This week I found a Number 3 Barbie and Ken with clothes and case...$17.00. Oh yay! Did you play with Barbies? From the time I was about six until I was ummm too old to admit to it and then when I was too old to care either way--I have loved Barbie. I have a very good body image, by the way. I love her little clothes, and the zippers on vintage dresses and the way her voice sounds a lot like mine but more confident. Oh Barbie, someday I wanna be exactly like you, till then I know just what I'll do, I'll make believe that I am you!
I grew up in a small northern Maine town and we had to travel about 15 to 20 miles to Lincoln, Maine to shop. Newberry's was a five and dime on Main Street. I never knew that it was a franchise and there were stores all over the U.S. I thought ours was the only one. I remember sitting at the lunch counter on a swivel stool and ordering french fries and watching the soda fountain pump red and orange fluid like a waterfall and being pretty sure it was magic. I remember shopping for canvas tennis shoes to get me through the summer "and you know they would last longer if you wouldn't use them as bicycle brakes!" The toys were down in the basement and I could sleepwalk right to the Barbie aisle. It closed in the late 90's and that's very sad. But this little basket makes me happy. Giddy-happy.
Oh, from 1984 to 1988 I also bought my weight in Aqua-Net hairspray from Newberry's. Did you see MY hair? Why so much hair?
So did you have a Newberrys? Another store like that? Do you remember the smell and the asbestos floor and the aqua painted walls, the stairs?
Oh, and have you found anything cool lately? I love neat find stories--Go ahead share with me!
Smiles,
Lisa
