Many years ago Shirl drove up at our house
with a man other than Jim (her hubby) in the car. He was made of Rope (forgot his name). From a distance it did look like she had a
man with her. She got a lot of laughs with this life size dummy. It belonged to
a friend of hers who lived alone and did use the dummy to give the impression
there was someone riding with her.
We got to know a lady who RV’s and she has
a full size dummy she refers to as her friend.
She said her daughter feels better this way, since she cannot talk her
mama out of driving the RV to Florida.
I have heard of this being done for a
couple reasons, one is to provide the driver with a feeling of security, the
other to allow someone to cheat driving in the HOV lanes in big cities, usually
it gets one past the traffic and to work faster. I hear it is a hefty fine if you get caught
‘cheating’.
I thought of this as we walk here every
day. There is a large RV with the awning out with two life size dummies sitting
under the awning. I speak to them every
time we pass. (LOL).
On a related subject (In another life) I was a ventriloquism, my most enjoyed ‘dummy’ was/is George the Monkey. He was always a hit with the kids. I rigged him to drive the tow vehicle for a few years:
(George's hand and head were automated, he waved at folks who passed. One kid in Nova Scotia ran beside of the car yelling for everyone to look, a monkey is driving, another lady in Texas woke up her child to see George)
Here is Corey and Ben with George. On one of our mountain camping trips. All the grand kids loved George, now Stella has fell in like with him.
WE were at an RV show a few years ago and
there were two wandering ventriloquists there. One a lady (she was very good)
with a small hand puppet.
The most impressive dummies I have seen is the ‘life size’
partner. I had never seen that before. But since I am out of that ‘world’ now,
it is probably not too unusual.
Nite Shipslog
In my youth the most famous was Edgar Bergan and Charlie McCarthy.
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8 comments:
This was cute to read :) I can see why George would have been a hit, especially when he would wave to people :) I accidentally bumped a mannequin yesterday at the store and said 'excuse me' to it, so you can say hi to the dummies you meet on your daily walk :)
betty
Around Halloween I saw some dummies sitting on someones porch and really they looked quite real. I did a double take when I saw them. Your monkey George is a cute one. I'm sure he made some good memories for you all! It's raining here right now, but it's supposed to change to snow. Hope you are enjoying some sunshine !
Cute entry, I like it. We had a neighbor once who lived alone in a large house. You could see straight in the front door and up the stairs so she kept a man's hat on the banister.
I always wanted a Howdy Doody Doll when I was small. Always thought I'd make a good ventriloquist since I can talk without moving my mouth. Now days, I think they are creepy for some reason. Ill stick to sock puppets.
Dum Dum in NC
Lisa
That business of George driving the tow car is soooo funny. Too bad you can't claim him as a dependent on your tax return!
You're right about some folks using props to drive in the HOV lane. The motorcycle cops patrol that area of I10 pretty regularly; and every now and then, our nightly news will do a story and make an example of those truants.
That dummy man was my neighbors we had more fun with him. He joined our picnics and gatherings in the back yard. I need to call Bill and ask how he is doing. They can be made to look real. I have a picture with Kat talking to him when we visited you. When George was driving your car people would do
a double look. That was funny. I wonder when George stopped driving did
he turn his driving license in. Being a Dummy is OK
Those that use dummies to thwart HOV rules NEED a hefty fine!
There's a joke here where I live that says: Do you know why Alabama got the Mercedes Auto Manufacturing plant? We have an unlimited supply of crash test dummies :)
R
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