A case of Kenvy
March 13, 2018
Her introduction in March 1959 sent shockwaves through the toy world and resulted in a nearly complete abandonment of a name which had been in the top 10 for popularity for four decades. The Barbie Doll truly had that impact.
Little girls everywhere loved Barbie. What wasn’t to like? She was pretty, had a great wardrobe, and was the perfect size for small hands. But there was something missing. That something arrived in mid-March 1961: Ken.
Now Barbie had a boyfriend! Ken was every parent’s dream guy for their daughter. He was clean cut, handsome, had hands and arms which were stiff and straight, and a head which could only turn left and right, and was missing guy parts. Then, in 1977, Ken got a celebrity makeover. Gone was the military haircut and the square-jawed face. His new look featured longer hair, dimpled chin, bent arms, a head that swiveled, jewelry and – the most important thing of all – permanent underwear.
He and Barbie were a ‘couple’ until 2004 when Mattel announced their breakup. From the infallible Wikipedia:
“In February, 2004, Mattel announced a split for Ken and Barbie, with Russell Arons, vice president of marketing at Mattel, saying that Barbie and Ken ‘feel it’s time to spend some quality time – apart…Like other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance has come to an end’, though Arons indicated that the duo would ‘remain friends’. He also hinted that the separation might be partially due to Ken’s reluctance to getting married. In February, 2006 however, a revamped version of the Ken doll was launched, though it was stated that their relationship is still purely platonic. In 2011, Mattel launched a massive campaign for Ken to win Barbie’s affections back. The pair officially reunited in Valentine’s Day 2011.”
I got my first Barbie Doll for Christmas 1961. Her wardrobe consisted of a bathing suit, a short gold dress, a black evening gown (Solo in the Spotlight!) and a wedding dress. Based on how those clothes ‘survived’ the years I must have played with that doll a lot. The wedding dress, particularly, is mostly a rag but I still have it.
Yet, I never got the one thing I really wanted for my Barbie which was a Ken.
Three houses down the street from me lived a little girl named Martha. As the youngest – by nearly 10 years – of three girls, it seemed as if Martha had everything. Her Barbie wore the best clothes, relaxed in really cute wicker furniture and, most important, she had a Ken. I liked going to Martha’s house – despite the fact she was three years younger than me – because of her great Barbie collection.
But I was never allowed to play with her Ken. He was sacrosanct. And I had Kenvy.
The closest I ever got to having a Ken was when I played the game “Barbie, Queen of the Prom.” In that game you had to navigate the board to collect a prom dress, appropriate accessories and, most important, a date. There were four choices: Ken, Allan, Tom and Poindexter. No one ever wanted Poindexter. Probably because he looked like he was about twelve. By the time I was playing that game, it was the mid-1960’s and Ken’s military crew cut was going out of style. No, the desirable date for Queen of the Prom was Allan, a freckled face red head with a winning smile.
Eventually I got over my Kenvy. Probably when I had a daughter of my own who also LOVED her Barbie dolls (she had dozens, I only ever had two) and who also had a couple of Ken dolls. She played with her dolls for hours but I was most amused by the Ken and Barbie interaction. Whichever Barbie was the favored doll got the Ken. It was that simple. The pair would go on dates and, often, I would see them ‘kissing’ each other as my daughter’s imagination created romantic scenarios. On occasion I would sit on the floor and play Barbie’s with her. But I was never allowed to play with the Ken’s. Some things never change. Okay, so maybe I still have Kenvy.
For more information about Ken click on this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_(doll)
Because there was so much to talk about JUST with Ken, I will be discussing name etymology next week and the cultural impact Barbie and Ken have had over the past 58 years.
It’s one of the most grueling races in the world and participants encounter blizzards, white out conditions and temperatures, with wind chills as low as -131 degrees.
What I determined in the five days I spent there with my two best friends from high school, Cindy and Daphne, were the following:
I am forever grateful to my two friends for the once in a lifetime event. It was, as the name of the business stated, Just Short of Magic. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the temperature was 10 degrees.
Although the adventure was only a couple of hours it was, as their business name proclaimed, just short of magic. I relished the rush of cold air, the way the sled flew over the snow, the cacophony of the barking dogs, and the sparkle of the white snow.
A good editor is the key to making sure whatever is written reads right and, well, doesn’t make ridiculous mistakes. In late February 1997 an American Family Publisher’s Sweepstakes entry was received by the Bushnell Assembly of God Church. It began thus:
If I had any doubt that my GPS truly was God my disbelief was dispelled about a year and half ago. I was on my way back from Yakima and was driving up I-82 towards Ellensburg. I glanced over at the GPS but what I saw left no doubt that some higher power was in charge. Instead of an elevation of about 2700 feet as expected “God” let me know I was at over… 50,000 feet! As Doc Brown says in Back To The Future “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need… roads!” Although the photo I snapped was a bit fuzzy, you can clearly see the elevation and God’s instruction that I am to continue to the alley. What alley, I never did find out. This craziness continued until Thorp when, apparently, I was no longer flying and once again on solid pavement.
The year was 1976 and Olympic fever was in full force that February. There was one person, particularly, everyone was talking about. From her cute, bobbed haircut to her signature skating move, girls everywhere wanted to look like her and boys wanted to date her.
Another Olympic fact, Peggy Fleming was the only US athlete to win a gold medal in the 1968 Olympics. The skating program had been decimated seven years earlier when a fatal plane crash on February 15, 1961, claimed the lives of the entire US skating team and coaches who were en-route to Belgium for an international competition. Also from the infallible Wikipedia:
The moment you draw a Chance card that says “Take A Walk On The Boardwalk” probably one of two things happen:
“According to an advertisement placed in The Christian Science Monitor, Charles Todd of Philadelphia recalled the day in 1932 when his childhood friend, Esther Jones, and her husband Charles Darrow came to their house for dinner. After the meal, the Todd’s introduced Darrow to The Landlord’s Game, which they then played several times together. At that point the game was entirely new to Darrow, and he asked the Todd’s for a written set of the rules. After that night, Darrow went on to utilize this by distributing the game himself as Monopoly – an act for which the Todd’s refused to speak to Darrow ever again.
Truly riveting events. Which is why January 16th being “National Nothing” Day seems appropriate.*
When I was in high school I had a fabulous teacher by the name of Mrs. Renn. Sadly, the year I was in her class she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. But that did not stop her from coming to school every day and imparting her knowledge and wisdom to a bunch of ungrateful teenagers. One day I recall one of the students must have complained about the literature we were discussing and that she was bored. Mrs. Wren didn’t get mad at the student but took the opportunity to impart her philosophy on life. I paraphrase but the message was this “there is no excuse to EVER be bored; if you have your mind, you can always find something interesting to read, or write, or do.”
So here’s a toast to 2018 as a whole blank slate of a year stretches before us. Whatever your goal may be I wish you the : ‘aim’ ‘dedication’ ‘fortitude’ ‘heart’ ‘mettle’ ‘moxie’ and ‘perseverance’ to achieve it. Happy New Year!
One interesting thing is that a circle was cut from the floor of the Ryman Theater and installed in the center of the new Opry stage. When our family visited Nashville in March 2013 we toured the facility and stood in the famous ‘circle.’ Later that evening we attended a show which featured Craig Morgan as that night’s main act. I was surprised, however, by the number of long time Opry acts which were still being performed including a ‘Minnie Pearl’ impersonator and also Little Jimmy Dickens who, until he died in 2015, was the oldest Opry member.
If you go to Nashville, a visit to the Grand Ole Opry is a must and very worthwhile.
It was in October of 1980 when the United States was truly invaded by the Japanese. We are not talking about military here. No, this invasion featured four ghosts named Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde and a round yellow fellow with a huge pie shaped mouth dubbed Pac-Man. (There are articles which place the release date on October 10 but that date is disputed)
“When Pac-Man was released, the most popular arcade video games were space shooters—in particular, Space Invaders and Asteroids. The most visible minority were sports games that were mostly derivatives of Pong. Pac-Man succeeded by creating a new genre. Pac-Man is often credited with being a landmark in video game history and is among the most famous arcade games of all time. It is also one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, having generated more than $2.5 billion in quarters by the 1990s.
My hubby was hired by a CPA firm in Burien who had a client that needed an auditor. So they sent him out to do the job and thus began a seven year run with a different Japanese invader: Donkey Kong. While many think of Nintendo as a behemoth company, when Donkey Kong was first being sold into the US market they had six employees: two Seattle based salesmen, the company president, a couple of Japanese developer/engineers, and one American to make the build’s happen.
No doubt July 25th is an extremely important day for ice cream lovers everywhere. Yes, it’s the ‘official’ National Hot Fudge Sundae Day!
One of my favorite memories of Farrell’s (I think it was Farrell’s) was when one of our adult advisors taught us all how to balance a fork on our nose. That was the sort of silliness we enjoyed. This photo of her doing just that is probably from the last time I went to a Farrell’s.
barbaradevore.com 