Childhood....Part 1 - Dolls

"Backward, turn backward Oh time in your flight.
Make me a child again just for tonight!"
I am always a sentimental, nostalgic gal when it comes to my own childhood, or my own two kids growing up too fast. This past week my blog post about my newly acquired Spirograph set, started a conversation with a sister about her own Spirograph memories and other childhood toys long gone. Which in turn made me ponder more on my own childhood toys and memories. And that....has started an hours and hours long quest for images of the playthings of my youth!! And it has been so FUN!!
Most of the items in this post I actually still have. So I hauled out a box or two from a storage closet in the basement and here's what I found....
My Barbie storage case. I can still remember how amazing this thing was to me. It was a BIG deal and I loved opening it and arranging the clothes on hangers and the shoes in the drawer.

These are my Barbies. The two in the middle were new to me, and the two on the outside were passed down from sisters. Clearly I gave them lovely haircuts. The pink dress was crocheted by my Grandma Daugs, and the other three outfits were sewn by my mom. 

All outfits here sewn by my mom. Ellie saw the wedding dress and told me it looked kind of like a nightgown. 

"My First Barbie" really was my first Barbie. I found the picture of the new doll online. I still have the four pieces of clothing she came with.

"Sunsational Malibu Barbie". Still have her suit and towel.

This was one of my favorite "store bought" Barbie outfits. Ellie put it on one of her Barbie's for this photo.

Marcy. Why did I name her Marcy? I have no idea. Weird. Most of my  friends all had "real" Cabbage Patch kids. One year for Christmas Naomi and I got handmade Cabbage Patch Kids. A lady in our ward made them in exchange for two crocheted afghans that my mom made for her. As soon as I got her I didn't care that she wasn't store-bought. In fact I thought she was WAY better than those other dolls!

She came in a rose colored sweats outfit that my mom made....still have it of course, but no photo here.  Somehow along the way I ended up with this Cookie Monster outfit, and it was always my favorite. The year I got Marcy for Christmas, I got a Cabbage Patch Baby Book with multiple sets of puffy stickers to use in the book. The book was identical to the one in this picture. Got the picture off the web. Don't have mine anymore. Gasp!
My mom made me the pink doll diaper bag, with the matching cloth diapers and bibs. I LOVED them! And they are still in perfect condition today. The other little pictures I found online. I had a little wind-up crawling doll like this one. It was just so adorable. Also had the little rubber baby doll that you feed and it wets. And of course, Victoria! Victoria was a Madame Alexander doll. She was Rachel's first, and eventually mine. By the time she was mine she had lost her cry, and one big toe. She was markered on and stained. BUT man oh man I liked her!! She has that "real baby" feel when you pick her up. My mom gave Rachel a brand new Victoria, identical to the first, when she was an adult. 

I don't know where or when I acquired these pixy dolls. I named them Daisy and Daffodil. They have wires inside so you can bend them however you want. I'm not super fond of them now. But I must have been at some point, because they were "keepers". 

 

Doesn't this post just make you want to recall your own childhood dolls? Why do we ever have to grow up?