Tammy story - The Button Box

Discuss all the girls comics that have appeared over the years. Excellent titles like Bunty, Misty, Spellbound, Tammy and June, amongst many others, can all be remembered here.

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Muffy
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Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by Muffy »

'The Button Box' was a popular usually 1 issue long story in Tammy, in the last few years. Interestingly the protagonist was in a wheelchair and had a collection of buttons. All this talk of the final Tammy in another topic had me thinking, "What are everyone's favourite Button Box story's?"

Mine was where a seamstress (in Victorian times of course) encountered a very friendly owl 'Hooty'. For many years she would visit the owl every holiday until eventually he passed on.
To commemorate her owl-pal she made some special owl shaped buttons which attracted positive attention (I think possibly from her future husband).

Of course one of the buttons ended up in the Button Box – or there wouldn't have been a story to re-tell.

If anyone else remembers any of their other favourite's please post.

Tammyfan
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Re: Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by Tammyfan »

One of my favourites was the Salvation Army button story. Bev considers it the brightest in her box although its appearance is dull, because of the way the Sallies brighten people's lives, such as the girl in the story. She is a Victorian girl named Milly Hawkins. The only bright spots in her life are her mother's love and the blanket she is wrapped in each night. But she loses them when her mother dies and she is dumped at a harsh orphanage. When Milly is older she is turned out to earn her own living, but encounters nothing but more cruelty. So she decides to finish herself in the river but must wait for the tide, and she falls asleep while doing so. While Milly is asleep, a Salvation Army officer passes and covers Milly with her own jacket. This changes Milly's mind, and more so when she finds how kind the Salvation Army is to her. Of course, Milly later becomes a Salvation Army officer herself.

Tammyfan
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Re: Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by Tammyfan »

Another Button Box story is one left handers will love. Bev's friend Allison thinks she is no good at sewing because she is a left hander. Bev draws out the daisy button, and the story behind it is a left hander named Lena Brown who is very talented at sewing. The trouble is, Lena's sewing teacher keeps nagging her to use her right hand (it is the 1920s). The teacher is silenced when Lena wins a sewing contest with a garment sewn left handed (her right arm is in a sling after an accident). After hearing the story, Allison does her own sewing, and is grateful she does not have a teacher like Lena's.

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peace355
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Re: Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by peace355 »

Some Button Box stories I liked:

In some Arabian type place a girl sees a peasant girl with a beautiful cloak, she decides to steal it from her. When the peasant girl comes after her and warns her not to wear the cloak she has the guards throw her outside the gates. She is hoping that she will stand out when the Prince comes to visit and they will be married. She does stand out but not in the way she hoped as it turns out the cloak was originally stolen from the Prince's sister. For her crime she is thrown out onto the streets and all she has left is a button from the cloak.

A poor girl, saves a boy when he catches on fire and burns her hands in the process. Years later she works as a servant for a spoilt woman. The woman gives the servant gloves to wear so they won't have to look at her awful hands. When her potential suitor seems to be more interested in the servant than her, she tells her to take off the gloves thinking this will make her less attractive. But it turns out he is the boy that nearly burnt all grown up and seeing her hands confirms who she is and they end up married.

Tammyfan
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Re: Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by Tammyfan »

There was a sad one where a girl ruins her friend's majorette uniform by removing the buttons, and her lead in the parade, because she thinks she nobbled her own chances and left her injured. When she discovers she was mistaken, and that her friend is emigrating, she is left deeply ashamed. So ashamed that she cannot write to her friend or participate in any more majorettes. She gives Bec the buttons and the story. Later, when her friend returns, she reclaims the buttons to make her another uniform. She leaves one behind and Bev tells us its story before returning it, and Bev hopes everything will be patched up.

Tammyfan
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Re: Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by Tammyfan »

Another of my favourites was the eye button, which tells the story of Nurse Nina and a lesson about thinking outside the square. Nina has always wanted to be a nurse, but she is rejected for nurses' training because she is not strong enough physically. She is shattered as she had her heart set on being a nurse and cannot consider another career. Then, when she uses one of the eye buttons as part of the repairs she does on a teddy, it does get her a job as a nurse - at the dolls' hospital.

Phoenix
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Re: Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by Phoenix »

Tammyfan wrote:outside the square
Just being curious here, Tammyfan, because I have to admit that I have never heard this expression. Is it a genuine one in your part of the world or have you just invented it for use with this particular button in order to avoid using outside the box?

Tammyfan
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Re: Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by Tammyfan »

Phoenix wrote:
Tammyfan wrote:outside the square
Just being curious here, Tammyfan, because I have to admit that I have never heard this expression. Is it a genuine one in your part of the world or have you just invented it for use with this particular button in order to avoid using outside the box?
It's the way I first heard it.

Tammyfan
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Re: Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by Tammyfan »

One favourite is the first story, the broken pink button. Gran tells Bev she wanted a sewing kit for her sixth birthday, but her mother says she is too young and cannot sew yet. Determined to prove mum wrong, gran sews the button on her cardigan. Sure enough, she receives the sewing kit. Later the button gets broken in an accident, but gran keeps it because it is special to her.

Tammyfan
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Re: Tammy story - The Button Box

Post by Tammyfan »

Another good one is the star button. When Emma goes blind, she spends a whole year wallowing in self pity and calling herself useless. Her parents try everything to buck her up, but she doesn't respond. Then she bumps into a burglar who steals her mum's jewellery and feels the buttons on the jacket - star shaped buttons. These were buttons sewn onto the jacket of a recently sacked maid. This enables the police to retrieve the jewellery and arrest the maid. The incident has Emma realising that she is not useless and is now a changed girl.

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