First Ball for Barbie

Dressed for the Ball Barbie

Barbie is dressed for her first ball.  There will be champagne, candlelight and caviar.  She will dance with many dashing partners.  All will comment on her beauty and she will be described as the belle of the ball.

My first ball was the soccer dance for a team of twelve-year-old boys.  My across-the-driveway neighbour asked me.  I was so excited, I left him standing outside while I screamed in joy and jumped around our kitchen.   Poor guy, I know his mother made him ask me.

My mother took me to Jacobson's to buy a suitable dress.  It was blue wool with pretty embroidery and it was as itchy as can be.  I wore a slip that almost solved the problem.  I remember nylon stockings and I wore my everyday shoes, solid brown Oxfords with scuffed toes and wear marks on the sides from my roller skates.

The dance was in the school gym on Saturday afternoon.  Our gym lights had two settings, off and glaring.  The chaperones chose the less romantic of the two.

There were refreshments, sandwich quarters, cake squares and very sweet beverages.

They played dance music on a record player and we stood morosely for a while.  Some of the boys horsed around and then some girls bravely danced together.  "Twist and Shout"  was popular and as long as I ignored my date I was fine.  Spending time with him was just too awkward.  He lived next door for Pete's sake.  How would I face him in the morning if I accidentally touched him while we were dancing together?

Finally realizing this group of kids were too young for  a sock hop, one of the parents suggested a variation of Blind Man's Bluff where the blindfolded boy repeated "Rachel, where are you?" and the blindfolded girl answered "Here."  A game! my competitive instincts were raised.  I am proud to say I found him in mere seconds.  I think the idea was that he would search for me while I eluded him but I decided that shortest time was the goal and I wanted to win.

I waited several years before I went to my next dance. It wasn't much better.

Rodeo Clown Barbie

Rodeo Clown Barbie

A rodeo is a competition  rooted in  the profession of cattle herding.  Rounding up the cattle to brand the calves, check the herd,  and move them to other pastures or market are all important aspects of a herder's work.  At a rodeo, the competitors rope and tie the cattle,  demonstrate lariat skills and for fun, I guess, ride the bulls.

I'm sure you have seen the machines that simulate the bucking of an enraged bull.  They were a big fad in the late 70's and a feature of the movie Urban Cowboy.   A real bull is a terrifying and angry beast weighing up to a ton.  The people who ride them get thrown off and then the rodeo clowns move in to distract the bull from the fallen rider.   

Rodeo clowns wear loose clothing designed to be torn off.  Underneath they wear protective gear.  There may be a barrelman who has a large, strong, padded barrel to jump in to escape from the bull.  The clowns might heckle the emcee, the competitors or people in the audience.

Usually there is a team of clowns working together.  Barbie relies on agility and speed to distract the animal and to escape safely.   As you know, she doesn't have to be the fastest clown, she just has to be faster than any one of the other clowns on her team.

Barbie's Muslin

 Barbie's Muslin

At St. Andrew's Junior High School, the two grade 8 home economics teachers specialized.  One taught cooking, the other sewing.  At the beginning of the session, the students were sent to buy a pattern, fabric, zipper and thread.  The first class, we pinned the paper pattern together.   Our teacher expected us to take off our dresses, don the pinned pattern over our slips and take turns going into the class powder room.  There she'd adjust the fit of the pattern including the depth and angle of the bust darts.

I am a prude and this was far beyond my comfort zone so I eluded her and made my jumper without adjustments.  Shame, I might have learned something.  For years now I have made clothes and often been disappointed when they don't look right on me despite my best efforts.

But last month I took a course in pattern drafting and made a muslin that fits perfectly.  You know the rule about new skills; watch it, do it,  teach it. I put my skills to good use and taught Barbie.  This is what she made.

Barbie Adams

Barbie Adams

The Party Dress Book, by Mary Adams, an American designer, inspired this.  Mary Adams' clothes are vibrant scene-stealers.  Her wedding dresses are symphonies of colour that command center stage.  The skirts bounce with layers of glorious shades reflecting the full spectrum of rainbow hues.

Some Mary Adams designs that I particularly love include a white wedding dress with a ruffled deep blue underskirt and one with many crinolines in shades of red. I also like the ones inspired by Marie Antoinette 's wardrobe.

Barbie put on this dress and it made her want to twirl around and around until she was dizzy. 

Superdad Ken

Superdad Ken

My father was the best kind of father, involved.  He did his share of the housework and childcare because he wanted to.  My mother's agoraphobia often kept her at home so we went to the beach, to picnics, to the Sunday free swim at the local  pool and to the movies with dad. 

There were times in our lives when he had three jobs.  He was in the military and often away at sea.  He also sometimes had a weekend job repairing televisions and sometimes he taught television repair two nights a week for a continuing education program.  Keeping five children cavity-free and in shoes cost a lot but I don't remember his absences.  He always disparaged people who offered presents instead of presence.

My husband is also a loving, caring, involved father.

And Superdad Ken is the same kind of father, involved and perfect.

Tall Ships Barbie

Tall Ships Barbie

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking. 
John Masefield

The summer I was 9 my father earned his bosun's license.  In celebration, he took my younger brother and me for a sail around Halifax harbour in a sturdy whaler.  A submarine was coming into Halifax harbour just on the other side of George's Island.  We called excitedly to go see the submarine.  Dad was excited too, I guess, because he threw the tiller the wrong way.  The boat rolled over and lay in the water with the keel pointing at the sky.  We  clambered on the hull and she rolled upright.  We jumped in but couldn't bail fast enough.  The boat rolled once more and we were again clinging to the hull bottom.  Poor Dad was frantic and clutched us by the collar handles of our life jackets but my brother and I were not worried.  The whaler wallowed upside down in the harbour until a tug arrived to rescue us. 

My fearless sibling called as a man reached to gaff one of our lines, "Quick, take a photo so we can be in the newspaper."

 Dad never took us sailing again but, should the opportunity arise,  Barbie is suitably dressed for a day on a yacht.

Moonbeam Barbie

Moonbeam Barbie

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am a fan of L.M. Montgomery. I read Anne of Green Gables for the first time when I was 8.  The books weren't always easy to find in those days before Amazon and Indigo but I read as many of them as I could.

This quote from Emily's Quest, has haunted me. 
But he told her she looked like "the moonbeam of a blue summer night" in that gown. 

"That gown" was a long-time desire of Emily's, first expressed in Emily Climbs.

 If ever I can buy that one silk dress I know what it is going to be like. Not black or brown or navy blue--sensible, serviceable colours, such as New Moon Murrays always wear--oh, dear, no! It is to be of shot silk, blue in one light, silver in others, like a twilight sky, glimpsed through a frosted window-pane.

Do you think of your clothes that way?  Barbie does.