "Brian" sit on the stoop of the Mini House..... Seriously, Google them and tell me I'm wrong!

Mrs Bender's coming home!

Anyone has who read my original post explaining how the Mini House Project started, will be aware of the Bender Family; the four, small rubber folk, who lived in the dolls house belonging to my sister and I, in the early 1970's.

And who were, unbeknownst to them (with no malicious intent on our part) early practitioners of Ashtanga Yoga. That's the one where you can pick your teeth with your toenails and keep your ears warm at the same time...

In an age where most tiny inhabitants of 1970's doll's houses could only stand or lean stiffly against their furniture, the Bender Family, who consisted of Mr and Mrs Bender, and their flexible children Tommy and Sally, were ahead of their time. After all, they could put their legs behind their ears with gay abandon. However unwillingly.

Admittedly, as was mentioned in my previous post, it made the cartilage / wire inside their legs pop out of the back of their knees, but for us, as children with enquiring minds, that seemed small price to pay, for the amusement.

I never questioned at the time what the Benders actually felt about this. And perhaps it is no surprise then, that our dolls house was eventually taken away from us (well...we were 18 years old and 21 respectively), and the Benders went too.

I just assumed that they had all relocated, eventually to the Big Dolls House in the Sky. Or at least gone into hiding, to escape more devilment from other horrible, small children, who take delight in making people's legs bend the wrong way.

I never thought I'd see the day that she'd be flaunting

 herself online. Not least,  because the Internet 

hadn't been invented in her day.

But how wrong could I be? For this evening, I discovered that Mrs Bender at least, is alive and well and selling herself on the internet!

It appears, however, that Mr Bender is no longer on the scene (unless he was taking the photos) and with Tommy and Sally all grown up,  I can only surmise that, at the grand old age of 43 (86 in rubber years) she is is need of ready cash and a roof over her head.

While perusing Google this evening, I stumbled across a picture of her, sitting at a jaunty angle, in a new, blue and white polka dot frock (her old one was a respectable, dull bottle green as befitting a mother of two).  Waving like a floozie for the camera! All topped off with a new hairdo; the old one, while the same peroxide blonde, was more "Maggie Thatcher at the start of her Prime Ministerial career", circa 1979.

And wearing a slick of blue eyeshadow too!!  If only we still had the tiny bar of pink plastic soap, I would have made her wash that off, for starters.

Thinking back, it can't have been an easy life, trying to feed a family of four, on food made out of felt and glue, with no running water and sporadic mains power. When someone finds it funny, to make your head face a different direction from your feet on a regular basis.

Still got good legs for someone who has spent

most her life with them warming her ears 

It's a blessing she could sit down, poor thing. Still kept her figure though....which is more than can be said for me.

I felt a stab of pity. After all, I feel partly responsible for the position she now finds herself in. Literally.

And so, to save her from whatever degrading, unhappy, contorted life she was heading for, I paid my £3.25 including postage, to the wonderful folk at Groovycart.co.uk/collectable_dolls who have been looking after her up until now.

A sort of Dog's Trust for dolls of a certain age.

Although, how dear Mrs Bender (if it is indeed she, and not a look-alike) will feel when she finds out who has re-homed her, is anyone's guess.

She will find out soon enough, when she arrives in the post box of No1. Heatherside Corner.

But if she is reading this, in advance...

Pledge: "Dear Mrs Bender, when you arrive at the Mini House, I promise I will never, ever again, bend your legs the wrong way just to see what happens to the back of your knees."

Well....maybe just the once, for old times sake.


Disclaimer: No rubber people will be harmed at any time, during, or after, writing this blog.

A Bender is for life and not just for Twister.

N.B. Thank you to www.groovycart.co.uk/collectable_dolls for kind permission to use the above images, before she arrives safely ( I promise) at No1.Heatherside Corner. I have a lot of saying sorry to do!