"I had dolls as a child and loved them, but unfortunately none of my childhood dolls made it into adulthood with me. I had a rough brother, nephew, and niece who pretty much destroyed most of my dolls, and my mother would sometimes donate my old toys to the Children's Medical Center."I came across an image that forced me to acknowledge that I was complicit in the destruction of some of my dolls. If I still had my first Barbie doll, she would look almost exactly like the doll on the left, with the haircut of the doll on the right.
So if I loved my dolls so much, what could have happened, you may wonder. Well let me tell you, it was all accidental.
Accident #1 - I decided that I wanted my blonde doll to have black hair. I colored my doll's hair with a permanent black marker. As I recall, it actually looked pretty good. All was well until I decided that I wanted her to have blonde hair again. I washed my doll's hair, and the ink from the permanent marker stained my doll's face a blackish color. I scrubbed and scrubbed my doll's face to no avail. She was stained for the rest of her days. The good news is that all of the black washed right out of her hair, which did not comfort me in the slightest.
Accident #2 - I decided that it would be humorous to see what Barbie would look like with no neck. I pushed Barbie's head way down on her neck. Well it did amuse me for a while. I laughed, showed her off, and I may have said that my doll looked like a White Florida Evans. It was no laughing matter, however, when I tried to put the doll's head back in it's original position. The doll's head wobbled around precariously. I had permanently stretched the neck hole. From then on, my Barbie had a shortened neck because I had to position the doll's head further down in order for it to stay securely in place. After that, I felt like I knew how Florida Evans felt in that one episode of Good Times.
So when I came across that photo of the Barbies above, I laughed so hard and wondered how it was even possible that some other child had done the exact same things to Barbie that I had done. I wondered for a moment if that person had ended up with one of my childhood dolls. But surely, my mother would not have donated one of my dolls if it was in that kind of condition. I never threw any of my dolls away, so they were all either given away, or thrown away by someone else. For me, they just simply disappeared. The doll above closely resembles what my first Barbie doll looked like at the time of her disappearance.
Other 1/6 scale dolls from my childhood:
Darci
I loved my Darci so much. Not only did her legs bend, but her arms did, too! And she had articulated wrists as well! I had hours of fun posing her. I also had fun combing, brushing, and cutting her hair until she was nearly completely bald in the back. So I had my first and only experience with re-rooting with Darci. My mother had a large crafts needle, and I had a Styling Head Barbie. I cut hair plugs from the Styling Head, "threaded" the needle with it, and used the needle to re-root Darci's hair in the back. I was only about 9 years old at the time, so I'm impressed with my younger self when I think back on it. I have dolls that need to be re-rooted right now that I haven't done. I found out several years ago that Darci had an African American friend named Dana. My inner child is demanding that I get a Dana doll. I keep telling that child "one of these days."
My Darci doll was in pretty good shape at the time of her disappearance. She had blonde hair in the back that was brighter and longer than the hair on the rest of her head.
The Bionic Woman
One very happy Christmas, I got The Bionic Woman and my nephew (who is 2 years younger than me) got The Six Million Dollar Man. I never had a Ken doll as a child, so I can tell you that the BW and the SMDM fell madly in love with each other. I was content with having the dolls in the house making out, and washing and styling the BW's hair over and over again. Do you remember those dolls from the 70's with horrible hair that would frizz and shrivel up and become nearly impossible to comb? The BW was one of those. At any rate, my nephew and brother got to have her for quality time outside, which included jumping from the garage, being run over by large Tonka trucks, lifting "boulders", being buried alive, etc.
My Bionic Woman doll was in bad shape at the time of her disappearance. She had matted hair and missing limbs.
Kissing Christie
She was my first Black fashion doll. I was so thrilled to have her. I remember generously applying her lipstick, and she would give my brother's GI Joe lots of kisses on the cheek. My mother had always told me not to take my toys to school, and not to loan my toys to my friends. I did not listen to my mother. My doll was so beautiful that I had to show her off. I took my doll to school, and loaned her to a friend, who promised to bring her back the next day. She did not bring her back the next day. And she did not bring her back the day after that. I asked day after day for my doll, only to be told that she "forgot". She finally brought my doll back to me, with the doll's neck split wide open. We never spoke again after that to the best of my recollection. I put glue on my doll's neck and wrapped her neck in tape.
My Kissing Christie was in bad shape at the time of her disappearance, with a neck held together with glue and tape.
I had a lot of dolls of many different sizes, from huge Lorrie Walker dolls, to the 4" Glamour Gals dolls. Most of my dolls were in pretty good condition at the times of their disappearances.
Do you still have your childhood dolls? Which ones? Did any of your dolls suffer the same abuse as my first Barbie doll?
