Barbie

As a contrasting companion entry to yesterday's Erector set, here is Barbie properly seat belted into her own car. I was in pursuit of a cardamon roll at the Village Bakery and noticed not only Barbie and her car, but also her house with fully furnished kitchen bedroom bathroom and pool in the window of the toy store next door.

I got the last cardamon roll and sat on a bench in the sun to eat it and contemplate toys, dolls, Barbie and her history. Barbie is almost 61 years old which says a couple of things to me:
1) She is pretty well preserved, which we all know to be true since she (and all her possessions, except her clothes, of which she has an entire wardrobe) are made of plastic and will outlast us all.
2) She has clearly had a lot of work done since she was first introduced in 1959. Times have changed, attitudes have changed and she has kept up (sort of).
3) She is the most popular toy in history. Here is an interesting article on Barbie.

I couldn't help thinking as I ate my cardamon roll about the 250 people who have been forced to move their tent community from a public trail. Many of them were offered and some accepted some form of shelter. 60 of them moved into shed like shelters with a bed, a heater and a hot plate (and a door that locks) which have been set up in the parking lot of a county home for disadvantaged youths. Barbie has a whole kitchen...and a pool. 
 
I never had a Barbie doll, but I did have a fascination for dolls and doll houses. The dolls I loved most were Madame Alexander dolls, Cinderella, Snow White, princesses and a myriad of dolls from around the world, dressed in the native costumes of their countries. I lusted after them but never had one until I bought it for Dana. She had no interest in dolls and never did much with hers except rearrange the hair.

I was fascinated with victorian doll houses and all their miniature, perfectly formed furnishings. I wanted to collect, arrange, and rearrange all those furnishings.  I got a doll house for Dana thinking we could furnish it together. She wasn't interested in the doll house  either. John brought dolls from every airport he visited for Dana and Matchbox cars for the boys. Dana wanted the cars....

When granddaughter Julia was 16 months old, about the time children start to establish speech pathways and patterns in their brains, she had a cochlear implant, followed by regular visits to an audio-verbal therapist whose job it was to help her learn to interpret the digital sounds she heard with her new implant as speech. The therapist had a collection of dollhouses and little plastic people and spent hours playing with Julia, saying the names of the thousands of items and having Julia repeat them. Julia was lucky to be able to have the implant just as she was learning to talk. The audio verbal therapy and the toys were key. .

Erector is now owned  by Meccano can still be purchased. apparently it is still used a lot by architects and engineers in designing the early stages of projects.  

As I brushed the sugar crumbs, all that was left of my cardamon roll, off my lap it did occur that toys serve all kinds of purposes, kids have all kinds of interests and, regardless of what we adults might think, the good toys will survive. It certainly doesn't surprise me that Dana still has the Erector set.