Blog Post 5: Childhood Mementos
There are certain objects that automatically come to mind when I think of my childhood. I begin to reminisce on the feelings it brought me when I was younger and had not a care in the world. One object that comes to mind is my Barbie doll. Well actually maybe it was not just one, I used to have almost thirty, not including the Ken doll and kid Barbie’s. I had houses, a café, and even a bright, yellow Volkswagen. I could spend hours in our family room playing with them, imagining they were a big, happy family.
I used to assign one Barbie as the mother and obviously the one Ken doll as the father. The rest of the twenty-nine Barbie dolls were all sisters. As a child I did not realize, or particularly care, that this was outrageous. I would maneuver their plastic bodies as if they were going throughout a normal day; such as pretending they we’re eating a delicious, turkey dinner or being tucked in to their comfortable beds at night. As I belong to a small family with only one brother, I used to imagine what it was like to have a large family with my Barbie dolls.
As a child, my family and I would make annual trips to Long Beach Island with two other families. One trip we went to a small carnival that was walking distance from the house we rented. I spotted one game where you had to throw a ring onto the top of a bottle, so naturally as a daddy’s girl I looked up to my father and begged him to try and win me a stuffed animal for me. After three tries and ten dollars down the toilet, he finally earned himself a prize. I picked a small teddy bear that I carried with me for the rest of the night. I don’t think either of my parents realized how attached I would get to it, seeing as the only reason I stopped sleeping with it at night was when I lost it freshmen year of high school during a trip to Key West. Which I’m convinced was stolen by my aunts because they thought it was ridiculous that I still slept with it.
From the day my dad handed me the bear, which I named Bear, we were inseparable. When I was first born my mother’s friend gave me a silk blanket, which I ended up wrapping around Bear’s neck as a scarf. Whenever I had a tummy-ache I would untie it and put the silk on my stomach and miraculously it would go away. At night when I was afraid of the dark or someone was hiding in my closet I would put the covers over my head and squeeze onto Bear for protection. When I went on airplanes, which I was deathly afraid of as a kid, who was there to comfort me? Bear, of course.
Comp-osing Our Future 
Both of these objects bring back memories of my own. Just like her barbies, when I was little I use to collect the bratz dolls and I use to get all the clothes for them and I even have the safari car and fashion runway for them. Also, one Christmas when I was little my mom got me this little stuffed animal giraffe and in the middle of the giraffes stomach was a picture of us. I still have the giraffe till his day and it brings back memories like her bear.
I can relate to this post about Barbie dolls because as a child, I had over one hundred Barbie. In my room, I had a big Barbie castle in which I placed several of my favorite Barbies. Before going to bed every night and as soon as a rose in the morning, I would go to my favorite Barbies and make sure they were placed exactly were I had previously left them. I loved brushing my Barbie dolls’ hair and playing house with them. My parents never even bothered asking what I wanted as a present because they already knew what my answer would be: a new Barbie doll. My mom has saved a few of my favorite Barbie dolls for when I get older because some day they may be vintage and very valuable items. — Daria Abbaei