The true test came when I requested a Barbie doll as a child and the request was categorically denied. You know as well as I do that it had something to do with the lampshade.
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| Source: Tracy's Toys |
I was given other options though, including trolls. Wait a minute! This one has a lampshade on its head too.
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| Source: Tracy's Toys |
At the age of 6 or 7, I was presented with a lovely bisque Deanna Durbin doll (Durbin was a movie star in the 30s and 40s.) Deanna had real (human!) hair and sleep eyes and was quite lovely, but she was not as durable as a Barbie doll. A direct hit from a basketball thrown by one of my brothers broke one of her legs. She has since been repaired and seems to be fine. It also appears that she actually ate the marshmallow I tried to feed her as a child or it dried up and disintegrated. As lovely as she was, I had to decline invitations to Barbie parties, because you simply do not walk into a Barbie party with a bisque doll of any kind. It would be sort of like wearing a lampshade.
My mother bought me some other dolls too, including a Native American doll and a plantation doll of unknown origin (Caribbean?). They have since been joined by a doll I bought in South Africa in the 1970s, a Hungarian doll, and the gregarious Don Ho bubble doll.
When I lived in Hawaii, I passed a huge cart of these Don Ho dolls that were being given away. I'm not sure why I only took one. The tag around his neck says "Don Ho blows tiny bubbles and big ones too." His head screws off and then you press on his chest and a bubble wand emerges from his chest cavity. A quick blow and there you go...tiny bubbles and big ones too.
Just in case you're interested, I leave you with a clip of Don Ho singing Tiny Bubbles
And here's Deanna Durbin.
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