When I Was Growing Up My Parents Did Not Have A Great Deal Of Money. We Were Not Poor, But They Worked Hard For Everything We Had. When I Reflect Back They Always Put Us Kids First. We Had New Clothes, Shoes And Other Things Before My Parents Bought Things For Themselves. My Mom Is A Gift Giver. She Liked To Surprise Us With Gifts And Tokens Even Though There Was Not A Lot Of Money To Purchase These Things With. Barbie Dolls Were A Big Deal When I Was A Kid. The Neighborhood Girls Would Get Together To Play Dress Up With The Barbies. I Had A Barbie Doll, But Not Very Many Barbie Doll Clothes. They Were Expensive To Buy. My Mother Began Making Barbie Doll Clothes For Me To Play With. I Was The Only One That Had Homemade Barbie Doll Clothes. Often Times When I Went To Play I Would Leave The Home Made Clothes In The Box And Only Take Out The Few Store Bought Ones That I Had.A Few Years Ago My Mother Had To Go Into Assisted Living. My Sisters And I Started Going Through The House Picking Out The Things For Mom To Have In Her Apartment And Dividing The Other Things And Also Preparing For A Yard Sale. In The Attic We Came Across A Few Boxes Of Toys That Mom Had Saved Through The Years. We Found A Box Filled With My Barbie Doll Things. Many Of The Handmade Pieces Of Clothing Were Still There. Now That I Have Sewn A Few Things I Realize The Patience And Time It Took My Mother To Sew The Small Intricate Pieces For The Barbie Doll Clothes. She Put A Great Deal Of Time Into Small Details. On The Gowns She Had Sewn Sequins And Small Beads To Make Them Special. Looking At These Clothes As An Adult I Realized That I Had More Beautiful Clothes To Play With Than Any Of My Friends, Yet I Left Them Stored In A Box Because They Were Not Bought In A Store.
