To Barbie with love: admirers share their memories

We asked readers to share some of their favorite memories of Barbie:

Jeanna Matuszewski, Wood Dale:

Matuszewski grew up with a divorced mom who didn't have much money, but that didn't stop her from enjoying Barbie. She remembers receiving Barbie's Dream Kitchen one Christmas, a pink canopy bedroom set and a cool convertible car.

Best of all were the clothes her mom made for Barbie.

"My mom would all night long be busy sewing Barbie's wardrobe. She bought patterns and small amounts of materials and kept my Barbies fashionable," she wrote.

"I still have them today - wedding dress, mock fur coats, dresses of all kinds, swimsuits and even pants! She even knitted scarves for the dolls. She was so creative and they were all meticulously made with love."

Trena Yarmat, Naperville:

Yarmat has carried her childhood Barbies with her through active military duty and many moves over 30 years. The only Barbie missing is her first doll, which as a small child, she covered with red lipstick to give her a suntan.

"I've always made sure they've gone with me because they represented the best part of my childhood," she said.

Barbie evokes memories of her mother and their weekly shopping trips, Yarmat said.

"If I was a good girl, I got a new dress (for Barbie)," she said.

Kathleen Slovick, Glen Ellyn:

Growing up in the 1960s, Slovick wanted more than anything a Barbie doll just like her best friend, Roxy, had. Finally on Christmas, she found a Barbie-shaped box under the tree.

But when she unwrapped the box, she stared at the new doll in disappointment. Her Barbie had a short, bubble hairdo, not the long, silky tresses of her friend's Barbie.

Slovick tried in vain to style the hair and then made a fateful decision.

Dressing her doll in a spiffy, new outfit, Slovick proposed to trade her for Roxy's doll in her worn, homemade dress and missing shoe. Her friend accepted the deal.

"I never knew whether Roxy regretted that decision because her family moved away shortly after that," Slovick wrote. "Looking back, I will admit that no matter how hard I tried, my Barbie's hair never looked quite as stylish as when my friend did her hair. Maybe Roxy grew up to be a hairdresser, as she certainly had the knack."

Michelle Hewlett, Elgin:

Hewlett kept all her original Barbies and six years ago started collecting more. She has about 250 Barbies and attends the annual Barbie convention.

"This year, there were almost 1,200 (attendees)," she said. "It was her 50th this year. It drew a lot more than usual."

Hewlett's collection includes miniatures and her own favorite, a Barbie dressed in a red, white and blue genie outfit.

"She can be anything. She can be an astronaut," Hewlett said. "I think that's good for girls growing up."

Jane Adair, Wheaton:

Adair remembers that she and her best friend, Debbie, still loved Barbie when they were 11 or 12 years old. A little embarrassed that they were playing with dolls at that age, they would put their Barbie cases in brown, paper grocery bags as they rode their bikes the four blocks to the other's house.

"(We) would have died if any of the teenage boys in the neighborhood knew," Adair wrote. "Of course, our mothers teased us relentlessly."

Marianne Migdal, Bloomingdale:

Migdal has kept all her original, worn Barbies and added new collector dolls alongside them. One of her childhood Barbies wears boots covering the missing foot Migdal's poodle ate.

"I know my mom picked out each and every one just for me. I will never forget the late '60s and the Christmas I got talking Barbie and talking Ken," she wrote, "or how about Mattel's trade in your original Skipper doll for the new fabulous, completely pose-able Skipper."

Migdal also confessed to cutting off part of the hair on her sister's Francie doll although she had been told not to play with it.

"I was always very sorry I did this and when the reproduction Francies hit the stores, my sister finally got her doll back," she wrote.

Colleen Krauledis, Wheeling:

Krauledis has collected about 200 Barbies over almost 40 years. Her mother, 86, has about 500.

But Krauledis doesn't have any of her childhood Barbies. Growing up in a family of nine children, she passed her dolls on to her cousin and her aunt sewed Barbie clothes.

"It's kind of a dream thing. When we were little, we didn't have any money so we couldn't afford the clothes Barbie wore," she said.

Krauledis collects other dolls as well, but Barbie has always been special, she said.

"She had the most accessories," she said. "Barbie had a life."

Debbie Klos, Naperville:

Klos' brother and sister might have thought it was fun to fling Barbie across the room, but she was in the corner ironing the doll's dresses. She made some of the clothes herself, as did her grandmother.

But all Klos' care couldn't prevent tragedy from occurring. Her family had packed to move from Chicago to the suburbs and her Barbies, along with Midge and Skipper, inadvertently were sent to Goodwill.

"It was quite a loss," Klos said laughing. "I took care of my dolls so perfectly."

Marcy Dubinsky, Carol Stream:

"All my friends had Barbies and I never did. I only had Midge," Dubinsky recalled. "I think that really traumatized me."

She learned to knit and crochet for Midge, but Barbie remained a goal.

"Now that I'm an adult, I have a Barbie collection," she said.

Dubinsky's 15 dolls include a Wizard of Oz Barbie, a Millennium Barbie, and a Sapphire Barbie for her September birthday.

"I collect mostly the ones that have the beautiful clothes," she said.

Donna DeFalco, Naperville:

DeFalco played with Barbies with friends and eagerly waited to see each new addition to Barbie's family. She sewed and knitted for Barbie and made doll clothes for her own daughter after she passed her Barbies on to her.

"My favorite dress of Barbie's was the elegant black and pink strapless evening gown with the flounce on the bottom hem," she wrote.

Diane Rockett, West Chicago:

Rockett's mother was in charge of the toy department at Goldblatt's Department Store so she had inside information when an old Barbie could be exchanged for a new twist-and-turn Barbie.

"I was quite the celebrity in the neighborhood," she recalled.

Rockett got into Barbie collecting about 10 years ago while purchasing holiday Barbies for her daughter.

"Sitting down playing Barbie with my daughter was a way of sharing something I loved and it brought me back to being a little girl again," she said.

Rockett also gives her niece a Barbie each year from the Around the World collection.

For herself, she likes Barbie sets.

"I really want to get my hands on a Star Trek set," she said.

Rockett said when girls come over to her house and see her Barbies, their eyes light up.

"As an adult, I really appreciate how beautiful the Barbies are, especially the collector Barbies, with the detail," she said.