My aunt owned a paint store in 1959 when I was 10 years old. She also sold toys in a special section upstairs and my sister and I looked forward every year to visiting her shop and picking out things we wanted to put on our Christmas list. My birthday is in November, and the year I turned 10, she gave me one of the first Mattel Barbies made in Japan. I thought Barbie wasn’t very pretty, but I loved her clothes. She is long gone, but her outfits are alive and in excellent condition, as I became obsessed with her clothes. I would not let anyone touch my Barbie, and on every Birthday and Christ... |