I am getting ready to sell some childhood toys on ebay sometime this afternoon. Letting go of childhood is a difficult thing. Although I spent most of my childhood wondering where my biological father was and what he looked like, and who I favored the most, and why he never came to see me, my toys and my books kept me company and also fueled my imagination. My female cousin, who lived across the pasture, came to play with me often, and we most frequently played with Barbie, Ken, and Skipper hours upon hours alone in my room.
Of course, Barbie and Ken were married and Skipper tagged along with them for the fun. And Barbie could be anything she wanted to be, although she had an airline bag in her closet. As for me, I was entirely too short to be a flight attendant. But Barbie was slender and tall. Nowadays I admire her long legs. Her legs also remind of Lucille Ball's legs now.
And while I played with Barbie and Ken, my little brother played with G.I. Joe. And G.I.Joe was not a doll. G.I. Joe became one of the first action figures for boys. My little brother eventually graduated from West Point and became a civil engineer and a soldier. Much later in life, I found out that my father had been a soldier, too ...