Now that my daughter is ten, she has decided she no longer needs Barbie. Time for Barbie to go. Seems to me that Barbie entered our home much earlier than I would have thought necessary. Secretly I was hoping that Barbie would NEVER make an appearance here, not having been a fan of the leggy dis-proportional doll myself. Alas, Hayley was a girly-girl, far more girly than I ever was.
I remember one summer when Hayley was about four years old, my niece K had reached an age where she was weeding Barbie out of her life (I think she was nine or ten years old). She showed up here to spend a few nights with us, and she brought with her a huge cardboard box along with a large shopping bag. Both packed full of Barbie gear. My daughter was entranced. Reluctantly, I accepted K's generous gift to Hayley. What choice did I have? And to K's surprise, I gave her some spending money in exchange for what looked to me like a lot of undesirable junk.
The hand-me-down Barbies became an entrenched part of our household, and over the next few years the collection grew to include a van, a car, a bicycle, horses, ball gowns, and Beauty and the Beast (able to transform from Beast to Prince in a quick clothing change). Some of my niece's bits have gone out in the trash, but quite a bit of her original collection remains in good condition. When I was sorting it out, I even found a hand-knit Barbie sweater that my mom had made.
Today, H decided she needed a fish. Her friend is buying her a fish for her birthday, and H needs to buy a small aquarium. She also wants games for her new Nintendo hand-held device. She got the pink one. (Grace, I had to laugh when I read your latest blog on that subject).
I said, "fine, but something's gotta go." She needs money. So...quick as that, she made the decision that we could sell off Barbie to pay for the fish tank, and hopefully a game or two. We sorted and tidied and made a lovely display of all the "healthy" Barbies, clothes, accessories and extras. Doug will list these things later today on Craig's List (an online Buy and Sell).
I can't say that I'll be sad to see Barbie go.
11 comments:
Jayne I would be interested in buy the whole lot. I have 3 granddaughters who would be in heaven.
Gosh I am old, when I was 10 I had my best Christmas ever when I finally got Barbies little sister Skipper. I lived in the time of one Barbie, one Skipper and how I envied Eileen across the street, she had Ken and Midge!!! My mom loved to sew back then and boy did I have a collection of barbie clothes
My daughters went on to have eleventy teen Barbies and many others which were bequeathed years ago to a younger niece
Then about 14 years ago Tommo started buying me collectors Barbies and I probably have about 20 of them but alas stored away since the 4 room apartment has no room for them Too!!!
Hey, anonymous, if you're really interested, email me:
jayne dot schmidt at shaw dot ca
Lol! I had just one Barbie, one of the 2nd or 3rd issue, a brunette in a black/white striped swimsuit. Paid for it with my babysitting money, all $5 or so of the cost. She was practically pristine until my sister came along, and eventually Barbie was toast. If I'd had my way, so would have my sister! What's a 1959-1960 Barbie worth today??
I don't know, CBM, but I was surprised at how many people seriously collect these. They have all these things still in their original packaging and all totally unused. Wait - Grace said that she had a bunch of these.
I had a sister I wanted to dispense with on occasion too. :)
I got my one and only Barbie at an office party where my dad worked. I think I was about seven or eight, and it was a Malibu Barbie with beach towel, etc. I played with her for about an hour and then I was done. I had wanted a doctor set. OR a tool set. Or a chemistry set. Anything but a Barbie. My older sisters played with them quite avidly though.
Holey moley, that's a lot of Barbie stuff! I was never that big on Barbie, I might have had only one. Will be interesting to see how my little girl turn out when she gets older...
It's the end of an era. DD was not into Barbies that much, more as accessories to the Breyer's. Although I did score a battery operated pink Ford Explorer at the thrift store once. It conveniently hooked up to a horse trailor and the Barbies would take the horses "camping". When I asked about the evening gowns packed in the back of the Explorer, DD replied "we're going camping in Hawaii"...as if that explained it all. Have fun sorting and remembering and soon another little girlie girl will have hours and hours of imaginative play.
Off topic, you're tagged for a meme. I blame it on Junior Goddess, who tagged me. Now, why I answered and even more, why I tagged anyone, these are unanswerable questions. See my blog for some oddities about me.
Oh Jayne, That's quite a collection! My DDs never collected Barbies, fortunately, and my DGD has not been crazy over them; she seems to prefer larger dolls. Your collection is very attractive. I collect dolls, but Barbie isn't among my 250+. Happy new year. Jamie
My aunt and uncle got my sister and I Skipper dolls, mine was blonde, and Michele's was a redhead. She kept the plastic wrap over Skipper's head, and never played with her; it creaped me out to see Skipper in that condition. I had to sneak M's bubble-head blonde Barbie to play with so she wouldn't get mad. I would have traded my sister for my own Barbie. I, too, have Midge and Ken, but Ken bothered me because he didn't have real hair.
Happy new year to you too, Jamie!
Trish, your Ken comment reminded me of GI Joes I used to play with -- at the homes of friends who happened to be boys. I much preferred Joe to Barbie. He had little hand-grenades and bandoliers of bullets and such. I remember the Joe hair was flocked, like velvet stuff stuck on his head, and it wore out into bald patches quite easily. This was before they shrunk Joe down into "action figure" size. How humiliating for him...
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