Growing up, my brother really wanted to be a ventriloquist. One year he asked for a Charlie McCarthy puppet for Christmas. I had seen the puppets in the JCPenney catalog, but I definitely didn’t feel the same way that he did about them. They never made any of my wish lists as I always thought they were a little bit creepy.
As I got older, I started watching scary movies and soon realized that I was not alone in my opinion that puppets were frightening. Even television shows, like Goosebumps, and the Twilight Zone featured puppets that were villains. I was glad to see that other people agreed with me and wasn’t surprised to find out that no one in my family liked puppets either.
Recently, my mom asked my children if any of them would like my brother's Charlie McCarthy puppet. Each one of them quickly said no as had Doug and I years ago. After deciding that no one wanted to keep him, we all started to brainstorm about what to do with Charlie. We talked about selling him at this summer‘s garage sale, but we honestly didn’t know if anyone would purchase him. I suggested throwing him away, but then Doug reminded me what happened to Tele Savalas' character in "Talking Tina" when he threw that doll away. I didn’t want a repeat of that Twilight Zone episode, so instead I suggested eBay. There were several other Charlie McCarthy dolls listed online. Maybe there was a market for my brothers as well.
After giving all of our ideas to my mom, she said that she should have just buried it with Bunk years ago. That made me realize that we should actually cremate Charlie McCarthy this summer, have a small service and spread his ashes at the cemetery. I told Cameron, Cal, Meg, Brett and Doug about it and they were all on board right away. My mom said it was a good idea but thought that she would just bury him there instead. I squashed that idea right away as I knew Charlie would come back to life and kill us all if we did that to him just like in the movies. No matter what happens it has been a lot of fun to think about as we downsize some of my childhood memories.
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