(photo courtesy of AGPlaythings scanned album)
My five year old wants an American Girl doll for Christmas.
And I think I've been hoping this day would come. You see, I was 11 in 1986, the year that Pleasant Company released the first American Girl catalog. It came straight to my house - I fell in love with Molly. Her cute metal glasses (I wore those cheap plastic 80s glasses), long braided hair and awesome 1940s fashions just spoke to me. And there were books! But my steelworker father spent more of the Eighties unemployed than employed, so $75 dolls weren't in the budget. My Grandma would totally have bought her for me, but she had passed away after a lengthy illness the year before.
The catalogs kept coming for years after I was "too old" for dolls - with 4 girls, we were their target market. My other sisters fell for Samantha, Kirsten and Felicity, but I still drooled over Molly's pages - the little desk! the flannel plaid jumper! the yellow Mackintosh and red boots!
I bought my niece a Samantha look-alike in 2008 (the year of the infamous "archival"), which started the flood of catalogs again. A lot has changed - limited edition dolls, modern dolls, baby dolls and toddler dolls. But Molly is still there. Still calling me. And they've added Kit, an adorable freckled 1930s doll.
Sunshine asked Santa for a doll that looks like her - white blond hair and blue eyes. I'd love to buy her Kit, but I think I'd be buying her more for me. Bad Mama.
So I've spent the last few hours on the American Girl web site and trolling eBay for good deals. I feel an obsession coming on. I think Molly may be coming home soon - I have no reason to resist her and her stuff is very reasonable on eBay. And I can play dolls with my daughter. Good Mama, right?
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1 comments:
My mom bought Molly for her granddaughter. What was so neat was that Molly's WW2 storyline coincided my mother's childhood, opening up a dialogue about what those times were really like. What a great idea!
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