I had the Barbie casual dresses, the Barbie formal dresses, the Barbie shoes, the Barbie hats, the Barbie slacks, the Barbie swimsuits, the Barbie CAR, the Barbie board game (I was the unusual one liking Poindexter, too), and the Barbie HOUSE! I was a Barbie groupie! No knock-offs. No hand made designer clothes. All original Barbie (made by Mattel) paraphernalia.

     This only child had a lot to work with to keep her busy and out of mischief.

     I loved playing Barbie so much that I wanted her to marry Ken with a real wedding. So, naturally, I had the Barbie WEDDING dress. They called it “Wedding Day Barbie” and it came out in 1961 when I was eight years old. It was a silk-like full white dress with a large poof skirt. She had a flower designed taffeta overlay over the skirt and on her long sleeves. Barbie wore a pearl hallo-like veil made of taffeta looming large behind her hair, which did not cover her face, and she wore a pearl necklace, pearl stud earrings, white shoes, and carried a pink bouquet.

     For her wedding, I invited all my friends who played with their Barbie and Ken dolls. My almost-big-sister, Jane Still #janeramsey, came as many of my neighborhood girlfriends. One friend’s mother made the Barbie and Ken wedding cake – a three tier white cake with pink icing. She also made a larger one for all the living and breathing guests.

     Skipper was the Maid of Honor but I can’t remember what she wore. The groom, blonde Ken, looked dapper in his white-coat tuxedo. His best man, a brunette Ken, did too, looking like MAD MEN’s Don Draper or Rock Hudson.

     The wedding guests looked beautiful, too, in their chosen cocktail dresses. Besides facially looking alike, I don’t think one of them wore the same dress. All the male guests wore tuxes.

     At the reception, the bride and groom cut the little cake and drank pink punch while the large wedding cake was served to their owners. I took pictures with my 960 Kodak Brownie Cresta 3 Camera which used 120 film and produced 6 X 6 images. Barbie and Ken left in her pink convertible. I developed the pictures and made Barbie and Ken (don’t know their married last name – Mattel?) a wedding album.

     When they returned after the honeymoon (they did not tell where they went but I suspect my closet), they lived in Barbie’s pink cardboard-papered house and still drove her convertible all over my living room rug.

     Poor Ken being seen in that pink car.