Katy McKenna Raymond  
Personal blog of christian writer Katy McKenna Raymond in Kansas City, Missouri

Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri


Katy is represented by
Greg Johnson at
WordServe Literary

Read more Katy at
LateBoomer.net

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Finally

Not long ago, a side-walk sale at Wal-Mart compelled me to haul home no fewer than a dozen Barbies to add to the stuff in the gift closet. Last night, I opened five of them and made them my own.

It's a difficult thing for a woman of my age and feminine sensibilities to never have had a real Barbie. Barbie was introduced in 1959, I believe, when I was in kindergarten. By 1963, when I was allowed to have an anatomically correct (tee, hee) doll, fake Barbies were already on the market.

I got a platinum blonde, pony-tailed unreasonable facsimile, and my life was changed forever.

It's like what they say about cravings: No amount of filling your stomach with a crummy substitute takes the place of a small amount of the real thing.

I have spent decades purusing the Barbie aisles, showering other children with the Barbies I never had, drooling over the gilded designer Barbies the Franklin Mint now sells to over-aged Barbie-deprived women with bucks.

It's pathetic, really. My poor mother tried to save fifty-nine cents by purchasing the fake rather than the shockingly expensive $2.48 authentic, and she instead caused a lifetime of Barbie angst.

I had no choice but to give myself the gift of Barbies last night. I had to have something to fill my new Barbie dollhouse.
Posted by Katy on 12/08/03 at 01:37 PM
Fallible Comments...
  1. i just love how you nurture the child inside, katy...i'm constantly trying to grow mine up, dragging her into adulthood with a tight hand and determined chin. thanks for not only letting yours be, but delighting in her - a good reminder for me.
    -----
    Posted by lisa  on  12/09/03  at  03:00 AM
  2. I tried to grow her up, but I failed. My kids will tell you that I wasn't childlike when they were children. I was oh-so-responsible... But you should have seen the silly grin on my face as Doug and I assembled the dollhouse and I unpackaged all those Barbies (a redhead, brownhead, two blondes, plus a black Barbie with her very own baby!) I was EVERY BIT as thrilled with my toys as when I was eight, maybe more. If there's something you've always loved, my advice is to keep on loving it.
    Posted by Katy  on  12/09/03  at  04:06 AM
  3. Lisa, A memory. As recently as my 21st birthday (okay. 29 years ago.), I received a big, beautiful Raggedy Ann doll, when my office mates found out I'd never had a Raggedy and craved one. Wasn't that nice of them? They could have given me, I don't know, a fresh tape for my Code-a-phone. They catered to the kid, and I never forgot it.
    Posted by Katy  on  12/09/03  at  04:26 AM
  4. Katy, I spent the day after Thanksgiving drooling over Little Kiddles in an antique store. You may or may not remember these miniature Mattel dolls. They sold for $60 a piece at that store. I had tons of them as a girl, and eventually passed them on to nieces. But I would have bought everyone of them that Friday if they had been reasonably priced. So. I had my fill, and still long for them.

    And then there was Dancerina across the aisle... (Am I sounding nutty or what?)
    Anne #2
    Posted by sparrow  on  12/09/03  at  07:35 AM
  5. Hi, Sparrow! What era are Little Kiddles and Dancerina from? I missed them! I still love Chatty Kathy and Thumbelina, and I had those. I also have my Revlon bride doll I got for my 8th Christmas, but I look at the Revlon dolls in the antique stores longingly...so you're right. Even if we have our fill...sigh.
    Posted by Katy  on  12/09/03  at  07:06 PM
  6. Little Kiddles and Dancerina were right behind you--my girlhood was spent in the mid-sixties to early seventies. (And when my sister, age 57 saw Dancerina, she said, "She looks like Chatty Kathy!")
    Posted by sparrow  on  12/10/03  at  02:06 AM
  7. Boys, have dolls, too, and I still play with mine - in my office. They are called action figures and Target sells them for $6.99.
    Posted by Tim  on  12/10/03  at  10:29 PM
  8. And I thought I was the only one with the "real" Barbie envy in the family! Glad to know that Mom was cheap with all of us and not just me, even though it may have scarred us for life.
    Posted by Bridget  on  12/10/03  at  10:30 PM
  9. Tim, You are very secure to refer to your action figures as what they are--dolls. Is your wife OK with this? ;)

    Bridget, Well. You might as well know that our sister Liz had a real Barbie. A more thorough waste of a beautiful doll was never committed...
    Posted by Katy  on  12/11/03  at  02:44 AM
  10. I was telling my friends of your recent doll buys when I remembered that I too have a doll. (See, mom, we are alike after all!) I quickly ran to my trunk and dug out my never-opened GI Joe...it is now part of our decor.
    Posted by Carrie  on  12/11/03  at  08:33 AM
  11. I-I-I...Oh, that's great, honey...GI Joe...
    Posted by Katy  on  12/11/03  at  06:37 PM
  12. I don't know when Barbies hit our stores, but I wanted one when I was young. My parents wouldn't waste $40 (Malaysian) on a mere doll, so I didn't have one... then later someone gave me one of the cheaper versions for one of my birthdays. I still make a beeline for the Barbie doll aisle when I go to toyshops...
    Posted by irene  on  12/11/03  at  07:03 PM
  13. Irene, My advice? Buy yourself one! It is a satisfying acquisition! You deserve a Barbie!
    Posted by Katy  on  12/11/03  at  07:52 PM
  14. Tim, Now I am embarassed!!! I just read your comment again, and clicked on your site, thinking I was going to catch up with Tim Samoff, who I enjoy teasing mercilessly....Instead, I have called into question the secure manhood of Pastor Tim. Ah, well. All in a day's blogging, huh? ;)
    Posted by Katy  on  12/11/03  at  11:07 PM
  15. Katy, I haven't been able to convince myself to get a Barbie doll because I know it would just sit there and gather dust and be in the way... arrgh! My parents have infected me!!! (they are super-practical people with not a single sentimental bone in their bodies)

    ...plus Barbies still cost $30 and the really gorgeous ones cost even more. *sigh*

    I draw girls who look like Barbie. It's the only thing I can draw. I've always always been fascinated by beautiful women :)
    Posted by irene  on  12/12/03  at  12:47 AM
  16. Irene, If the infection your parents passed to you hasn't cleared up by the time you're my age, I'll be surprised. Over time, your immunity will build up and you'll fight it off! By then, your children will be struggling to not catch the stuff you're trying to pass on....

    Fascinating that you draw Barbie women! I am drawn to beautiful girls, too. Most of my friends are drop-dead gorgeous. I know a therapist would have a hey-day with this....
    Posted by Katy  on  12/12/03  at  01:01 AM
  17. Why am I not surprised that Liz had a Barbie? She probably had all the accessories, too. Travesty...sigh....
    Posted by Bridget  on  12/12/03  at  01:08 AM
  18. All I remember is that hers had a golden blonde ponytail with bangs. And that she teased me horribly about playing with dolls, when I could have been outside climbing trees, breaking bones, and beating up boys. Sigh, indeed...
    Posted by Katy  on  12/12/03  at  01:28 AM
  19. "barbie envy" - *chuckle*...i still have little ones at home, and i'm quite sure that when they no longer want to draw pictures with markers, sculpt peas and carrots out of play dough for afternoon tea, and build legos with me i'll find a way to play still... while i'm a die hard grown up a lot of the time, who can resist the tug on a sleeve or pant leg - "mommy, will you play with me?"
    Posted by lisa  on  12/12/03  at  05:14 AM
  20. Katy -- I admit that whenever the newspapers have pictures of what the stars wore at the Oscars, I always soak in the sight of those evening gowns. I wish some of them would have better taste in dressing, though!
    Posted by irene  on  12/12/03  at  06:33 PM
  21. Katy, hard to reconcile my self-belief that I'm a feminist but still want a Barbie!
    Posted by Ivy  on  12/13/03  at  05:11 PM
  22. Lisa, Oh, yeah. You'll find a way to play. I can tell.

    Irene, Not every woman can be as tasteful as we are!

    Ivy, I had somehow lost track of you, girl! Now I'm back with the Ivy program...missed you. There's no reason why Barbie and feminism should be mutually exclusive, IMO. ;)
    Posted by Katy  on  12/14/03  at  08:27 AM
  23. i got a platinum blonde fake barbie too...her name was Tammy and she was an archer. like my father. :) i did get some barbies later but really went apeshit with my daughter, satisfying my inner girl by making sure she had all the real thing.
    Posted by barbara  on  12/16/03  at  11:48 PM
  24. I gave my daughter all real, too, but she wasn't as into Barbies as I was...It's a quandary, isn't it? Sometimes we think our kids will be just like us, loving what we love, and we give them the stuff we wanted, and they go "huh?" BTW, I visited you site, and was touched by your writing. Your story made me cry. Thanks.
    Posted by Katy  on  12/18/03  at  09:47 PM
  25. I actually found your blog by searching for blogs that mention dollhouse! =) I'm a dollhouse miniaturist, and have lots of other miniaturist friends online.. it's great to have a second childhood.. I'm currently customising my Barbie, and planning to buy her some friends, too. My main scale is 1:12, though (smaller than Barbie scale).
    Posted by Stello  on  02/22/04  at  03:02 PM
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