Toy Stories

(November 25, 2008)

Put your hands UP! Oh oh ohhhh oh oh OH! Seriously. Can't stop listening to the Beyonce. I'm glad I embedded the vid in yesterday's entry so I don't have to do a new Youtube search every time I want to watch it again. Which is like, five times a day.

I might spend too much time online. Oh the online craziness.

Speaking of online craziness, I read a certain person's diary regularly, mostly because I find her WAY out there. It's Bindyree and there is a link to her diary over on the left. (If there is no link, it's because I've changed my layout since this was written and/or she's a dead link). If you find the time, go click over and try to locate an essay in her index that's called "Erasure Impostor Info." You'll need time, it's long. And disturbing. Now, I don't want to judge. Seems all my judging has to do with footwear, so unless Bindy does an entry about how great Crocs and flip flops are, there'll be no judging. HOWEVER...how could she go so far, for so long, in an online relationship with a guy pretending to be Andy Bell from Erasure? Man. Had it been me, afterward I think I'd have avoided all public mention of it; I would feel like a total ass. By contrast, Bindy has written a very long and detailed manifesto about being a "fraud victim."

Hm.

Well it's a good read, that impostor story.

Bindyree wrote today about this site that's warning about the ten most dangerous kids' toys, sparking a memory that she shares about her and her cousins spending all day playing with a giant cardboard refrigerator box.

Oh my god, we DID that. Her story totally sparked a a memory for me. If I'm not mistaken, we had a giant refrigerator box, or maybe it was from a washer or dryer. And I think...did we...yes I believe we placed it under the basement stairs, loaded the bottom with all the cushions and blankets we could find, then all afternoon we JUMPED from the top of the stairs into the box, landing in a thrilled and boneless pile of giggles.

Jeez. If I saw a kid doing that right now I'd have a heart attack.

I also remember my grandmother giving us empty bacon containers to sit on and slide down the asphalt driveway in the snow. She said they would make us go fast because of the grease. Yes, the driveway, IN THE PATH of any cars that would be driving into the yard.

It really is a miracle I made it this far.

At least we didn't have Jarts.

You know what toy I liked a lot? When I was about seven I had a Barbie make-up head. It was just the head of Barbie but about the size of a small child's head, with the required Barbie long blonde hair. The way the toy was designed meant the head sat in the center of a pink tray, and it came with brushes and barrettes and Barbie make-up, and when you're done doing her hair and her make-up you could store the stuff in the tray.

I've seen newer versions of this toy. BUT the updated version has shoulders too, and some even have hands so the little girls can practice painting fingernails.

But back in 1977, it was just a disembodied head, no shoulders.

I used to play with it outside in the yard. This was a ranch house in Waterbury, CT and all the windows along the back, including the one in the bathroom, faced the back yard. I guess I left my Barbie toy outside one night, because once I overheard Louie telling some people that he almost pee'd on the floor that morning because he happened to glance out the bathroom window to see a disembodied head sticking up out of the yard.

Probably why they added shoulders to the newer ones.