Barbie

I was eleven years old when I got my first “Barbie” which was actually a Mitzi doll. Mitzi was a lot prettier than the Barbies of 1964 and equally well made. The Mitzi cost .99 cents and the Barbie was $1.99, a whole dollar difference. With 5 kids (at the time) a dollar made a difference!

I adored my “Barbie” though and after that baby dolls were of no interest to me. In those days you could buy outfits for Barbie and then you would also get a little booklet with all the other outfits you could buy. I don’t think I ever got one outfit that came from Mattel but my girlfriend Susan did and she let me look in one of her booklets. I would pore of them devouring every detail. Oh but I wanted the nurse’s uniform and a particular ball gown so much. I learned to sew my own outfits but as I was a terrible sewer I went in for all the ball gowns as they were easier to make. You didn’t need to make sleeves and the skirts didn’t need to be hemmed if you got a piece of fabric that was an “end” (already bound). I was the genius of shortcuts, let me tell you!

One day my mother heard Susan and I playing at Barbies and we were putting our mink stoles around their shoulders (the mink was a bit of fur I had salvaged from an old slipper of my mother’s) and we were saying “let’s put on our petticoats, it’s so chilly” or something like that. My mother took me aside and told me that petticoats were actually underwear or the slips underneath the dresses. I was shocked and thought she was making it up but I did find out that she was right. I felt so silly calling a mink stole a petticoat but none of my friends knew any different either!

The things we go around assuming!