Barbie -- Part of My Age Cohort

As a little girl, I played with Barbies. It almost went without saying in those days. (Although, actually, I liked Francie better.)

At my house, Daughter Number Two kept all of her dolls and their stuff in pristine condition, while the rest of us trashed ours unmercifully. I think DN2 still has the turquoise Barbie Corvette. I'll have to check her closets some time.

After a while, I was primarily into making houses for the dolls. I remember once we made a ski chalet for them out of some doll bunkbeds we had. We also made miniature magazines for them.

As a parent, I actively discouraged any Barbie gifts when my daughter was younger. I haven't spent a lot of time analyzing it, but I have a lingering sense that those plastic bodies, curvy in all the unrealistic places, did some type of minor damage to my own psyche. So I figured, why let Barbie into my house? She can live somewhere else.

I was reminded by NPR this morning that Barbie is 50 this year, just like me. I didn't realize we were part of such a close age cohort. Maybe it's because Barbie sprang to life as an adult back in 1959, while I had to reach adulthood the hard way.

Anyway, here's my take on the 50th Anniversary Barbie that has been released by Mattel. In case you're wondering, that's Seville in the background.