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The Virtual Pram MuseumCuriosities - Everything We Couldn't Fit Anywhere ElseUltimate Pram Book || Computer Game || Ferret Stroller || Literary References Prams, the Ultimate ResourcePrams, Mail Carts and Bassinets by Jack Hampshire, 1980 (Midas Books, 12 Dene Way, Speldhurst, Turnbridge Wells, Kent, TN3 0NX.) This seminal work, very likely out-of-print, is the loving work of an inveterate British pram collector. The back photo on the dust jacket alone is not to be missed -- the author in his garden surrounded by every imaginable type of pram and pram-like vehicle. A great deal of pram history is covered, and a huge number of old pram advertisements, pram catalog pages, etc. are reproduced. Perfect for both the serious collector, and for the nostalgic dilettante who will spend hours in happy browsing. Perambulator, the Computer GameBLIP Perambulator GP -- "Extreme arcade action involving a runaway baby carriage, lots of on-coming traffic, and a ravenous dog. Excellent graphics and sound." The Ferret StrollerThe ferret stroller appeared on tne internet about three years ago. Links to the page are now dead, but we are diligently looking for the owner, whose adaptation of a conventional stroller to a ferretmobile was complete and clever. (The basket beneath held a litter box.) Stay tuned! Literary ReferencesA reference to a "porter's stroller" is made in The Alice Crimmins Case, by Kenneth Gross, Ballantine Nonfiction, 1975. " . . . What is known as a porter's stroller - a converted baby carriage with a box mounted on it." The discovery of a burned (oh the awfulness of it all!)pram figures significantly in Ruth Rendell's mystery Fatal Inversion. VideosBrum and the Baby Carriage, 1994, Ragdoll Productions, Random House, USA. "The Big Adventures of a Little Car." Brum, a "spunky 1920s-style car" zips into and out of trouble on this 30 minute video. The pram, featured throughout, is missing it's identifying flags, but we think it's probably a MotherCare, of the modern style first introduced in the 1980s. More pram footage than you"ll probably ever see anywhere else -- and the utterly charming Brum is not to be missed! Exotic Modern PramsA few of these links apppear on the Links List page. Bertini has a steerable stroller. This doesn't seem too strange until you see that the "steerable" parts are four large, spoked carriage wheels. See them spin and turn on the web site, if you have the patience to wait while the big graphics load. (There's nothing to read while you wait.) Do go to the product information page -- you'll want the Bertini after reading it! This carriage is engineered! Baby Care, a Netherlands web site, offers a couple of the most interesting pram/stroller combinations we've ever seen! You'll need to follow this link to the home page, and then click on the link for Bugaboo and the one for Mutsy to see these examples of creative engineering. We may not be doing much innovative stroller engineering here, but the Dutch seem to be working overtime! The Bugaboo has one set of large, all-terrain wheels, and a smaller set of swivel wheels which can be tucked out of the way, allowing the stroller to be pulled like a cart over sand, etc. There's a carriage insert, and the seat can face the handle or away from it. The whole thing folds incredibly flat. It's easy to view all the features on the two pages devoted to the product. The Mutsy Freerider Outdoor is built on a "Z" shaped frame, with big, fat, all-terrain tires. It, too, comes with a carriage body and stroller seat, and is infinitely adjustable, with a neat flat fold. It's not clear from the site, though, if the wheels remove, so it doesn't make as flat a package as the ultra-compact Bugaboo. Check out the bottom of the Mutsy web page to see a line up of Mutsy configurations. For the Baby Who Has Everything ElseA few of these links apppear on the Links List page. Barbara's Gifts and Collectibles offers a crystal pram. Buffum Maple Products -- Tinmouth, Vermont purveyors of maple sugar candies in the shape of prams. Not to be missed, and a lot healthier than cigars! Broderick offers a sterling silver baby carriage charm which looks very much like our Welsh E-Z-Fold combination, as well as other baby charms, all priced by weight. Butterick has a pattern for a stroller costume. (We are NOT kidding!) Butterick 6301 gives instructions for making a stroller liner with various themed hoods and blankets so that your munchkin and stroller can, equally, be disguised for Hallowe'en or any other occasion. The actual designs could be more imaginative, but a creative sewer could use this pattern as a starting point. Could be a big hit with the munchkin for year-round use! Doll ConveyancesMy Twinn has a bunch of well-made doll strollers. Offered are:
There's also a lightweight, flat-fold, beautifully thought-out stroller (with basket and hood) for 14 inch dolls -- it's under $10. The combination pram-stroller is pricey, but a real bargain, and a far better value than others on the market at around the same price. It's probably worth getting a really good doll stroller, if you can afford to. Children really appreciate good toys if they understand that they aren't disposable and are expected to take reasonable pride in caring for them. A good doll stroller will actually last, and will be used over and over, with any cooperation at all from a parent. Cheap doll strollers, not unlike cheaply-made baby strollers, are frustrating to use and push, and likely to be tossed aside. A word about My Twinn, a site which can horrify: My Twinn's primary business is making dolls which look like specific kids. This strikes some people as a little sick, but My Twinn began when a doctor discovered that children with various health problems often want a doll who looked like them. Though it doesn't say so explicitly in the catalog, you can still order dolls with birthmarks, scars, and even missing limbs or similar disabilities. Thought-provoking, isn't it? It's something to consider when you read about the heavily-made-up doll Jon Benet's mommy ordered and gave her for Christmas, and which Jon Benet allegedly rejected because it was too made up. "Children as dolls" is a pretty horrifying concept, but My Twinn started with a different twist to the concept. Parents of adopted kids have also ordered My Twinn dolls, and sent laudatory letters, some of which appear in the catalog. My Twinn has also had a tradition of donating their returned customized dolls to children in group foster homes as part of community-building and goal-setting programs within the homes. If you're rolling in money you don't know what to do with, don't forget that no one offers a doll pram as wonderful as the ones made by Silver Cross. (See above this isn't the Silver Cross site, which doesn't exist. This site belongs to a US vendor. But you can still see the doll prams here. These would be the heirlooms but still sturdy enough to play with before they become decor. "Join the Pram Collector's Circle!' declares the header on this fascinating page. Unfortunately, it's kind of a tease, as there isn't any information about joining offered. An email to the owner of the page has gone unanwered, but we'd really like to know more about the group. Wonderful picture of little Cameron in a big pram. Prams in the MediaThose Baby Blues || Liv Left in her Pram || Pram-Tossing Those Baby Blues: It's Color of Choice For the Stroller SetWe tried to get permission to post this article from the Wall Street Journal's middle column, but the Journal wanted a $250 set-up fee, and a $150 monthly charge (plus a fee-per-hit) in exchange. When we explained that this is an obscure hobby site which produces no revenue, we got an equally obscure response to the effect that "we don't offer legal advice on these uses, fair use, or any other copyright issues. For that, it is suggested that you rely on your own counsel." Now, our suspicion here is that the phrase "your own counsel" probably doesn't refer to our good sense, but to an attorney. "Our good counsel," namely, our good sense, tells us that consulting an attorney would cost just as much as paying the Journal in the first place. Furthermore, our sensible judgement is that only benefits could accrue to the WSJ from having an obscure article posted on an obscure site where it is likely to be seen by non-WSJ readers. Our good sense also tells us that, in reality, if we were to post the article, the WSJ would neither know nor care, nor bother to go to the trouble of stopping us, as their own attorneys are probably just as expensive as everyone else's. Since, however, we are honest, and though the WSJ apparently lacks both generosity and a sense of humor, we offer a precis of the article. If you wish to enjoy the WSJ's own deathless prose, you, too, will have to pay through the teeth to see it. Unless already you have a copy of the article, as we do, clipped from the paper after we, loyal readers, purchased it. If you think this is as moronic as we do, you might email the WSJ reprints division and ask them "Why did you refuse to allow the credited posting, at no charge, of one obscure middle column on an obscure, no-revenue, hobby, web site?." Feel free to cut and paste. Liv Left in her PramThis facts of this story are open to interpretation, but, at least on the surface, the problem seems to have orignated in cultural differences. On May 10, 1997, Anette Sorensen, 32, a Danish mother, was arrested, along with Exavier Wardlaw, the father of her baby girl, when onlookers called police after seeing 14-month-old Liv parked in her pram for an hour outside an East Village restaurant in New York City. Parking baby and pram outside restaurants and shops is, of course, hardly unknown in Europe. Citizens of New York, though, perhaps may be forgiven for assuming that doing so in thier fair city amounts to abandonment, if not downright abuse. The parents, who were inside drinking margaritas, claimed to be within sight of the baby. However, the mother later implied that the parents failed to help their own cause by not acknowledging the seriousness of the charge when the police approached them. After criminal charges of child endangerment were dropped, Ms. Sorensen later sued the city for 20 million dollars. On December 14, 1999 she won $66,400 after the jury determined that the city had not advised her of her right to contact her consulate, and that she had been strip-searched illegally. Pram-TossingThis probably ranks as one of the strangest stories about prams you'll ever read. © 2000 . All rights reserved.
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