My 51st Birthday Is Coming Up!

Next Sunday, March 7th, 2010 will be my 51st birthday...wow, how time flies!  Anyway, I was thinking back to the best birthday's that I can remember as a kid.  The first ones that come to mind was around 1964 when I received my first Madame Alexander Alexanderkins 8" doll.  She was dressed in a plaid dress, black mary jane shoes.  She had blonde hair with curls along the bottom.  I named her Sophie and I still have her to this day.  Here's a photo that my Dad took of me holding Sophie in the driveway of our home.  I remember wearing kool plaid tennis shoes and a floral dress that my Mother made me.  I wore a pink paper tiara as the birthday girl.  Another notable birthday I received a Skipper doll (Barbie's little sister).  An additional rain outfit named "Flower Showers" in blue and pink and hot pink rain boots.  She even had a matching rain hat and umbrella.  Funny, I remember how the plastic smelled to this day.  It was probably every little girl's dream in the 60's to have hot pink rain boots like Skipper wore...of course I have this doll in my collection, to bring back those good ol' memories.

Back in the 60's, it always seemed to be raining on my birthday in San Mateo, CA.  I also remember receiving a clear vinyl umbrella that had pink plastic flowers on the umbrella frame.  I LOVED that umbrella.  Wish I had it today...I'd use it.  So, some other notable toys from the 60's were my fun flowers set, incredible edibles and some type of dragon making kit.  You would pour goop into these metal plates to form shapes, cook it in a very hot cooker unit, cool the plate several minutes later in cold water, and voila!  You had either had rubbery shapes to play with or funky shapes that you could eat.  Did I mention that they tasted TERRIBLE?  I would place safety pins on the backs of the flowers and wear them on my clothes for school.  What a dork!  But I thought that they were way kool!  You could very easily get burned or probably set the house on fire with that cooker unit, but that's the way toys were back then.  It was amazing that I didn't get 3rd degree burns from those toys...but I didn't!    Here's a few photos of what I am talking about....