I am a child of the 60's. Watching the show Madmen brings back all kinds of memories. Last night, when Sally was watching the Mystery Date game* commercial, I was suddenly transported back to Colleen and Kelly Rowe's basement, "down the shore." They were our summer neighbors and were loaded. There were two good reasons to spend as much time as possible at their house: Mrs. Rowe- she was a loud, happy Italian lady who wore bright red lipstick and big gold hoop earrings and had dyed black hair down to her waist that she always had in a high ponytail. She was kind of chunky and only wore black (except at the beach, where she wore hot pink bathing suits.) She loved having all the neighborhood kids at her house and would make us ice cream sundaes in parfait glasses, no matter what time of day it was. She hugged us a lot, too. Her huge breasts were very pointy under her black tops.
The other reason was their basement: every toy I ever wanted was in that basement. It wasn't that my parents couldn't afford those things for us- they just were raising us differently from other people. I never owned the Mystery Date game, or Barbies. Anything that gave off even a hint of sex was banned from our house. And trolls. For some reason they hated trolls. The only reason I was ever given for not being allowed to have one was,"They're ugly." And TV. One day the dog chewed up the electrical cord to the TV and my dad said it was broken. They got rid of it and didn't replace it for about 6 years. Being a kid in the 60's and 70's without a TV wasn't easy.
Anyway, I had to go to other peoples houses to get my TV/pop culture fix. I worked hard on being best friends with the Rowe Sisters. Their TV was always on, and they had every Barbie and accessory on the market. Piles of the stuff, all over the basement floor. They had those carrying cases with the little drawers for Barbie shoes and hair things and belts, tiny hangers to put Barbie's groovy outfits on when Barbie had to take a trip with you. I wanted all of it.**
One day I smuggled one of their Barbies home with me. I knew they'd never notice because they had so many. But once I had her home with me, I lived in fear of 1) Being caught playing with her, and 2) Dying in my sleep and going to hell for stealing. So I smuggled her back a couple of days later. (I have a vague recollection of also stealing a troll from a friend once. I'm sure my guilty conscience forced me to return that, too.)
My childhood was much better than Sally's on Madmen. My parents had a great marriage. They were just very religious. That's a story for another day.
*By the way, that whole Mystery Date/Richard Speck theme was woven brilliantly throughout the show last night, I thought.
**Other favorite things we did in the Rowe basement were holding seances and playing "Pose Baby"- a pretend modeling shoot game.
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