Barbie will be 50 in a few days. I hadn't realized I am older than Barbie until I read the news. She sure has stayed in better shape than I have. But then, I've never been a plastic person.
I got my first Barbie when I was about 8 or so. I spent hours playing Barbie with the girl across the street, Kathy Root. The funny thing, is Kathy wasn't my best friend on the block, she was mainly a Barbie friend. We'd set up elaborate "homes" in her front yard, creating furniture out of boxes and using wash cloths for beds. I eventually had two Barbies and one Ken. Not like my daughter who had a Barbie for every event; Shopping Barbie, Disney Barbie, Malibu Barbie, etc. It seemed like every time we had to buy a new outfit for Barbie, we just got a whole new doll.
When I was about 12, I decided I was too old to play with dolls and I gave away one Barbie, Ken and my Barbie House. I regret that now. I do have one Barbie left - the bubble head brunette - and I've bought her some of the old outfits I used to own. She is on a shelf in my entertainment center. I don't know if she misses Ken or not.
UPDATED: Now that she is 50, Barbie is allowed to have tattoos.
2 comments:
Sigh. I loved playing with my Barbies and I played with them well up into Middle School. I only had 1 Ken, but about 50 gazillion different Barbies and Skippers. I also used to LOVE to practice parallel parking with my Barbie Corvette. Perhaps that's why I'm a great parallel parker to this day--I practiced A LOT. Wow, this might be the first time I've been wistful for them since I last played with them!
I wonder, since you are old enough to remember those pre- and post-Barbie days, do you remember if Barbies were as big of a sensation as Cabbage Patch Dolls? Those came out when I was young and I remember you couldn't get any in the store because everyone HAD to have one. Were Barbies the same way?
I don't think Barbie's were like that when I was young. I think they were very available. In fact I kind of think of the Cabbage Patch as the beginning of the bizarre behavior where people HAVE to have the latest and greatest and can't wait so they run the price up to ridiculous amounts on ebay or stand in line all day to get the item.
verificaion word: catedn= my cat is finally well and is eating again.
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