Today’s memory challenge is random due to the overwhelmingness that is my life right now. (see previous post – basically I am here, will try to keep up with these posts, but am not able to get around to read and respond much anywhere else. I apologize in advance. Both my kids are in their own respective rough patches of life and I can’t do a darn thing to help except for love them like crazy. If you’re a parent, you know what I am going through. It hurts to watch them hurt and not be able to do anything to change it.)
Random memories from my childhood.
I remember having one of the very early Barbie dolls that looked like this:
and when the new Barbie came out my mom took me down to Rhodes Department store to trade it in. We traded in my old Barbie and something like $1.00 and we got the new one in exchange. She had an orange bathing suit with some kind of netting over it and her arms and legs bent. I never ever liked it as much as my original one.
After Barbies, I went on to Little Kiddles and I really liked these guys. I had pretty much the whole set and figured I’d grow up to date a blonde-haired guy named Biff. (I didn’t.)
Also big were these Kiddie Kologne dolls that had strange perfume smells.
There really weren’t any kids in the neighborhood where I grew up so I had a lot of dolls and a good imagination.
I never had a shower in the house where I grew up so it was a bathevery night before bed. My mom used to give me bubble baths with soap that came in these dispensers like cartoon characters. I must have had 50 of them lining the bathroom wall.Much to my grandmother’s dismay.
And of course snack time was big after school and I would often opt for a space food stick
and wash it down with some Hi-C. Mmmm….good.
I also remember when the telephone company first came out with the Princess phone. My mom got one in her bedroom and I got the little mini phone on a keychain. When I got older and started dating, my mom got me my own Princess phone with my own number (mom was single and dating too) and we used to call each other from our bedrooms to say goodnight.
What would I find if I followed you down your memory land?
I only had generic Barbies. I was so deprived!
(lol, I had a typo there for a sec–I wrote “depraved!”)
Maybe you were both? LOL
Hmmmm…many of your same memories… let me see what I can come up with….. later…..
You know what I forgot? Chinese jumprope. I loved that! I used to hook it on two chairs to try and play by myself.
I had one of those Kiddie Kolonge dolls, too. In fact, it’s still in a drawer of old toys at my parents’ house and, believe it or not, she still smells like roses after 40 years. I also remember my mom buying bars of soap for our bathtub (we didn’t have a shower either) which had tiny plastic toys in the center. The more you scrubbed, the sooner you got to the hidden treasure!
Thanks for the memories!
Julie
Oh I forgot about those soaps! Those were great!
Troll dolls too!
I had the original Barbie in the black/white striped bathing suit. Later I was given the Barbie with three wigs. Loved them! Then, my mom gave all my Barbie stuff away, and to this day, I haven’t forgiven her!
Sorry to hear you’re overwhelmed right now. Sending you some ((((hugs)))!
Thanks for the hugs.
Yes, I lost a lot of my stuff to overzealous cleaning from my mom and then my first husband. Grrr.
I was just telling my daughter about Little Kiddles and the ones that smelled. I never had them but all my friends did.
Do you remember Dawn dolls and the Dawn Fashion Show? I loved my Dawn.
I hope things get better for you soon.
I had forgotten about Dawn!
Thanks for the good wishes.
I had a plastic farm set, complete with barn, and peopled with a motley crew put together from whatever was broken: a pink ballerina from a broken music box, several cowboys, and a couple of soldiers. I also an enormous herd of plastic wild horses, at least 30 of them. It was quite a collection.
Oh yes, the farm! And horses. I never had the fancy Breyer ones but other cheap knock-off versions
The plastic horses. My cousins would get the bags of cowboys and indians and I’d take all the horses. 🙂
I have a pretty big collection of Liddle Kiddles *blush* My favorites were the little jewelry kiddles and Sleeping Biddle….and maybe Millie Middle….or was it CinderRiddle? Oh, I love them all!
PS – In the Barbie family I was a big fan of Francie!
Oh yes, the jewelry ones. I had forgotten them too!
And Francie…yes. I always wanted Midge but my mother only bought Barbie.
I remember Liddle Kiddles so clearly, the way the little arms and legs bent when you pushed them. That sensory impression is practically at the end of my fingers right now. I loved their big eyes.
I had Dawn dolls and Barbies — in fact, my daughter has my first Barbie with the orange bathing suit and bubble cut hair (and yes, I know giving it to the kid to play with was a sacrilidge to Barbie collectors). She called that old Barbie the Mamaw barbie because it didn’t look like a young woman…so it’s Barbie’s mom.
I always preferred tiny dolls. My favorite was a little doll with a short brown bob and the sweetest tiny face. The doll was about 4 inches tall and had actual kid proportions and I constantly made clothes for it out of leaves and flowers because she was a girl who shrunk and had to live outdoors on her own, surviving in the wild.
Yes, those big eyes just sucked me in too!
I love the image of you making doll clothes out of leaves and flowers. Your first wild child. 🙂
I had a very tiny porcelain doll that my mother would hardly ever let me play withh but she was about that size too.
I had Strawberry Shortcake Dolls (and her Berry Best Friends!), Barbie Dream House, and Monchichis.
http://sbisdblogspot.blogspot.com/2008/07/tuesday-memory-challenge-from-susan.html
Annie Mitchell
My daughter was very much into Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Ponies!
You know, you’ve brought up MY favorite subject!
Little Kiddles: Had one! Now have a shelf in the china cabinet for my collection. At Mattel, the original Kiddle designer would occasionally put a MIB on my desk!!!!!
Space food sticks: my favorite house to babysit had these… I loved them!!!
Also, Pepper? Giggles? Christie? The hop/skip thing you would wear on your ankle?
My mom wouldn’t buy us the fuzzy wuzzie bear.
Thanks for the memories!
Oh wow – a collection of Kiddles! How cool is that!
I don’t remember Pepper or Giggles or Christie but yes to that hop/skip think you would wear on your ankle. I loved that!
my collection of barbie was huuuge. my earliest two barbies were probably from 1991-1993 –yellow and purple were the in colors i remember because they had these yellow shoes to match their very 80s outfits. and ofcourse i haaad to have the princess ariel and jasmine barbies when they first came out. other than that, none really stand out in my mind.
when i was 5 my mom started collecting really nice dollhouse furnature for me. i have really really old and well made pieces that i haven’t “played” with in years. having really no place to set it up, it stays in a cold dark, well padded shed outside. i really miss it. it is my earliest memories of playing “house”. when I was maybe 7 or 8 I got a real 3 story (pink) doll house and started playing and collecting. i really wish i had time and energy to enjoy that again.
from as far back as i can remember, i was a dress up girl. very very girlie girl. that was me. oversized high heels, petticoats, skirts, dresses that spin!! to this day i have to have a lot of fabric in my skirts. now my “dress up” clothes have translated to victorian costuming, renaissance fair costumes, and a collection of patterns and hats and dresses that I wear in real life from the 1940s. I am also the keeper of a lot of clothes from my grandmother and her family. which are really cool to look at and fit into!