I was reading some blogs the other day when I came across this post by Ileandra Young 80 Post Challenge – Post 55. Being new to blogging I had never seen any kind of challenge before and thought that since I wanted to blog more often, some of these 80 writing prompts might be fun to do. They are from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts. Here is number 1:
Name something you lost or gave away that can never be replaced.
When I was little, maybe around 5 years old, my aunt Grace had this amazing Barbie doll I used to drool over, a
1960′s Miss America Barbie. This doll would sit on her dresser wearing her beautiful red, flowing cape and holding her flowers. There were times my aunt would let me play with the doll and she had this mechanism that when you moved her legs to walk her arms and head would also move just like she was walking the stage. I would imagine her waving to the audience, being so happy to have won and believing it was her world peace answer over her swimsuit that clinched the win. To me, best thing about this doll was that she was a brunette like me. I loved all my Barbies regardless of hair color but here was something about the brunette Barbies that made them that much more special.
One day my aunt gave me her Miss America Barbie. To this day I have no idea why she would part with it. The doll was absolutely perfect with the exception that she was missing her shoes and her scepter; I didn’t care, I was a child not a collector and I promised my aunt I would always take good care of the doll.
Fast forward 30 years and I was in the basement looking through my trunk of memories which includes my Barbies. I was always one of those girls who took care of her dolls, I didn’t rip their heads off or cut their hair, sometimes I gave them braids like Bo Derek in 10 but that’s not abuse, that was fashion. So I’m looking through my trunk and the Miss America Barbie is laying on top in her rightful place so she wouldn’t get squished. I took her out and immediately noticed she wasn’t wearing her cape. Confused I begin digging through the trunk, pulling things out. She was also missing her bouquet. Like a crazy woman I emptied out that entire trunk only to find them gone. It’s not like I would sell her but it really kills me that after all these years of caring for this doll I somehow managed to lose her accessories. I know she had all her stuff with her when I put her in the trunk. It bothers me that I was able to take better care of this Barbie as a kid than as an adult. I guess I was more responsible back then.
© 2011 Vanessa Grassi
Thanks for the pingback, for me and Tom. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to know more people are using his prompts.
I thought it looked like a fun exercise.
Great story. Often it is things that trigger the memory of what is actually important to us. In your story I would guess that it was an aunt who had her own Barbie, and who trusted you to play with it, and how careful you were to merit her trust. It is also your feelings about being a brunette, and I’m sure there are other memories triggered by those memories. Great post.
Thank you, yes I was very close with my aunt, she was a big part of my growing up and the Barbies were a great form of escape to me.
Hey, you should check out trifectawritingchallenge.com! It has really interesting writing challenges, and it has a really great community of writers who are all really nice and extremely creative.
Okay, that sounds like spam, but it’s really not supposed to be, since I do think that you’ll enjoy the site and the challenges
Thanks so much, that sounds great! I’ll definitely check it out.
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