Memories of Barbie
 

Happy Birthday to Barbara Millicent Roberts, AKA Barbie!

We moved when I was four, and I was the only little girl on the block who did not have a Barbie. I went on a campaign for a Barbie doll that rivalled Ralphie's quest for an “official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.”!

"Why aren't you out playing?"
"Debbie and Pam are playing with their Barbies. I don't have one."
(multiply this by at least a gazillion!)

"Mrs. Mann asked me to make some clothes for Judy's Barbie. Would you like to see them?"
"I don't have a Barbie doll, but if I did, I would want her to have Friday Night Date. She would be so pretty..."

"Aren't you glad that you have your soft, cuddly Suzi Q doll to sleep with? "
"She takes up too much room. Barbies don't."
(Yeah, Dixie Lee was really messing with my mind at this point!)

But on Christmas morning, there she was, in all her glory! I'll have to find the photos - that! My first Barbie was a haired bubble cut Barbie who looked much like Jackie Kennedy, and I still have her!


What are your memories of growing up with Barbie?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...924/c7j1FS.jpg https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/mxnBIp.jpg


My first Barbie was the Western Barbie, which originally came out in 1980. I was 3 years old in 1980, and I recall being a little older when I had it, maybe 4 or 5. I received it as a gift; but, I'm not sure who gave it to me. What made Western Barbie unique was that she had a winking eye. There was a button in her back that, when pressed, would cause her to wink. I remember loving her sparkly white, black, and silver pantsuit. She also came with a cowboy hat, white boots, an autograph stamp, and some accessories.

I generally recall that this was the only Barbie I owned. Maybe I had one other later on (??); but, other girls in my school had several. One of my childhood best friends had 6-8 Barbies, a homemade Barbie mansion, the car and everything. My parents just weren't the type to let us kids go full bore into any trend like that. So, I treasured the one I did have and enjoyed playing with her.

When I was about five, an Aunt who had three boys and no girls somehow gifted our family one original but slightly played with out-of-box Barbie (striped swimsuit included). Of course we didn't KNOW it was an original until the collecting trend took off AFTER we had played with her for many years.

With many girls in our family we each got Barbie friends with a different name, outfit, ability and/or skin tone from the doll our other sisters recieved: P.J., Francie, Skipper, Tutti, Malibu Barbie, Christie, etc. I was so enamored of my Francie's Bendable Legs I vigorously shook her by her special legs and broke them the first day. Only my sister had a Twist 'N Turn Waist Barbie.

Back in rural areas in our day there were not many mass-merch stores (Walmart/Target/Toys R Us) to shop at, so we rode bicycles to the dime store/pharmacy/hardware store to choose cool Barbie clothes and multiple cheap, bagged
doll accessories like small plastic soda bottles, toothbrushes, bowling balls with pins, record players with a tiny 45rpm record, tiny plastic dogs, and so on. I recall the coup of buying the beautiful Silver Sparkle Barbie Dress from our local hardware store TWO YEARS after the dress was introduced (commerce moved slowly in rural areas!).

We handmade ALOT of our Barbie clothes, our Barbie houses and our Barbie stuff. Cotton balls stuffed into sewn-shut wrist cuffs made Barbie pillows, with a big letter B written in magic marker on them that stood for BARBIE. Rugs were cut-up fuzzy shirts, room dividers were made from long 1960s shirt fringe or long strings of plastic beads.

The last year I played with Barbies I was fourteen, and that was because I still had to play Barbies with all my younger sisters. I decorated my homemade, cardboard box Barbie House that year with construction-papered red and orange walls.

I will admit: in my 30s when Xmas shopping for new Salvation Army toys I bought myself the Glitter Beach version of Theresa (friend to Barbie). Everything about her was so pretty! I kept her in-box for several years; eventually she did make it (still unused in-box) to a child through the Salvation Army. And I distinctly recall purchasing The First Presidential Candidate Barbie, for a Salvation Army Xmas donation, in 1991.

We grew up with some girls next door who had a Barbie dreamhouse. I'll admit I was envious. GI Joe didn't have anything near as fun.

I'm reliving Barbie now with our daughter. We've got the dream house, camper, car, just got a closet for all of her clothes. Basically, we have a room of our house which is at least 50% Barbie occupied.

Original Barbie, Ken, Midge, Skipper, Scooter. Original dream house and convertible (orange with aqua plastic interior). My mother made beautiful clothes for all. Sometimes I pouted because I wanted "store-bought" clothes but now I appreciate the exquisite detail of those clothes...still have some of them.

I had a bag full of Barbies and clothes/shoes. I also had a Barbie house, which included an elevator that you pulled on a string (that was a big deal for me). I had a Barbie coloring book, bike (best bike ever, it was white, pink and turquoise) and a lunch box. My cousin had the Nintendo game and we played it regularly.

Mind you, I couldn’t stand the color pink, but I loved her nevertheless.

My Mother might still have a couple of Barbie and Midge dolls from when she was young. They were in pretty good shape last I saw them. I need to find out if she still has them.

One of my prized possessions is a Christmas Barbie (still in the box), that I got after my Grandmother passed away. She’s wearing this gorgeous red and gold gown. We absolutely weren’t allow to play with her! :) The box is falling apart, so I’m trying to find another way to showcase her.

Not my first, but my best Barbie was the flight attendant with the plane. The little cart that could be pushed down the aisle was the best!

My mom was a big believer in cooperative play, so between my two sisters and I we had three Barbies total , one cardboard house, and one car.
Mine was a "pink and pretty" Barbie. And we used to make new clothes for the barbies out of kleenex, papertowels, gauze pads and scotch tape.

I had a brunette bubble hair cut Barbie. Most of her clothes were made by my grandmother. When my parents moved, they forgot to clean out a cupboard in the garage and my Barbie was among my childhood keepsakes that were left behindd.

DaffyKD

My favorite Barbie was Crystal Barbie. She had light purple eyes!

I also remember going through a phase towards the end of my Barbie days where I wanted some of them to be punk rockers, so I dyed their hair with food coloring.

And unfortunately, I never had the Barbie Dream House, but I did have the Colorforms version of it, so that's something, I guess?

@Kevin- I am assuming that you are talking about 1980's era GI Joe- the smaller action figures, not the original full sized doll? If so, the Headquarters/Command Center thing was pretty cool.

This is my first Barbie. I had other ones throughout the years (I collected them for a while), but my heart remained true to that first love of my Barbie-loving heart!

My mama also made a lot of Barbie clothes, including a spectacular wedding dress/ball gown. She used an old ruffled petticoat, and let me tell you, my friends (who had the store bought wedding and evening gowns) were ALL jealous!

https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net...81&oe=60704BB0

Those new Barbie clothes must've been beautiful, since kleenex and paper towels used to come in pretty colors and multiple patterns!

We would get weirdly excited when a new paper towel roll was opened.
Then my brother would purposefully dump water on the barbies when he was mad at us to make their clothes fall off.

Yeah, my parents never would spring for those sorts of things. But now they have a grandchild and if there is a Barbie thing that exists, I probably have it in my living room.

Now that said, can anyone tell me more about these improvised clothing things? Y'all are talking about this as if it's all common knowledge. Explain it to me like I'm 5 (because I'll be explaining it to my 5 year old)

My sister and I were Barbie fanatics. We are 5 years apart, and it provided a common ground for us. We also had a Barbie room -- it was supposed to be a sauna but my architect dad never got around to completing that dream, so it became Barbie World. I sewed for Barbie, and my sister and I definitely kept an eye out for items whose scale enabled them to be repurposed for Barbie, such as exotic drink parasols.

We had a LOT of dolls and a LOT of accoutrements, and my daughter definitely picked up the Barbie gene.

My favorite was some weird 1970s Ken who came with a bunch of adhesive facial hair accessories -- mustaches, beards, side burns, etc. They had a peel-off back and didn't really last too long, but we thought he was cool. Talk about creepy.

Hahaha...I found him on eBay -- "Mod Hair Ken" from 1972.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/tZUAA...WS/s-l1600.jpg

AKA "Porn Star Ken"

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/J2cAA...Vy/s-l1600.jpg

Wow, nice! I think I only ever had 2 Kens. One was Malibu Ken, which came wearing nothing but swim trunks, and Crystal Ken, who matched Crystal Barbie, of course, and wore an opalescent suit and purple tie. And the Michael Jackson doll was in the mix somewhere, too.

That Ken is hilarious!

LOL at Porn Star Ken!

My Barbie preferred Alan, the purported boyfriend of Midge. She loved his dreamy auburn hair! My Midge had to settle for Ken.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/nFoAA...ue/s-l1600.jpg

Oh no! How awful!

In 1961, I was 8, and we moved to a new town about an hour away from where we had been.
I quickly discovered the neighborhood girls were into Barbie. I was more into my new bicycle, which I could ride with no training wheels, but it became obvious that I needed a Barbie to connect with my new friends. I don't remember how I got her, but one appeared - blond pony tail, striped swimsuit, and two very simple outfits that I don't remember now. Later, my little brother snipped off her nose and some fingers and then threw her under his bed. So much for a valuable antique!
My mom must have been behind the Barbie appearing...as a little girl she grew up very poor during the Depression but only had one homemade doll.
We soon found out that Barbie was all about the CLOTHES!
We poured over those tiny catalogs that came with each Barbie item, dreaming about "Enchanted Evening," "Red Flare," "Solo in the Spotlight" and "Golden Girl."
I actually got most of those, which was a miracle because Mom really pinched pennies. She got the idea to make some clothes - beautiful evening gowns made out of scraps of turquoise satin and gold taffeta, a summer dress of white pique with a pink appliqued rose. Yes, made with tiny snaps and hand-sewn trim!
I didn't appreciate them-I wanted to make the other girls jealous with my wardrobe of official Barbie outfits. Of course now Mom's homemade garments are my most precious ones.
My second Barbie - blonde bubble cut - was the first purchase of $10 I got for a straight-A report card. She cost me $3.18.
Lots of houses were going up in our neighborhood, so we re-purposed bits and pieces we found at the building sites when the crews had gone home. Blocks of wood make coffee tables, trimming tiles made sofas.
My grandparents made a rare visit sometime around fall...probably 1963. I fixated on a Barbie ballerina outfit and literally pitched a tantrum over it. I finally calmed down and decided I could wait for it, but my uncle took up a collection so I could get the outfit. I was so ashamed!
I graduated from Barbie about the time Midge, Skipper and the rest came out, and I'm glad. Nobody could collect everything they made.
I wouldn't even let my own daughter play with my vintage Barbies, but did let my middle granddaughter play with them when she was 5. I regretted it - some of the tiny accessories (gloves, purses, a phone, outdoor grill utensils) were destroyed or lost. I put them back up. Maybe I'll leave them to her in my will.

What I've always found amusing is the wide assortment of Career Barbies they've come up with over the years...everything from astronaut to figure skater to veterinarian.

Meanwhile, Ken has been a surfer, groom, and male escort. That's it. And groom isn't even a career.

I remember reading somewhere that Barbie went to the moon before Neil Armstrong! Yes, the careers have been amazing!

All this! But about snipping of the nose: do you remember how tiny and pointy their noses were? My sister did the same thing. Must have been tempting.

According to the box, he's the "handsomest Ken ever." Hmmm...looks like he needs a good tailor.
Is "handsomest" a word?

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/qA4AA...JAg/s-l500.jpg

I tell my cats they are the “handsomest boy” all the time...that must be where I got it! 🐈

Such fun memories! Our Barbie telephones were the 60s keychains made to resemble Trimline phones and distributed by the phone company.

We had those, too!

Did anyone have a Tressy? I didn't, but I did have Tressy's Hat Shoppe.
My daddy would save the creamer containers for me to use for doll hats!

https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/i...2ca48a0514.jpg

I stand corrected: Tressy's MILLINERY SHOPPE!


https://www.nicetwicedollshop.com/si...s/P1350244.JPG

Our cousin Tammy had a TAMMY doll, whose original outfit was a blue one-piece gymsuit with white trim. Somehow that gymsuit permanently ended up at our house!

Slight sidetrack: Which of you remembers wearing a one-piece blue gymsuit in middle/high school? And was it required, as it was at my schools, that you embroider your FULL NAME in large, white letters across the back for all to read?

Ours were red. There were two versions: junior high school version with bloomer shorts (gathered legs), and the high school version with cuffed legs. Both ugly as sin and embarrassing to wear! Last name across the back yoke, first and last over the front pocket.

That would be considered hazing today.

They were sooo ugly. They were a major reason I joined the dance line--so I wouldn't have to wear the gym suits. (Also because I was short and skinny and the only thing I could do right in gym was serve a volleyball.)

You know how Tammy was both taller and larger than Barbie? To this day, my sister and I might compare 2 people that way--"you know, the 2 cousins who look like a Tammy and a Barbie together".

Ours were a nauseating gold, cuffed legs, name just on the front. They were phasing them out for the year after me, so wouldn't you know it? My gym suit met a disastrous end, and I was forced to wear the newer version! That was almost, but not quite, like a t-shirt and shorts.

Absolutely!

Tammy just seemed gigantic compared to Barbie! I had a friend named Tammy, and I think every one of her 12 aunts & uncles sent her a Tammy doll! She hated them!

Total sidetrack from Barbie, but I am quite curious about these required gym uniforms, because I never, ever heard of these before this thread. We always brought our own gym clothes. I am thinking this was a "regional" thing??

Have you seen "Pretty in Pink"? They were already on the way out back then, so I only saw them in the movie:

https://letthemreadvinyl.files.wordp.../11/andie4.jpg

The school I went to up to 8th grade didn’t even make us change for gym class. Most kids just did gym in their regular clothes (you had to wear sneakers), then went back to class. By the time we got to 6th, 7th, 8th grade some of us would choose to change, but it wasn’t required. And nobody ever showered.

In high school, people changed for PE classes, but just to regular shorts, sweatpants, T-shirts, whatever, no uniforms. I went to boarding school, so I would try to schedule my PE classes at the end of the day, or at least with a free period afterwards so I could go back to my dorm and take a shower, and not have to use the gym showers.

Definitely not a thing in my world at all. We brought our own shorts and a t-shirt in 10th grade. There were some school provided bathing suits when we had swimming. They were awful and we were thankful swimming was not co-ed.

I've heard stories, told on the radio, that some schools had NUDE single-sex swim classes FOR GYM CLASS GRADES during the 60s/70s! :eek:

I've heard those stories about the boys, but not the girls!