Objects and Me

Recently I tried to determine what my most precious object is ... and I came up without anything, really. I mean, sure, my camera is important to me, my phone, my laptop ... and then my photos, stuffed animals from childhood and jewelery ... but I would be hard pressed to find an object precious.

The other night as I was trying to go sleep, I started naming things that I owned as a child, but not any longer, that I would to have back. These included the dollhouse my father built me as an Easter present at the age of five (given/lent to a family friend, eaten by their dog), my bikes (outgrown, though one was stolen, as I've mentioned before), my Cabbage Patch doll (lost after a very brief ownership, though my mom believes stolen).

On the list of childhood things I own and am fond of are: the Monopoly game board in the picture above, with a stain on it from the time I was in fourth grade and on spring break. My mom had a conference to attend, so my dad and I hung out and ate delivery Chinese food. Nothing stains quite like inexpensive Chinese food fat.

Also, many video tapes of various programs I enjoyed watching over and over as a child. Muppets, Duck Tales, Back to the Future. And they're all chock full of familiar 80s commercials.

And quite a few books, which can be found either on my bookshelf or in a box. I've discussed how important books have been, on and off, in my life, and it's nice having many of them from when I was little still around.

I dunno, tho ... even if I got all those things back, what would I do with them? The bikes might be nice to see, and I'd enjoy having the doll around for a bit, but mostly I would really like the Barbie dollhouse back. I used to spend hours just ... sitting in front of it. I was telling myself stories in my head about what the dolls were up to, I didn't really even have to manipulate them that much besides dressing them or moving them from room to room. There are some photos of the house, plus a very clear picture in my mind ... there were three floors. On the first floor, on the left side of the house was a large kitchen, which was painted yellow and had checkered yellow contact paper for the floor. In the middle was the living room, brown, and on the left, a guest bedroom. Upstairs on the left was the parents bedroom, followed by the bathroom, bright pink, and then two more bedrooms. The third floor was slanted and had an attic, which is where the children slept, Mary Poppins style. There was a lovely staircase, painted brown, connecting the first floor with the second, and it was removable, which was great when I wanted one of the young adult Barbies to move out on her own and have a loft apartment.

Sigh. Good times. I would love to have it back, tho it was really quite heavy and probably around four feet across and three feet high. Anyway, I should thank my dad for building it for me again, it was quite the feat and I love it still.