Barbies on a Shoestring

It's amazing to me how little I had - in the material sense - when I was a youngster. Here's a great example.

Here's a picture of me and Kim Spore at my house on Cedar Crest Circle. Looks to be around third grade - maybe fourth grade (1976'ish).

We're sitting on the floor of the bedroom I shared with my sister Patty.

* We had no carpet in this bedroom.

* Most of the clothes you see on Barbie (I'm holding her) or Skipper (Kim is holding her) was handmade by my Aunt Barb (she went through a phase of sewing everything!).

* I'm also holding a "Dawn" too, she is just well hidden behind Malibu Barbie.

* There is a pink barbie case in the left corner of the picture. Notice the "make believe" towel I have draped into the handle. Most likely, that was our designated Barbie bathroom.

* To the right (and still looking at the bottom of the picture) was a silk-like pink box that was my mother's. She got it from some flea market or auction/estate sales. That served two particular purposes in this scenario.

First, it was Barbie's clothes trunk. Yes, instead of a closet, that's where she kept most of her stuff. Second, it was a ledge for her to stand on as she looked up to the loft area where Skipper slept. Believe me, I'm not making this up. Seeing this picture - BOOM - it was like a memory recorder in my head. I could recall just about everything and the reason for it.

* Notice the Brownie (pink) patch and the wings (signifying the flight up from Brownies to Junior Girl Scouts). Those were rugs. Yep, Barbie rugs.

* That blue and white checkered-like blanket that was draped on the box (where Skipper's loft was), was sewn by my Aunt Barb.

* There's a Lipton tea box and a dixie bathroom cup on the floor. Not sure what we were going to use those for!

* Okay - the fact that me and Kim are dressed alike - could only mean one thing. No, it's not like we went to school like this. Most likely, we decided that to play Barbies, we needed to dress alike which is why we both have on skirts and turtlenecks (and by the way - all clothing is mine).

* Regarding auctions/estate sales/flea markets...the white desk in the corner was definitely something my mother picked up from one of those places. We had all sorts of interesting, odds and ends, throughout my house, of these kinds of pieces.

First Grade - Indian Village Elementary School

Say hello to my first grade class from Indian Village Elementary School. The year (according to the picture) is 1973 and Mrs. Marci Lawson is the inspirational teacher - keeping us all in check.

We were located in Room 19 (yes I know - scary that I remember this).

Our desks were simple, in a complicated way. They weren't the fancy ones that opened up on top. Oh no! They were the kind that opened up to your waist area.

Many things could get lost (and subsequently - GROW) in this area. Emptying these types of desks out at the end of the year was always an anxiety-filled moment because one never knew what people like Brian Blazer and Ralph Barva would pull out of the nooks and cranies of these wooden hothouses.

ANYWAY

If you attended Fort Wayne Community Schools (the elementary ones) in the early to mid 70's, I bet your class pictures looked just like this.

Every year, the photographer would come into our classroom and he would bellow out instructions to our teacher that went something like this.

Okay. Move dem desks to the middle. We gotta make this look like a real classroom

What he meant was that the lens was only so wide and therefore - if the desks were required to be in the picture (by the way - I'm still trying to figure out who made this rule) - then - in order to get everyone in, we had to move all of the people and desks into a small area, sit behind them, and smile for maybe 3-4 shots.

In other words, it took much more time to move the desks around then to actually take the frickin' picture.

The boys really liked to scrape the desk chairs as hard as they could across the concrete (but hey - it looks "tiled" - floor).

I have a ton of great memories from first grade. My first grade experience was extremely profound and I can't even begin to tell you how lucky I was. I think I was just in the right place, at the right time.

Anyway - there will be a lot more to write on this subject of first grade. But for now, let's get scary for a moment. I remember just about everybody's name.

So here it goes. And if I'm missing someone, or if I have spelled their name wrong - please let me know. By all means, if you know where any of these folks are today - let us know!

(Left to Right)

Row 1: Rusty Cramer, David Nelson, Melanie Davis, Kristina Frazier-Henry

Row 2: Skip Shock, Rita ?, Jody Ellis, Bruce ?, Chrissy Boner, Brian Rice, Kathleen Caldwell

Row 3: Ralph Barva, Wendy Shipley, Tracy Nimbles, Betsy Barrett, Kelly Miller, Billy ?, ?

Row 4: Eric Busenbaric, Brian Blazer, Kelly Biddle, Lisa Smith, Tom Stinson, ?

Row 5: Beth Fruechtenicht, Karen Brunette, Stuart Williams, Marla Magditch, Chris Starn, Mike Sharp

Row 6: Tom Malott, Brian Butcher, Janice Smith, Kim Spore