Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Mysterious Disappearing, Red-headed, Vintage Midge

When I was a little girl, I think every girl in America wanted a Barbie doll, every girl except me. No, I wanted Midge, Barbie's best friend.

 I'm not sure why, maybe Midge, with her curly Red hair and freckles seemed more down to Earth, a little more tomboyish like me. When I was nine years old, my parents gave me my Midge as one of my Christmas gift.
 (Here I am, making the goofy face, holding my Midge doll)

From that point on, I saved my allowance every week to satisfy "Midge's" desire for the latest fashions. By the time Christmas rolled around again, Midge needed a place for her growing wardrobe and so my parents gave me a trunk for all of her clothes.
 (You can see Midge's new trunk right over my left shoulder)

After that, I added Allan, Midge's boyfriend, Skooter Midge's little sister and of course their clothes and trunks to hold their clothes too!

When I was in fifth grade, I had a new best friend. She was an only child and had everything that Mattel produced in the Barbie line. She lived just a few blocks from me so everyday I would carry Midge, Allan and Skooter, along with all of their clothes and their trunks over to her house for a play date.
 At the end of the day I would have to carry everything home. I eventually got tired of carrying everything back and forth and decided to leave everything at my friends house. This worked out great for the next two years but then as the end of sixth grade drew near, and the excitement of moving on to Junior High  loomed large, my best friend and I began to grow apart. At some point I left all of my dolls at her house and never went back. At the time I probably didn't care, thinking what did I need stupid dolls for. By the time I realized what I had done, it was too late. My best friends Mom had boxed everything up and donated it to the thrift store.

Fast forward thirty years to 1998, my girls were in the basement at my Sister's house playing with some items that had been brought over from my Parents house when they passed away. I went downstairs to check on them and couldn't believe my eyes. They were playing with MY Midge doll. I questioned my Sister but she had no idea how Midge had made her way from my friends house, to my Parent's. Oh well, it really didn't matter, I had her back after all these years. I instructed my girls to put everything, including Midge back in the box before we returned to South Carolina. Unfortunately, when we got back to South Carolina and I unpacked, I discovered Midge was no where to be found. I asked my Sister to look for her but she never found her and we assumed she had been accidentally thrown out with some trash. Once again, I thought Midge was lost forever.

Now fast forward another thirteen years to this past Christmas. My sister sent me a long, skinny gift bag with a tag that simply said "something from the past". Imagine my surprise and delight when I opened it Christmas morning to find MY Midge!

At first I thought my sister was pulling a trick and surely she must have bought this Midge at an antique store. But she assured me that yes, it was MY Midge, she found her in the back of a drawer in an old filing cabinet in her basement. How she got there is a mystery but I finally have her back and I'm determined she won't disappear again!

Thanks for stopping by today! xxoo Nan
I'm linking this post to:
REDnesday at It's a Very Cherry World
Vintage Thingie Thursday at Colorado Lady
Alphabe Thursday for the letter M at Jenny Matlocks

(Footnote: the pictures of Midge, Allan and Skooter in their boxes are courtesy of Pinterest. You can follow this LINK to see more cool stuff from my childhood) 

22 comments:

  1. I absolutely love Midge! I wish had the anniversary edition! Sigh! This was a great post! I need to get busy and do my AT M post too! This was terrific! You were meant to have Midge! Hugs Anne

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  2. Oh Nan, what a positively wonderful post. I'm so glad you found your old friend! I too wasn't a Barbie Girl. I liked the Dawn line....they had jobs...tehe..and LOL I even had a Jane Doll ( she was a western cowgirl) I must admit tho for a boyfriend doll I really wanted a GI Joe. Alas, my parents didn't understand and that's one thing I never got...Oh well.

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  3. I had a Midge doll, too. I believe my Midge was a brunette (as was my Barbie, like me!). Ken, however, was blond. Unfortunately all my good stuff was passed on to younger cousins, so I don't have any childhood toys. Oh well. xo

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  4. Oh my! You'd better put a tracking device on Midge! She must have been teasing you the whole time....
    Wonderful story -- I'm so glad you got her back!
    (popping in from Rednesday!)

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  5. Oh that Midge. She seems like she might be kinda naughty, always disappearing like that! I loved this post, and it had a happy ending too. So where did you put Midge? I'm willing to bet she's not there right now......
    Happy REDnesday,
    Carol

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  6. Hi Nan!

    That Midge sure had a life of her own! Who knows what she was really up to all the years... I only had Barbies and Kens. My first Barbie (in the black and white striped swimsuit) mysteriously disappeared along with all her ball gowns, suits and pill hats. But that happened when I was a grown woman.

    My mom would never let me take them as she was afraid my girls would ruin them. I believe her cleaning lady cleaned took them. Many things disappeared in her later years :(

    xoxo Bunny Jean

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  7. This is fantastic!! How wonderful to get her back after so long. I gave all my barbie stuff to my cousin years ago, and have regretted it for much of my adult life. I don't think I will ever see those things again. I wish I still had my dolls. Lots of her clothes were made by my grandma, and that is something you can not replace...too bad I did not realize that before I gave all mine away. Happy VTT

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  8. You have a very nice collection and one to treasure.

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  9. Oh I so enjoyed your post today!! Love the pictures of you with Midge!
    I am so glad you found her again. I still have all mine..no Midge though. I can remember taking them to school in a shoe box when I broke my leg so I could play with my Barbie or Francie when everyone else was out on the play ground.
    Again, great post!!!!

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  10. Oh Nan! I love this post, one of the best posts ever! A wonderful walk down memory lane - I loved playing with my Barbie dolls more than anything. :)

    I had a Midge doll too, although Barbie was my main love. I had totally forgotten about Allan! And I know I had a Skipper but I also had a smaller one, I thought it was Skooter but now I see it didn't look like yours, she was smaller. I wonder who on earth she was hahahhahaha!

    And what a wonderful story, made me smile and giggle for the return of your Midge!

    Happy VTT,
    Sally

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  11. What a fun story! Isn't if funny the how important a treasure like this is. :) My Mom gave me my strawberry shortcake dolls and I was so excited to give them to my little girl, except they were a little too played with: they must have dry-rotted b/c they fell apart into crumbly pieces. I was disappointed, but I still have the memories. :) Neat that you got Midge back. :)

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  12. Poor Midge, sequestered away in a dark dingy metallic room with no windows all these years. She's probably all confused about modern morals and fashion and all that. So glad you were reunited though! Fun post!

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  13. I loved your story about Midge! I also love, love, love the happy ending!

    I had Barbie and Ken, Skipper and Christie and Brad who were Barbie's friends that were African American, not dark-colored Barbies. I hated that they did that, took Christie's and Brad's identities away. Last I remember playing with my dolls was in the basement play area at my Great-Grandmother's house when we lived there while our house was being built. I looked all over for them, in everything, when we were clearing out her house after she passed, but they never showed up.

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  14. Love that story of Midge, I would still be wondering how she ended up in that cabinet and how that all happened. Amazing and it is great you have her back! Midge needs a micro chip like they have for animals! Hugs my dear friend! Marilou

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  15. OMG I too loved Midge and I have my original Red Head Midge..how funny is that, I am so happy for you to have found a long lost doll, what darling pictures and such a plast to the past! hugs & Kisses to a fellow Midge Lover ox

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  16. What a Marvelous trip down Memory Lane...

    I just loved this post...

    Magnificent job...

    Thanks for linking.

    A+

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  17. I loved your Midge story. My youngest daughter is a red head who, like you and your friend, LOVED playing Barbies and carted them to each other's houses. About ten years ago we donated them to twin girl relatives who live in Cairo; the dolls were exceedingly popular there because of their blonde hair in a dark haired culture!

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  18. Hi again Nan!
    Sorry, I've been meaning to get back and thank you for all the Barbie info! Tutti! That's it. :) I didn't remember she had a brother Todd at all - I think the sisters were created at the end of my doll days? Thanks so much for all your research and solving that mystery, that's so sweet of you and it brought big smiles.

    Happy week to you!
    Sally

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  19. Wonderful story and pictures. Thanks for sharing!

    Cheers,
    Melissa

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  20. I had a Midge doll as well. One day I cut off her curls though :( Why did I do that!

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