From Where I Sit

By Pat Spilseth, Columnist

When you were a kid, did you have a Barbie doll?  Remember the voluptuous, glamorous doll who had so many careers? In addition to being an astronaut, she’s also been a stewardess, a CEO, a surgeon, robotics engineer and game developer…she’s accomplished an amazing list of careers.  She even ran for president six times! Barbie was created to inspire numerous little girls to be just like her!   Girls can be whoever and whatever they choose to be. Today, 60 some birthdays later, she remains a favorite toy for little girls.

Can you believe that this glamorous gal in all her roles is among the toys my granddaughters are playing with? She’s over 60 by now, but little girls are still dressing her in various costumes. Just as Barbie has dozens of costumes, little girls have a ball changing from princesses to doctors to teachers…but princess dresses are my granddaughters’ favorites complete with tiaras and jewels.

Making an appearance at the American Toy Fair in NY March 9, 1959, Barbie was created to inspire girls to reach their full potential. The $60 Collector 60th anniversary Celebration doll  appeared in a sparkling ball gown with those luscious red lips and long blonde hair.

I arrived years before Barbie was created. But I did have a walking doll whose eyes would move and her legs and arms would be set in motion when I clasped her hand in mine and moved her forward. My doll Suzy was a perfect model for a good little girl of the fifties. She had long blonde braids: she looked nothing like the gorgeous Barbie doll my little sister Barbara Ann got for a present.   

Sister Barb arrived when I was eight years. Our parents allowed me to name my little sister Barbie. Perhaps that was the compensation for the arrival of a little sister who usurped my princess status in the family.   

In addition to all her pet animals, my younger sister collected several Barbie dolls as well as dolls dressed in costumes from their country like Russia, France and Norway. When my granddaughter Elizabeth was born in September of 1918, Barbie sent her the latest edition of the famous doll as a reminder to Elizabeth that her aunt’s name was also BARBIE.

Today so many other dolls, toys, sayings, dress styles, even cars, bikes and food are out of date. What happened to the allures of cars like the Tbird, the Delorean, the Studebaker? Remember when boys wore buzz cuts, heinies and ducktail haircuts? Girls had their hair cut in a pageboy, a pixie, a beehive or a Dorothy Hamill haircut.

Remember Beeman’s gum and the aniseed-flavored Black Jack gum? How about candy  that has disappeared like the Baby Ruth bar and coconut chews? I haven’t seen lemon drops for years, and it’s tough to find packages of maple nut goodies, my favorite.

Popular attitudes, songs and expressions change with time. Things go in or out of popular style. Few fads remain…remember pet rocks, hoola hoops and Beanie Babies?

Do you remember the word mergatroyd? Spell-checker does not even recognize that word. Heavens to Mergatroyd! And when did you last hear the word jalopy? I hope you’ll be hunky dory after reading all these time-lost favorites. So much has become obsolete.

Don’t touch that dial, carbon copy, You sound like a broken record and hung out to dry. Years ago we’d be told to straighten up and fly right. Heavens to Betsy! was a favorite expression as well as Gee Whillikers, Jumping Jehoshaphat and Holy Moley! We were living the life of Riley. We called some kids knuckleheads, nincompoops or a pill.

Life used to be swell, but swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys and the D.A., spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes and pedal pushers.

The words many of us grew up with have vanished. Long gone are fiddlesticks, knee high to a grasshopper, going like 60, I’ll see you in the funny papers, Carter’s little liver pills and wake up and smell the roses.

Just like words and expressions change with time and technology, isn’t it amazing that  Barbie still looks the same? Of course, technology allows humans to remain youthful looking, if you have the money and the need for agelessness.

If you’re like me, I find that one of the advantages of aging is the enjoyment we get from recalling people, toys, cars, words and expressions that used to exist but are now obsolete except in our memory. See ya later, alligator.  After awhile, crocodile.

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To contact Pat, email: pat.spilseth@gmail.com.