There is a legend surrounding the Manatee River in Florida, USA where I grew up. At the turn of the last century, groups of people would go to a place on the river called the Rocky Bluff and listen to strange singing that came from the river. They never knew what the source of the music was, but only that it came every June through August, which made for impromptu picnics and social fun. Because of the mystery, many legends and stories were circulated. One of them was that the sound came from the singing of mermaids sitting on the rocks. 
In reality, it was probably the manatees coming into the river to mate. The singing is no longer as more and more people move into the area, just as there are very few manatees left in the river.
I used to sit and listen to stories from my grandmother and my grandfather’s sister as they reminisced about simpler times at the beginning of the 20th Century. It fed my imagination to what it must have been like then. Imagine sitting on the bank of a river with a group of friends, waiting with anticipation for the first mysterious sounds to begin instead of watching a TV evening after evening without interaction with others. Sounds appealing, doesn’t it?
Manalee was a playground for experimenting with different techniques and media. Much of the products used by US doll artists are not readily available to UK doll artists. It has to be bought on-line from Australian or US companies and therefore expensive because of postage cost. So I have to use what is readily available here, which has been an adventure in itself.
To read the rest Margie Nelson Criswell's article, please purchase this issue.
