Barbies and Grandma

 As a little girl, my Grandma was a constant presence in my life. She lived two hours up the road but spent most holidays and many summers with us. The summer I turned 12, she moved to town and lived in a retirement home up the street. She gave up driving, so there was lots of ferrying Grandma back and forth to our house. As a junior high kid, I would spend one Saturday a month at Grandma's playing board games, eating lunch, and talking at her for hours. She knew all of my friend drama and always asked after my friends even into college and later.

Grandma had worked for the US Department of Defense, stationed in Germany, and she bought me many of my first Barbie toys. I had the 1974 Barbie Dreamhouse - complete with working elevator.

I had the 1972 Barbie Friend Ship - complete with flight attendant cart and Ken's pilot's costume.

But as much as I associate Grandma with my Barbie toys as a girl, this blog is really about a different side. Grandma liked her sweets and whenever we found a See's Candies we would ALWAYS stop and get Grandma the carmels. These were neither the rock hard Werther's nor the chewy Kraft classics. These were lollipops whose consistency was somewhere inbetween and they came in vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and butterscotch. (As a kid, I found the coffee ones horrendous. My adult-coffee-loving heart would now disagree.) I remember Grandma's excitement at bringing her a treat she remembered from her childhood (See's started during World War I. I have no idea when or where she first went to the stores, but for here in the 80s, this was a nostalgic candy.)

The See's Candy Barbie dolls came out in 1999 and 2001. Although this was at the far-end of my Barbie-collecting days, I'm happy that I have them. I find these two dolls gorgeous; they are the epitome of Barbie grace. They aren't the huge bouffant hairdos of the 80s, nor the haute couture excess of the 2000s. But it is also the company that they represent that I love. The See's Candy employees always wore the white and black-trimmed uniform and the store always looked sparklingly sleek.

The second doll is reminiscent of a late-1940s, early-1950s Chanel-inspired outfit. The wasp-waist and trim jacket scream mid-century elegance. 

Grandma was not big-city elegance. But she did have strict rules of etiquette and always expected people to look and carry themselves appropriately. There were many, many, MANY hours of dressing and playing Barbies with Grandma nearby. She had strong opinions about the dolls and the clothes which I'm sure had an impact on the person I have become. Barbie was a conversation in my household. It was not a regressive women-must-stay-at-home or a women must-be-thin-and-stylish conversation. But it was a language that permeated my childhood. That and sweets. Everyone in my family loves their sweets. Just ask anyone who knows me.