Coloring Books and Paper Dolls

When I was a little kid, getting any sort of toys between one Christmas and the next was pretty damned rare. I never begged for a doll or a bike until right before Christmas because I learned quickly that was the only time I had even a minimum shot at getting what I wanted.

There were a few exceptions. Occasionally there were new coloring books and paper dolls.

Let’s take the coloring books first. I remember going in the store and heading for the book racks. There were coloring books displayed there like magazines are today on magazine racks. All kinds of glorious brand new, never been opened, big bright beautiful coloring books. Some with themes and others with random as yet lifeless pictures. Decisions would have to be made and at that time I too was the “decider”. I knew I couldn’t have the most glorious of them all because those were also the most expensive. But still, there were coloring books in my price range. I’m telling you when I chose my new book I became the proudest kid in town. I would take that book home, get my cigar box of broken and sometimes tasted coloring crayons and get to work. I would take these waxy little stubs of color and bring life to the outlined pictures.

Sometimes, and these were even rarer times, I could get a brand new box of crayons. Remember how good a box of new crayons smelled? I never got to get the box with several rows of different colors. I was in the financial group of single row buyers. But still, I had a brand new box of crayons. Each one still had its entire label in tact, and the tip of the crayon was pointy so the artist could make thin lines that were not afforded by the used, round ended old crayons. The best the old ones could do were smudgy kind of lines.

There was another experience that could equal coloring equipment and that was a box or book of paper dolls. I spent many happy moments living the lives of those dolls for them. One such book of paper dolls and fashions was a book about a wedding. There was a bride, groom and a flower girl and a ring bearer paper doll. The pictures on the front of that book were so beautiful to my eyes. The back ground was a pretty and shiny shade of blue. The bride was shown in the most beautiful wedding gown in the whole world. Fairy tale wedding? You bet your little pair of blunt nosed scissors.

I wasn’t real good at cutting out the paper dolls or their clothes. The little white tabs that you were to cut out along with the paper clothes were often accidentally clipped right off by my not so accurate scissor grasping hands. What a let down because if one of the tabs were cut off, the dress or outfit sort of hung from one of the dolls shoulders. But since the imagination can overcome any set back, the play would go on. I would be the lovely bride wearing the amazingly beautiful dress. I really was her and I could live in her world. Her world was nice and pretty and without problems. In her world everyone loved her and she was without a care. I escaped into her world and lots of other paper doll worlds as I grew up. I had total control in their worlds and none in my own.

A coloring book, crayons and paper dolls, these were highlights and delights of my formative years. These were such fun and provided so many happy moments. Today the thoughts of them bring back some very happy memories of a much, much simpler time in a much, much younger life.