Who of you here remembers Barbie Doll? It used to be the best gift for a girl. When I had my barbie doll, I couldn't sleep for days with the euphoria of having one. It's every girl's dream. I'm not sure if dolls are still being desired by girls now because of the change in the times brought about by technology. It looks like children prefer mobile gadgets instead of the usual toys we had in the olden times.
I remember Barbie Dolls, and when they came out, they were certainly very popular. Since I was a teenager way before Barbie Dolls came out; I never had any myself, but I remember some of the younger girls having them. When I was little, all the dolls were made with a soft rubber body and a ceramic face, and usually had a wig on for their hair. I remember my mom taking one of my dolls in to have a better wig glued on her head, because she was an older doll, and the hair was not nice anymore. Later, they developed the hard plastic dolls with a soft plastic face, and they were able to make them with realistic "rooted hair". I really didn't care about dolls; but my mom thought I should have them, and every Christmas-time she would take me into the Bon Marche to look at the dolls and pick out the one that I wanted for Christmas. Such an array of dolls! And they were all different, and all exquisitely beautiful; it was always a long and hard choice to choose the one that I wanted. Even if I didn't play with them much, I enjoyed looking at them all on their shelf in my bedroom.
Let me segue a bit into our native toys. Enterprising children would be making the wooden scooter. With a plank of wood for the flooring, kids would attach bearing for wheels - those metal bearings used in machine shops. And you can expect the noise that those scooters create when they run on concrete. Most children, particularly the boys, have that scooter and sometimes we girls would sample a ride when our brothers would let us.
Two toys I was never without weren't really toys. One was a red bicycle my dad got me when I was about six. I rode that bike until I was sixteen and got a driver's license. It almost killed me once when I'm was about seven or so. I was told to stay off Clinton street hill, which was just paved. So, I rode over to try out the hill with my friend. Somewhere near the bottom, traveling at near 100 MPH, in my mind anyway, I hit a patch of gravel on the pavement. I went down and ground a good bucket full of gravel into my right leg, butt, side and arm. Had to go to the doc and get gravel picked out, bandaged up and a shot. My dad just stood there, joking with the doc. The other toy was a genuine Red Ryder 1000 shot BB gun. I loved that gun. When we moved to our farm, I noticed the house and barns had lightning rods on the roofs. Each lightning rod had a glass ball in the middle. With my trusty BB gun, I deballed every rod on the buildings. My BB gun disappeared for a long time.
I had a Barbie Doll and a Midge Doll. I gave it away to my cousin when I out grew it. I grew up with boy cousins my age and I did a lot of things they did like toy race car driving. These places are all gone today. We went to carnivals and bazaars when we were little too. Remember the hula hoop? It's back! I saw a commercial yesterday about it. We played with Slinkey & frisby too. I like the small swimming pool you can fill up with water in your back yard too.
Barbie is still a hot item. Of course as a girl I also wanted to own her. I have several different barbies and yes I still have them. I have also started making Barbie clothes when I got older. So, I still have a fascination with the doll. She seems to resonate with all ages.