It was the summer of 1982. Mother had spent the day vacuuming
and washing, dusting and putting away for the party. In my blue dress with tiny
white hearts, I pranced around energetically.
“Mom, is Stacey coming?”
“Christy said yes, right?”
I was turning 5.
Later when all my young pony-tailed friends and my gaggle of
brothers gathered around, I opened presents. To surprise me, my parents waited till
the very end to give me a narrow rectangular shaped box. I screamed even before
I opened it. “Western Barbie!”
Through shredded festive paper, I laid eyes on her. She had
real blinkable blue eyes at the press of the square button on her back. Her blond
hair was long and curled under the white cowboy hat. A silver bodice and black piping
accentuated the white fringe one piece cowgirl outfit she wore. Complete with white
boots, she was spectacular.
After the guests left, I took Western Barbie with me to my
pink walled raspberry shag carpeted bedroom. On the floor I spread out all her
possible boyfriends: Ken, Kurt, Dustin, and Clark. Next to these heart throbs,
were all her possible best friends: Skipper, Dana, and Crystal.
“Western Barbie, meet your new friends, “ I said as I walked/hopped
her stiff legs to the group who were now leaning against the homemade cardboard
Living room designed by my uncle. All the girls looked at her with pretty heads
and angled arms. The fellas looked approvingly at her with white painted smiles
and perfectly tanned skin. All of them were dressed accept Ken. He had lost his
shirt somewhere between Waterloo and Evansdale last week on the way to grandma’s
house. Life is not fair.
“Howdy” she said with my most country twang as I blinked her
blue eyelids shut. The whole group stared in amazement. Stories were beginning
to form. Already I could tell Dana was jealous of Western Barbie’s boots. Clark
was feeling left out because he had just broken up with Skipper. Crystal
wondered if Western Barbie had any clothes she could borrow. In the meantime, Dustin
wanted to steal away in the pink corvette, but Kurt was hiding the keys.
Skipper was the first to speak. She wore a turquoise exercise
leotard with white, yellow, and pink striped leg warmers.
“Hi there, are you a real Cow Girl? My name is Skipper,
would you like to exercise?” She asked in my highest happy voice.
Western Barbie hemmed and hawed as I fumbled to find Skipper’s
“Barbie exercising tape.” With the cassette popped into my Playschool microphone
and cassette tape recorder, Skipper began her work out as she sang:
Lookin’ good
Feeling Great
Barbie exercising tape
Lookin’ good
Feelin’ fine
Let’s work-out all the time!
Soon Western Barbie kicked off her white boots and joined
in. Even Dana loosened up and decided to get fit. Before Mother called me for dinner,
Clark had asked Western Barbie to the dance. Not wanting to be out done, Ken
arrived dressed in a toilet paper suit. Standing against my blue Smurfette
roller skate, he finally mustered the courage to ask the new girl with the white Stetson
for a dance. In anger, Clark stormed off when Ken cut in. Western Barbie turned slowly
replying with a simple blink with her plastic blue eye lids. Ken was lost for
words as she lassoed his heart.
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