I guess I never had any store bought paper dolls when growing up. Mine came straight from the latest out-dated Sears, Roebuck Catalog. I couldn't wait until a new catalog came in the mail. That meant, with mother's permission, I could have the old one to cut and have new paper dolls. Christmas catalogs came early and I looked at them over and over, dreaming of things I wished to have.
My cousin, Brenda, played paper dolls with me when she and her parents came to visit on Friday nights. Brenda was always organized, and still is, I might add. She came in the door with a shoe box. I knew that shoe box held all her paper dolls. She got hers the same way I got mine, right out of the catalog.
Our paper dolls liked to party a lot, so we looked for the girls with the beautiful gowns and the boys had to be dressed in suits. Now not just any picture would do. Our paper dolls had to be complete people. They had to have full legs and arms showing and their heads had to have all the hair too.
We didn't have any of this fancy furniture that can be bought today. No siree, we got up in the middle of the bed. We pulled the cover back, fluffed it up, and you wouldn't believe the furniture Brenda could make by just twisting and twirling that sheet. I was two years younger than Brenda and she taught me a lot about designing furniture on a bedsheet. Ah, we enjoyed playing paper dolls. Our imagination ran wild when our "Barbie and Ken"were going out on a date and to a party.
If our dolls needed to change clothes for another type outing, we just selected another doll from our collection. Or, we went to the old reliable and found one that would fit our plans just right, and we cut it out. We played with what we had, not what we wished we had.
One night Brenda and I were sitting up in the bed in the back room playing paper dolls when my brother Herschel came home. He brought a friend home with him. It was Jimmy Smith. When Brenda and I knew they were in the next room, we gathered our paper dolls up and came out to be with them and our parents. She whispered to me, "Don't let them know we were playing paper dolls." I assured her I wouldn't, but I'm not sure I understood why at the time. That was the night she met Jimmy Smith and our whole world changed forever.
It happened that Aunt Mamie and Uncle Fred soon got ready to leave. Guess what! Brenda didn't want to leave. Of course, Jimmy could fix that. Why, if they didn't mind, he could take her home a little later. He assured them he would bring her straight home. Brenda thought that was a fine idea, and so it was the way it all began.
I guess we never played paper dolls again, and I'm not sure I'm completely over that yet.
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