My Memory

This childhood memory involves "the girls." I remember hot summer days when Melanie and I would get bored of swimming. Sometimes all we had to do was look at each other and we would just know. Other times a simple clue like saying "B" was all we needed. So we didn't draw attention to oursevlves we'd both nonchalantly make our way upstairs to our room (now the yellow room) and play Barbies.

Oh yes, we would spend hours and hours up there, coming out for meals but that was about it. Unlike our friends we didn't have any of the Barbie paraphernalia, we just had a couple dolls so we had to get quite creative, which made it way more fun I think. We would turn our room into a Barbie City with apartment buildings and buses and country villas with a view. We would find fabric in Mom's stash above the sewing machine and sew our own Barbie clothes. We didn't have Ken dolls for a long time so we would go on dates with our stuffed animals. Being the two youngest I think we saw too many movies because the plots of our Barbie stories were always dramatic and always involved one of our teddy bears cheating on us (not that we really knew what that meant). I should have been a script writer for a soap opera! I remember being a little famous
for our Barbie exploits, we got teased (but we got teased for everything so it didn't stop us). It seemed like Brent was always trying to hide Dad's mini tape recorder in our room and record us playing.

Linnea always played with us and Melissa would make fun but sometimes find some excuse to join in. When she got too old Linnea soon decided that she was too old to play as well. We'd always invite her, she would turn up her nose and say she didn't want to play but she WOULD come in and do our dolls' hair. She always ended up playing. I remember at some point during our play Melanie always getting mad at us for something. It happened every time. I don't know if we were always mean to her or if it just got to be a habit but it never failed. Here's how I remember it:

Mel: That's not fair!
Me: Yes it is!
Linnea: Don't be a baby Melanie

Melanie would then lose her temper, start to cry and run out of the room yelling incoherently. Linnea and I, being the calloused children that we were, would laugh and then count slowly and quietly to 3. When we hit 3 Melanie would burst back into the room and proudly state "AND YOU CAN'T USE MY STUFF EITHER!!" and then slam the door again. Linnea and I would laugh even harder, keep playing and wait for Melanie to finish pouting and come back in and play.

I can't remember when I finally stopped playing Barbies, I'm sure it was long after I should have. I know that I LOVED that creative outlet and clung on as long as I could. When I was way too old I think I finally started "doing their hair."