It’s Barbie’s 50th Birthday and all this thinking about Barbie has transported me back to the 80s. I wasn’t as big on Barbie as my sister and her friends (I was a Lego Maniac) but there was still a spot in my heart for Barbie.

My first Barbie was – and I swear I remember this vividly – Great Shape Barbie, with her aqua leotard and complete with the Olivia Newton John-esque headband. I think I played with that thing until the leotard disintegrated. I also had the Peaches and Cream Barbie and my personal favorite, Day to Night Barbie.

My mom rewarded me with a Barbie and the Rockers Barbie for earning Student of the Month honors in first grade. Of course, my sister stole it and ruined it. She ripped off her head, among other sicko things. Bitch. But I’m sure I’ve already lamented about that on this website.

I had the Dream Glow Barbie and she was totally awesome because her dress glowed in the dark! She drove around in my bright pink Barbie corvette. Funny story with that one, we set up a ramp with Little Golden Books, filled the corvette with Barbie, Ken, and Skipper, and drove it out my sister’s second story bedroom window. Nothing broke. They just don’t build toys like that anymore.

Once, my sister and I made a Barbie cemetery in our back yard for all our “departed” Barbies. We buried a few and found rocks to serve as headstones. Then there was that one time when we threw all our Barbies up into the tree in our front yard. We had nearly six or seven Barbies stuck in the tree. Fortunately, our Cabbage Patch Kid dolls were large enough to wedge the Barbies free.

Sadly, we started to grow up. Every girl has the age when she tells all her friends she stopped playing with Barbie (usually around 10 or 11) and then there’s the real age she stopped playing with Barbies (12 or 13). C’mon, don’t lie. We all secretly played with Barbies even after we pretended to care about boys and makeup.

I had so many happy memories with Barbie. *tear*

Then those little Bratz sluts came around and ruined everything.