Childhood Memories: Barbies

For most women in the world ( and I use the term most in a loosest sense possible), Barbies were a staple of our childhood. I was no exception to this thought. I spent many hours in my bedroom, living room, or basement playing Barbies throughout my childhood. By the time I was really into playing with Barbies, my sister was past that stage, so not only did I get to use my own Barbies, but I got to use hers as well. I had my own Barbies, including an Ice Skate Barbie, Hollywood Barbie, Yo Yo Skipper, a Barbie  that came with her own Cat, Teresa, Midge, Baby Kelly, and "Gymnastics" Whitney. My sister had much of the same, but some of her special ones including a 1996 Olympics Barbie and a bowling Barbie. Each one had a special place in my "Barbie family" (Hollywood Barbie was the Mom, Ice Skate Barbie and Teresa were the high school sisters, Skipper was in middle school, and Whitney and Kelly were the little ones. Midge was their best friend that basically spent most of the time at their house anyway, so I'm not sure why I just didn't include her as a family member). I also had a mom that sewed, so we had containers full of Barbie clothes.  We also had our fair share of Barbie furniture. I had a Barbie dreamhouse that I got for my birthday in Kindergarten, and we also had several other pieces of furniture, like a bed, dresser, vanity, and a TV Stand. We also had a Barbie "apartment" that came from my cousin. We were also the owners of a Barbie Bank and two barbie Groceries stores. Rachel had a pink 2 seater Barbie convertible while I had a 5 seater blue convertible. We also each had the Barbie pony complete with all the accessories. Well, as you can imagine, I went to TOWN as a five year old with all these Barbie things at my fingertips. I set up a Barbie Megatown. In their "home" town, I had my dream house, along with one grocery store, Whitney's gymnastic studio, the vanity(beauty salon),  and the bank. Two of the high school sisters would drive to the stack of books that served as the high school in the pink convertible. The Mom would drop the others ones off then go to work at her business (she was a lawyer). The other side of my basement was the "vacation" area, with the apartment that served as a condo, the horses and Rachel's bowling alley for recreation, and a grocery store, because you had to eat! The other random furniture was set up near the Dreamhouse for Midge, who was constantly visiting. I would spend 3 hours in my basement playing with my barbies, and I had a blast. It's so much fun to look back on those memories and still be able to remember the specifics about them. I also find it interesting that I was kind of sexist in the fact that I NEVER played with the Ken dolls....