Taking you back -

Working on my paper/fabric dresses this past weekend really got me thinking about my childhood - in particular, the things that were popular when I was a child.

A few things immediately come to my mind.

Annette Funicello - the Mickey Mouse Club, Black Beauty - of course they were all part of the same thing really.

The Mickey Mouse club was the MOST important TV show for a young girl to watch.  The teens on there (Annette and co.) were the epitome of everything popular for teens at the time, and being a pre-teen at the time, I was all eyes and ears for anything they wore, how they danced, how they smiled, the words they used.

Then there was Janet Lennon.  Remember her?  She was one of the Lennon Sisters who were a popular singing group when I was growing up.  Janet was the sweetest little heart-throb, and every young girl wanted to be just like her.

Patty Duke Austin was another young girl who was a favourite.

All these teen stars had story books where they were the feature character in all kinds of adventures.

 

 

This last one (Sierra Summer) was my personal favorite story book - I wore it out reading it over and over again.


  There were also Coloring books with these stars in them...

And Paper Dolls.

 

Paper Dolls were an affordable way to entertain a young girl and were something that my generation of girls played with a lot.  It was one of the front-step activities the girls on my street occupied their summers with.  It was much easier to transport a book or in some cases a cardboard box of paper dolls down the street than it was to haul real dolls.

But of course if you had the book you would want to take it along.  Because when you opened the book and once the paper dolls were removed, the inside of the book was usually a scene of the stars home, or some adventure she had been in.  Those scenes were as exciting as the dolls themselves.

I remember travelling in the car with my family as a child.  Because room in the car was scarce with all the children, it was these books and dolls that I was allowed to pack for our trips.

Looking at these images, makes me wonder whatever happened to my books and dolls.  I wish I had them today -  they might be worth something in markets such as Ebay or Rubylane... but for me the value in these books are the memories of simpler times when all a girl need worry about when they got up in the morning was which doll to play with that day.

Awesome memories - from Awesome times!