Another hot day today and I will need to keep watering my flowers from water inside since my rain barrel is empty.

I remember the song we used to sing as kids: “Yell down my rain barrel, slide down my cellar door and we’ll be jolly friends, for ever more.” Well, I do have a rain barrel but no cellar door. Interesting how the little songs from our childhood keep surfacing in our heads.

I do love my rain barrel and I consider that water to be free water so I need some of that free stuff right now.

However, it was nice this week working at the museum as I got it ready for the Waterbury clan to arrive at the end of the week. I had to clear the table of things on it, get out the Waterbury pictures, get the easel ready with Lydia Waterbury’s picture, and take over all the stuff I have of the family.

I have the marriage certificate of Mae Waterbury and John Travis. The marriage certificates of years ago were very beautiful and quite colorful. This one was no different. But it was all folded up with creases everywhere. I took it to Country Floral and Mr. Trotter. He did a beautiful job of getting it all smoothed out and we picked a lovely frame. He did this a number of years ago. It hangs in my house today.

I also have the tatted baby hat that someone in the family made and, of course, I have the Waterbury dolls.

The big 25-inch doll came back from the doll hospital in Naperville untouched but they could tell me all about the doll. The people are now elderly and no longer do much work in that department. The doll was in poor shape and they did not want to tackle her.

The head and hands are German bisque with the head in perfect shape. One finger had lost the tip. The lady right away said the body had to be of white leather and it is. She said it would be filled with sawdust and it was. She said the doll was made in the very early 1900s or late 1800s.

Cheri brought the doll back to me and I watched a video on the Internet of how one would repair a doll with a leather body. I placed her on a big sheet and as I undressed her I found she had been repaired before.

Over the joints one would glue strips of white kid gloves if they are falling apart and this had been done before. She simply needed to be sewed back together again and I started in. To replace the lost sawdust, you put in cotton balls and I did.

Little by little I was soon finished and then I had to clean up the extra sawdust that my cat had rolled in with her body. I was then ready to dress the doll and the dress she had on her was not her original dress but a baby dress of the family. I needed longer sleeves to cover up most of her arms. I used a baby dress of mine that my grandmother had made over 90 years ago. It was perfect.

Then came that tatted baby hat that had been used many years ago in the Waterbury family. It looks perfect on her. I found a large basket and I lined it with some beautiful crocheted pieces my grandmother had done. She looks perfect nestled in it. She will stay in my extra bedroom for now and I am pleased.

• Betty Obendorf is a retired teacher and volunteer for the Polo Historical Society.