Barbie Nazi's

Certain things in life take a certain amount of tact, such as playing. Playing? You might ask....yes, playing. There are rules to playing, and if those rules are not followed, then your play time would be a waste, for there are time restrictions to consider, such as being called in for dinner and curfews. Children who value their play-time learn how to use their time wisely. Wasting this precious time with a child that does not know how to play right is a risk of losing what could potentially be a happy childhood memory. I have many happy childhood play-time memories, and I am thankful that I learned how to seperate my friends into groups.

During our childhood, we have different types of friends. We have friends that we play sports with, soccer, softball, and go bike-riding. Then there are friends that we play hide-n-seek or tag
(these are sometimes the crazy bunch that don't really play sports well), we also play monster with these kids, or any other nonsense game in which we run around screaming like a maniac chasing each other. There are friends we go swimming with, friends we play board games with, friends we play school and house with, and last but certainly not least friends we play Barbies with. Now playing house with dollies, and playing Barbies are two COMPLETELY different things. One can play house with boys. For instance, my little brother and his friends were sometimes the "children" of one of my friends who was about 2 or 3 years older than me. She, although appeared to be a very organized, kind and nurturing "parent" to my little brother and his friends, was not someone I would consider playing Barbies with. In fact, none of the neighborhood girls were Barbie candidates.

Except one, her name is Elvira, she was the only girl on the block who knew how to play Barbies, a rarity indeed. Elvira's mom rented the downstairs apartment (where I'm living at now) and we would set up our Barbies in the laundry room. There was plenty of space there, the tops of two washers, a dryer and a large folding table. We would play for hours. The role-play was so captivating, that we would play from from about 4pm until like 9:30pm. And that was on school days, during vacation, we would play the whole day. Before I met Elvira, my Barbie play-mates were my older brother's god-sisters. They came over on the holidays, and we considered ourselves cousins. They were Loli and Diana. Loli and Diana were excellent Barbie playmates. They brought over their own Barbies, Kens, Bedroom, Kitchen, Living room, clothes, shoes. Yes, to my sheer and utter delight they came with several bags. After quickly scanning their inventory, we'd head straight to my room, close and lock the door, and begin the setup process.
But when I wasn't playing Barbies with Loli, Diana or Elvira, I was playing alone. Ah, how I loved it. I would lock my door, turn on my Panasonic boom-box and listen to music whilst playing Barbies. So, practically every 80's song, reminds me of just that.

Before I go any further, it is imperative that I enlighten all of you with a few Barbie requirements that helped me in the process of elimination of Barbie play-mate candidates. The best way to seek out a potential Barbie friend, is to simply look at the condition of her Barbie dolls. ~NOTE: This list applies to the Barbies that the candidate selects as being her active play dolls, in other words, those Barbies she will use during game-play.

-THE BARBIE RULES-

All Barbies must have shoes on, if they do not, then their should be a pair ready to be placed on her feet.

Barbie's hair must be combed.

Barbie MUST have clothes on, AT ALL TIMES, if a potential mate has a nude Barbie in her active Barbie selection, then she is automatically declined.

Fake Barbie's, Barbies with broken neck thingies that have the head jammed down on their neck, Barbies with unruly hair (because candidate bathed with them), or dirt-stained faces, automatically become the Slut-Barbies at Ken's disposal, that get beat up/ridiculed by Barbie.

The candidate must have her own Ken, if she wishes for her Barbie to have a mate.

Ken dolls are a luxury, a valuable commodity, as Irasali so eloquently put it. They under no circumstances are to be borrowed by the candidate. Unless of course it is in the plot that there will be a Ken swap.

The candidate must have her own Barbie furniture, if she wishes to make a home for her dolls.

Barbie must have a car/motorcycle, since the majority of Barbie cars are two-seaters, the candidate must not count on her Barbie getting a ride to and from places by one of your Barbies.
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That is all I can think of for now, although, I am sure I missed some rules. It has been quite some time since I have played Barbies.

But you know, I constantly badger my mother about not having a certain Barbie buddy. You see, my mother and Irasali's mother were co-workers once and knew each other when Irasali and I were young children. We both found this out during our teens, when Irasali's mom picked me up and drove us somewhere, I forget where. She saw my mom through the window, and told me she knew her. We were both shocked....how could they not go over each other's house years ago?????? How could they not introduce us??? How could they deprive us of those precious years of childhood friendship???? And you know what makes it worse??? You know what makes it feel like a serrated dagger being impaled and then pulled & twisted slowly out of your heart???? It's the fact that we both share(d) the same Barbie Playing Principles!!!!!!!!!! I still ask my mom to this day why she didn't get better acquainted with Irasali's mom back in the 80's.

To conclude, playing Barbies should be like a movie/tv-series/soap-opera, the story should come with ease and be remembered by the players. A good role-player knows how to overcome obstacles and keep the story-line interesting. I'm sure that some of you can relate, be it with your GI-Joes or Ninja Turtles, you wanted to play with someone imaginative with a good understanding of the rules to avoid conflict. As an adult, I am happy to say that my daughter likes Barbies, and I am passing down the rules and principles to her as should all veteran Barbie playing moms.