When my mom came down a couple weeks ago, she brought a big piece of my childhood with her — my Barbies!
I know, I know. I’ve read and thought deeply about Barbie, her unrealistic body size and the doll’s tendency to promote frivolous, fashion-focused play for girls. But I can’t help it. I love that dang girl.
I spent such a huge chunk of my childhood playing with Barbies. As an only child, I was alone a lot, and for whatever reason, Barbie always seemed a fun thing to do on my own. In fact, I can remember getting shy (go figure) around friends when we played Barbies because I was so used to setting up my own scenes and dialogues with my Barbies and Kens.
I’ve heard my mom mention over the years that she still had my stuff but I was unprepared for the avalanche of memories seeing my old friends again brought back.
She even saved my Barbie pool!
E. was all over that. My mom got her her first few Barbies for Christmas but she hasn’t played with them that much. Every once in a while, she’ll get them out and change their outfits, but that’s about it. But I think seeing the pool gave her a new set of ideas of how to play with them. Not only does she have them go down the slide, but I’ve been overhearing them “talking” to each other in the pool. There’s even been a swim lesson or two. So, even if the lessons E’s currently taking every day aren’t turning her into a swimmer, at least they’re sparking her screenwriting skills, huh?
One of the gems that my mom found is the Syracuse Barbie one of my aunts bought me when I was accepted into SU.
Yeah, that’s pretty much how I felt when I became an official Orangeman, er, Orangegirl, too.
Let’s go Orange!
At this point in the post, I’d like to please ask you to not look too closely in the background of these photos. It’s E.’s playroom. Sometimes it’s super organized. Sometimes it’s not. This is one of the latter times. OK, back to the Barbies.
This right here, friends, is the treasure trove of my memories — a giant bag of my Barbies’ clothes.
When my mom brought them, I worried that E. didn’t have enough Barbies to dress up (and at this point, she’s not really able to dress them herself. One guess who has to change the same Barbie’s outfit 4 times in 10 minutes).
Enter my father-in-law. God love him. He’s never met a yard sale he didn’t love. We went over on Saturday for an early Father’s Day lunch and he presented E. with a giant box full ‘o Barbies.
Most of them (OK, all of them) have seen MUCH better days. Thankfully, she doesn’t care … even if she can’t keep their heads to stay on.
But as I quickly taught her, it’s MUCH easier to take their clothes off when they’re headless.
And some of her new friends just have all sorts of issues.
There’s Legless Leslie.
Large Marge.
Personally, I think she bears a striking resemblance to Paula Deen. Anyone else see it?
And then there’s my favorite — C.J. Parker.
Yes, she’s in a Baywatch bathing suit. Yes, her boobs are overflowing out of it. Yes, her hands are firmly positioned in karate-chop run position. Maybe Tom Cruise learned it from her, Michelle and Paula?
Yes, it’s awesome.
Know what’s even awesomer (or is it awesomier? I always forget)? Some of my Barbies’ outfits.
Lest you forget what decade I grew up in, I present this purple and gold leaf gown, in all its ’80s glamor.
And who says Barbie only cares about fashion? Did you know she’s a science girl … who ALSO knows how to make space travel look good? Well, consider yourself educated.
Astronaut Barbie pretty much rules, no?
And don’t think that Barbie is the only one having all the fun. Allow me to introduce Hipster Ken.
That’s a new Ken (obviously. The frosted look really wasn’t in for boys in the ’80s) but the sweater is pure vintage. Not fake “I got it at a consignment store and it was OHMYGOD made in 1998” vintage. This sweater right here was in my mom’s Barbie and Ken collection in the 1960s. I got to say, they don’t make Barbie clothes like they used to. This sweater was actually knitted and it’s made out of real fabric. Pretty cool, huh?
After we were done dressing all the dolls, there were a few leftover parts.
Just because their necks were broken didn’t mean E was going to stop trying to jam them back on the bodies.
You think that’s disturbing? I present to you my old Ken. And this is exactly how I left him, circa 1989.
Yes, he’s shirtless. Yes, he’s in leather pants. Yes, they’re unbuttoned.
No comment.
I hope my girl has as much fun with these old friends as I did. Well, maybe not AS much fun.
Did you play with Barbies? What was your favorite outfit or Barbie accessory? I’m still bummed we got rid of my Barbie Dream House. It had an elevator. I mean, come on.
This is just like my boys opening up all the 1970’s vintage star wars stuff that used to belong to Chad. My mother-in-law kept everything and took good care of it for 30+ years. Unfortunately my boys are rough and I’m terrible at taking good care of things. I don’t think they’ll make it another generation. The Barbies look awesome.
Oh my. My husband and E. would DIE over the Star Wars stuff! Instead, he just keeps buying vintage Star Wars toys whereever he finds — then gets mad when E. wants to play with them. Dork.
My Barbies WERE in good shape until they went for a swim in the pool and never made it back inside. So I don’t think E. will passing them down. But hopefully the clothes hold up because there are some gems in there, huh?
Totally LOL’d when I saw Ken. Awesome.
I have a ton of my old Barbie’s too – and can’t wait to introduce them to L. She’s definitely not there yet though – to appreciate them 🙂
I think I played with Barbie until I was like 12. Shhh. Don’t tell.
Um, I was totally still playing with Barbies at 12 I think. Why do you think my mom still had them all? I’m sure I packed them away somewhere and hid them so they wouldn’t get donated or tossed!
And I’m still not sure that E. is there yet either. She’s definitely a lot more into them now than she was six months ago. After seeing Brave tonight, though, I think she’s more interested in getting a set of bow and arrows — hopefully our long, national Snow White/Cinderella/Ariel nightmare is over!
This is so funny! My mom and I were just looking through mine and my sisters’ old Barbies when we were down at their house last weekend. It was crazy seeing how many were still there, who had clothes and who didn’t, what clothes were left, how some had super long hair and others had regular Barbie-length hair, and some had smooth legs while others’ were kind of stickier. Know what I’m talking about?
That’s awesome that E. loves them so much too. Her humongous smile is simply the best! And yes, we had the Barbie Dream House too!! Well, technically it was my middle sister’s, but whatever. That string pull elevator was excellent! I am curious, though – what exactly has Ken been doing all these years with his leather pants undone? 😉
I know EXACTLY what you mean with the sticky legs. They’re more rubbery too, right? For some reason, I didn’t pay attention to them this weekend (clearly I was too worried about the fashion) but I’m going to check the Smooth to Sticky Leg Ratio out next time we get them out!
How great was that string elevator? So simple but so genius.
And I already told you all — no comment on Ken’s state of undress. All I keep thinking about with them now is Toy Story 3. Hee!
Lol! Talk about memories, my dolls had that purple and gold number 🙂 Now I wish my daughter was still little so we could play.
I grew up on a street with 4 little girls about the same age, so we played Barbies like crazy! My two favorite things we had were 1. this three paneled set-up where one side was an office and the other side her apt. and 2. a camper van that my aunt gave to us from when she played with barbies – it was like the mystery machine!
We had kens, but never much use for them. I remember in our basement we had a ping pong table and we would have the kens kiss the barbies good bye, throw them under the table and say they were at “work”. Then all our barbies would go on adventures and party it up without the kens.
You know, it’s funny, i am not sure what the impact of barbie was on me as a kid. I def have the same body conscious issues as the next lady, but I honestly don’t remember being aware of anything like that when playing with them. I also turned into one of the least girly people on the planet and love math and science. I am sure there was some influence on me, but it’s hard for me to detect it now. Maybe just having good parents that instill self worth and confidence is enough to win out over barbies DDs! What impact do you think they had on you?
Fun! I had a Barbie phase too but somehow they ended up sacrificed to our haunted houses w/various alterations that made them less appealing to Ken and us. I was heavy into Fisher Price though. We played w/those people/towns way longer that would be considered acceptable. We had an entire city/suburbia/farm situation set up in our living room and friends would have to carefully conceal components into overnight bags for Friday night sleep overs bc we were not into everyone knowing that we were still into playing masters of tiny town!