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Posts from the ‘Archive of Childhood’ Category

Feb 3

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The Best Gift I Never Received

In Gary Cross’s article entitled “Modern Childhood, Modern Toys,” he discusses the evolution of the holiday season and gift giving, and says, “The new Santa clearly represented abundance.” (Cross, 60) While I never had Santa, reading this I quickly had a nostalgic moment of being ten years old and having received so much already that I needed a gift to top them all.

My birthday and Hanukah always fell within weeks of each other so like Christian kids who had birthdays on Christmas Eve or the day after, I always felt as though I was getting screwed over only getting one set of presents.  So by my tenth birthday and tenth Hanukah I’d had enough of it, and decided that if I was only going to get one big present it was going to be the greatest present of all time… I fully intended to rid myself of my bed and replace it with an indoor bounce house. For $200 I could have as my BED what kids longed to have once a year at their birthday parties! What could possibly be better! That’s when I saw it, there, staring at me in the Sunday advertisements from Toys’R’Us was the Blast Zone Magic Castle Bounce House, seven feet by seven feet wide and five feet tall.  It was perfect.

Blast Zone Magic Castle Bounce House from www.toysrus.com

My parents had enough sense not to purchase this for me regardless of how many temper tantrums I threw. Twelve years later and without serious back problems I am relieved they didn’t.

 

Feb 2

The Berenstain Bears

The Berenstain Bears, a series of short childhood books that tells the stories and lessons learned of a family of bears, was one of my favorite childhood reads. Every night before bed, I would ask my dad to read to me about the adventures of Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Brother Bear and Sister Bear. Written by Stan, Jan, and Mike Berenstain, the series was first created in 1962 with the publication of The Big Honey Hunt. Since then, over 300 books have been written about the bears and about 260 million copies sold. The Berenstain Bears lived in a house-sized treehouse “down a sunny dirt road deep in Bear Country“. Papa Bear was the epitome of a father figure, as he hunted for the food, did all the laborious work, and made goofy mistakes, and Mama Bear was the wise mother who always had cookies waiting for the children when they came home from school. Papa and Mama Bear had three children: Brother Bear, Sister Bear, and eventually the small Honey Bear. The four bears generally went on adventures and simple daily activities, and through them the Bears, along with the child reader, usually learned moral or safety-related lessons. As Elizabeth Segel points out in her writing about Gender and Childhood Reading (65-80), gender preferences and stereotypes greatly dominate what books boys and girls pick out when given the choice. However, Berenstain Bears was one of the few series that appealed to both sexes, and therefore greatly helped its success. The series is known as a childhood classic, and was one of my most memorable aspects of childhood.

Bear Family from Google Images

Feb 2

Barbie When I was Younger

Barbie doll

Barbie Doll (toysrus.com)

When I was younger I played with Barbie Dolls. I had the Barbie Dreamhouse, Ken, I had a lot of things pertaining to Barbie. Barbie was created by the American Business woman Ruth Handler. Both her and her husband, Elliot handler, and his business partner, Harold Matson, created the toy company “Mattel”. The Barbie Doll brand was created March 1959. Barbie had a bit of a slow start but is now one of the most sought after toys of children. Barbie Dolls were made so that young girls could play with them. We were able to dress them up however we wanted. There were and are a lot of accessories that go along with Barbie Dolls. They were made so that you would go out and get the doll as well as the many accessories that came along with them. Me as a child I enjoyed dressing up my dolls in all of the different clothes and playing with the dream car as well as the dreamhouse. Barbie Dolls as well as their accessories are anywhere between $14.49-$129.99 depending on what item you get. When we did the readings in class on the child archive museum, our article talked about the types of toys that were being played with by both genders. When discussing girl toys, it talked about how the toy played a part in explaining our gender roles. Little girls played with these toys and it taught them how to be young ladies. It taught them how to dress, cook, and clean. These toys taught and does teach us our roles in society.

Feb 2

American Girl- Dolls & Books.

 

American Girl Samantha Doll and Book (americangirl.com)

When I was 10 years-old, there was only one toy I truly desired for Christmas that year. More than anything, I wanted an American Girl Doll. Having had access to their line of books at my elementary school library, as well as my many friends who were mailed the monthly American Girl catalogues that displayed the latest accessories for your miniature pal, I was groomed to desire one of the delicate and interesting dolls. The dolls and their corresponding books series, were introduced by American Girl Company in 1986 (acquired by Mattel in 1998) with the intent of “introducing historical characters to give girls an engaging glimpse into important times in America’s past… Gentle life lessons throughout the stories remind girls of such lasting values as the importance of family and friends, compassion, responsibility, and forgiveness,” according to the American Girl website. Just as Sterne emphasizes the importance placed on play not only being entertaining, but also used as educational stimulation, the strongest selling point to the American Girl series is the fact that they represent historical eras of time. Not only are little girls combatting boredom with the dolls, but ideally, also learning historical information. As previously mentioned, the dolls are also supposed to emphasize a certain set of values to their girl consumers. According to an article in The New York Times, “This return-to-innocence approach has corporate appeal.” In 2004, the company had reached $350 million dollars in sales, and looked upon as a more suitable toy to Barbie (who ironically was also created and manufactured by Mattel.) Similar to the points Cross makes in “Modern Childhood, Modern Toys” concerning gender roles, the American Girl dolls not only emphasize the classic maternal qualities dolls often invoke, but also on what defines an American girl: responsible, compassionate, and age-appropriate.

 

Feb 2

What’s your Mood?

The year was 1975 and I was 12 years old when Mood Rings were popular. I remember wearing mine to junior high school and comparing the color to the rings of my friends.  According to the brochure that came with every ring, you could determine the mood of the wearer based on an interpretive chart.  Everyone wished for a violet-blue ring which signified happiness and romance.

Josh Reynolds and Maris Ambats were  the inventors of the Mood Ring.  They chemically bonded liquid crystals in a hollow glass shell and mounted the stones into rings.  The crystals would react with your body temperature and turn colors.

youtube, uploaded by futsang on Aug. 4, 2011

The rings were sold everywhere, from gas stations to department stores.  You could get a ring for as little as five dollars.  According to blogger Mortal Journey, a million dollars worth of these portable biofeedback aids were sold in a three month period during 1975 by the entrepreneurs.  Unfortunately, they went bankrupt because of failing to patent their idea and imitators soon saturated the market.  On page 50 of our coursebook, Gary Cross credits the rise in American manufacturing and the radical transformation of marketing after the Civil War, with abundant opportunities for retailers.

According to the article by Rick Kogan, the mood ring was seen as a symbol of control for a shifting culture.  Increased self-awareness and the popularity of group therapy during the mid-70s, contributed to the craze for these rings.  The jewelry gave the wearers a chance to display their emotional state to others.  By wearing the ring, a person supposedly felt a sense of control over their emotions.  I think mostly it was a fun fad that could not be taken too seriously.

 

 

 

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