I will admit that I am interested in curious about the people who share their lives on the blogs I read or those who have no blogs but come here, read mine, and leave comments. I know a bit about the comings and goings of all of you, and yes, I know curiosity killed the cat and all of that. Still, I am asking each of you to satisfy my curiosity.
Sam at Sam, Coffee, Money &Thyme has been experimenting posting pictures of herself on her blog. I think it is admirable, but I am not sure I am ready to do the same. However I have been looking through old photos at Mom's and found a few pictures of me I have never seen before.
I am posting a new to me baby pic of myself and including a childhood memory that came to the forefront of my memories while we were looking through all the old pictures. What I am asking all of you to do is post a baby or childhood picture and add childhood memory so I can get to know you a little better.
When I was beginning first grade (back in the dark ages when you went to private kindergarten before starting first grade in a public school) the schools held a get acquainted day as soon as school was out for the summer. They invited all prospective first graders and their parents (which really meant their moms back then) to come to the lunchroom at the school, meet the principal and the first grade teachers, and have a little cup of ice cream. I do not think I had ever eaten a cup of ice cream before. Some of you may remember them, They were a little round cardboard cup with a cardboard lid which had a small tab to pull to get the cover off.
WHEN YOU OPENED IT THERE WAS A COMPLETELY SMOOTH, UNTOUCHED CUP OF ICE CREAM THAT YOU HAD TO SHARE WITH NO ONE!
This was my first experience with Nirvana! But the story only gets better. Mom and Dad were house hunting, and unsure exactly what school I would wind up attending. I got to go to two meet and greets so I had my very own ice cream 2 times in a row. I remember going home and ragging my sister because I got something she didn't. Not only did she not get any, she had never had any either. If you would like to call me a brat here, feel free to, because I was.
Karma is swift and brutal though. Some weeks later we moved to our new house, and had just gotten settled and I had met my new very best friend when my sister had to undergo heart surgery. At the time it was a delicate operation and she was a very very tiny 4 year old.
I was shipped to my grandmother's house for the two weeks she was in the hospital and for the first week she was home. She not only got all of my parents attention (plus my aunt's and my grandparents who swapped out time watching me to go be at the hospital with Mom, or to do whatever they could do to help when she came home) but with the exception of the day of surgery and the first day post op, she got ice cream in a little cup every single day! Revenge is best served cold, with a small flat wooden ice cream spoon(?).
And the leads to another memory of being at Grandmother's house. Dad had arranged with my grandparents to give me 50 cents a day while I was there, with the promise that Grandmother would take me shopping for something special right before I was to go back home. I guess they were trying to keep me from missing them and thought the promise of a toy that was not a birthday or Christmas present would be so novel that I would not be homesick.
I was nowhere near homesick. My favorite cousin stayed with me the entire time and I always had fun playing with her. She was just a few months older than me and we spent the night with each other all the time anyway, so having her with me for the duration was nothing but fun.
It was finally the last day of my stay and Grandmother took us shopping. I knew exactly what I was getting__a Barbie and a Solo in the Spotlight dress.
I had been eyeballing it for weeks prior to my stay and had just enough money for both of those things. We got to the store and I picked out a Barbie with blonde hair and was holding the gorgeous black dress in my hands, when my grandmother said these words that changed my world.
"You got a new Barbie but S has been with you the whole time. I think you need to buy her a Barbie too."
They say the Lord loves a cheerful giver__I'm sure he had very little love for me that day. I am glad she got a Barbie too and we spent many hours playing with them, but I never did get that Solo in the Spotlight dress, because just like me, Barbie had only homemade clothes.
Many years later Son 3 was on a travel ball team. If you have ever had a kid play travel ball you know it is an all day affair. He was playing in a farthest suburb of Birmingham, too far to go home for the 2 hour break, but I was hot and tired of baseball so I drove to a nearby small town. While I was exploring Main Street I found a curiosity shop and went in to see what was what it was all about. I found stacks of paper doll books, which I had not seen since I was a kid (I loved paper dolls) , so I was looking through them and lo and behold there was a Barbie paper doll book . I flipped through the book to see what dresses were in it and there in full color was "Solo in the Spotlight' I bought the book, came home, cut out the doll and the outfit, mounted it then framed it and, to this day, Barbie dressed in that slinky black frock lives on my downstairs den wall.
And all was right in the world!
Oh that is such a cute picture of you. I kept smiling as I read your whole blog post. Posting a picture in the comments is possible but requires a bit of work and it is almost bedtime here so, I will need to post my picture in my blog and here is the link: http://frugalistanbul.blogspot.com/2020/10/for-anne.html
ReplyDeleteI read this to my sister and we were both laughing as we tried to remember any store bought outfit our Barbies ever had. Together we came up with zilch!
DeleteAnd she does remember eating ice cream every day while she was n the hospital, and sometimes she had it twice a day.
Oh, such a happy, smiling baby! So adorable! I enjoyed reading your childhood memories, too. I was unacquainted with Barbie, growing up, but, loved paper dolls! Most of mine were homemade paper dolls, but, one day, one of my older cousins cut out a printed paper doll that was in one of her mother's magazines and gave it to me. Years later, when I had my daughter, I would buy books of paper dolls for her, just so I could play with them, myself! LOL.
ReplyDeleteI loved paper dolls. We would also cut models out of old Speigel catalogues and use them as paper dolls, but the best was one time when my aunt scored an old McCalls pattern book. We had a shoebox filled with "paper dolls".
DeleteGreat cute pic of you, Anne! And great stories about you, your sister and all. I was a little before Barbie's time but I loved paper dolls. There are a ton of pictures of my brother who was 4 years older, but only several of when I was young, evidently my parents were too busy with life. 😊 I do remember those ice cream cups and loved them in school when they were served for lunch.
ReplyDeleteI was never allowed to buy ice cream at school until I was Jr. High age, and my mom was too budget conscious to ever buy them for our house, but I loved them as a rare treat. (Usually at a friend's birthday party)
DeleteWhat sweet memories! I'm glad your sister's heart surgery went well, even if she got more ice cream than you did. :p
ReplyDeleteI'll try to find a photo of myself as a child and post it next week.
Oh I hope you will, and maybe treat us to a childhood memory!
DeleteLove your memories.
ReplyDeleteI am totally camera phobic but will try and track down an very early photo. Perhaps.
I figured this was taken before I could start my photophobia!
DeleteThat is a cute baby picture. I love the whole ice cream cup story. We got banana popsicles. Oh, yes, I can remember being a brat as I was the oldest, too, but of five children.
ReplyDeleteWe occasionally got popsicles, but mostly orange.
DeleteI remember those ice-creams! - they were such a treat as a kid. My barbie & other dolls all had home made clothes too, mum & grandma would often sew or knit new clothes for them.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, they were a treat. Mom never did knit anything for Barbie and honestly we did have a ton of clothes, unfortunately home made clothes did not come with shoes so Barbie was barefooted most of the time.
DeleteWhat a cute baby you were..
ReplyDeleteStill are.
I got gypped out of having a sister. Only 2 stinky much older brothers as my mom had a stillborn daughter when I was 4 or 5.
My granny bought me my first Barbie when I was about 5. She had the bubble cut hairdo. I am 6 weeks older than Barbie. Barbie has held better than me.lol
I was a bald baby! It really is wonderful having a sister. Even though we do not really look that much alike, Son3 thought we were twins for the longest time because we have the same personality. I had a bubble cut barbie also but my first one had the pony tail.
DeleteBarbie had me beat when I was in my prime!
Loved the Barbie story!! I was lucky enough that one Christmas I got the Barbie dream house. I'm talking the cardboard one that folded out and had carboard furnishings. It was awesome. I had a mix of store bought clothes and handmaid ones that I bought at a school fund raiser. I also loved paper dolls and would make them out of the drawn models in the Sears catalog, just like you did with the Spiegel catalog. I made a whole family. lol
ReplyDeleteI had that same Barbie dream house and I loved playing with it. We made entire families out of the catalog dolls too!
DeleteGreat stories that bring back many memories of my own. I have written about some of them before and will rerun them on my blog soon. I'm not sure what it is, but I think the ice cream in those cups tastes better than any other. I think it's the wooden spoon. Among us four sisters, we had one Barbie that someone gave my sister at a birthday party. All of her clothes were handmade by us and now that you mention it, she never had shoes.
ReplyDeleteI had the shoes that came with the doll and after that she had to go barefooted every where she went, even if she was dressed formally. There was no end to the bits and pieces of fabrics we used to would use
Deletecreate temporary "formals"
I had parents who refused to spend money on Barbie, claiming that the Barbie doll was a poor role model for girls, teaching them to only be concerned with appearances and dates. This was before the days of things like "Astronaut Barbie." They did, however, buy a Lieutenant Uhura action figure to go with our collection of Star Trek characters. My sister didn't mind the Barbie edict, as she hated things like playing with Barbie with a passion. I, however, enjoyed looking at all the pretty things that Barbie came with. My sister actually bought me my first (and only) Barbie when I was about 11. I enjoyed it for a while, mainly because I enjoyed having something my brothers wouldn't mess with. Eventually, however, I agreed with my sister. Barbie could only hold my BF's and my attention for so long before we took her to join my brothers as the "red shirt" for our Star Trek sagas.
ReplyDeleteYour parents should have watched us play with our Barbies. They were adventurous because we liked to play outside, so ours claimed trees and swung from vines.
DeleteOoooh, paper doll books. (Just read this.) Those used to be able to be purchased for $0.10 at our local five and dime--suffice it to say, I had plenty of those. I LOVED the perforations. My sister taught me how to make my own by tracing the dolls and the outfits on to mimeograph paper, coloring them, and then cutting them out. She made me a pocket folder from an old manila file folder to keep them in. Who needed the fancy shmancy "Fashion Plates" when we could do that? I often think about those afternoons as I papercraft today. As one of only two girls (she was 6 years older) in a fairly large family, in a neighborhood which was also populated by all boys save my BF, I had to rely a lot on creativity to keep myself occupied when I was younger. My parents bought very few niche toys growing up, and those they did were typically "boy" oriented, and shared among my brothers. TONS of books and stationery, and art supplies, though. What my BF and I, along with all the boys in our neighborhood couldn't do with a box of mimeograph paper and the carbon sheet!
DeleteI never played with dolls at all but isn't it lovely to hear how many people were delighted to play with a simple toy like paper cut-out dolls! And I loved those ice creams too but absolutely hate the wooden spoons. They set my teeth on edge! That's a lovely baby picture of you too!
ReplyDeleteI did not like baby dolls and playing house but I loved Barbie and all the adventures we could create for them. It was the same with paper dolls
DeleteLove the pic & the Barbie story. I too was a bald baby. Let me see if I can dig up a photo.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally I still tell this particular cousin that she owes me for giving the dress and buying her the Barbie.
DeleteOh, that is such a cute photo of you, Anne. I don't have a baby photo online, but do have one from 1975.
ReplyDeletehttps://savingmoneyinmytennesseemountainhome.blogspot.com/2020/10/1975-photo.html
I loved your stories and the one about the Barbie dress. My Mom still has homemade Barbie clothes in he sewing box. What a great memory.
I guess I was not the only one with homemade Baby clothes but I did kind of sort of lust after just one purchased barbie dress.
DeleteYou have really inspired a lot of great memories in all your commenters! I really enjoyed the post and comments. I remember paper dolls very well. One friend had far more than I did -- I think everyone remembers a friend like that.
ReplyDeletebe well... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
We had very few legitimate paper dolls but we had tons of cutouts from catalogs
DeleteI really love this idea but I think all my childhood photos are all still at my mum & dad's place so I can't play along...yet! I might try to come up with something
ReplyDeleteI love that you have a paper doll on your den wall, it's such a unique thing to do!
My house is not totally weird but I do have a few things that everyone does not have in their home. Monkey Butler anyone?
DeleteI have a lot of paper doll booklets- in the 80s I used to collect them. Whenever I'd go to KMart which was close to my home, I'd head for the book/magazine section and buy whatever new they had. My youngest sold a lot before she left for college- also her American Girl and full House dolls- but I still have several. I'll try to take a photo and show you sometime. There are very few photos of me as a child- I'm the oldest of 6 though but I don't think the folks took many pictures. I love your memories.
ReplyDeleteThat is a cool thing to collect! I am the older of two girls and there are tons of pictures of me. Not so many of my sister.
DeleteI adored those little cups of ice cream with the wooden spoon. I wonder if those are still around. I don't think you should have been made to buy a second Barbie. You saved the money. You should have gotten that black dress.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Sorry. I'm not posting a photo of myself. I don't think I have any baby pictures.
DeleteI loved those ice creams too, but they were never something Mom would buy. We have gotten a huge kick out of all the pictures we found at Mom's, and really laughed at some of the photos from that awkward phase kids go through during puberty.
Delete