Tell us about getting your first doll!

I love doing little questions like this..very fun and it helps me get to know the board members a little better!

My first doll was Samantha when I was 8. I only knew about the Meet books for a LONG time and I saw the little slip with the dolls' pictures in the back and hoped one day I could find out about them. Then, one Christmas, my best friend got her first doll, and her little sister did too, and then we started receiving the cataloges! I was SO EXCITED about seeing all of the beautiful dolls. We decided that since I was turning 8 that year I could get my doll. All summer long I looked and looked through the cataloge and I wanted either Samantha, Molly, Kirsten, or Felicity I think. Eventually I decided on Samantha (I adored her book) and got her for my Birthday. I remember my mom getting VERY excited and bringing down the box, my ripping the paper, opening it and finally seeing MY doll!
I somehow remember this-my doll had a pre-mattel face and I remember thinking "Boy her skin's dark!" because she always had lighter skin in the pictures. [img]smile.gif[/img]

My first doll was Nellie.I had always pined for the dolls,especialy samantha,ever since I got my first cataloge at age 5,but they were always "too expensive".So years later my partner says go ahead and pick a doll and I picked Nellie because I had fallen in love with her.She's irish like me and we both had poor backgrounds. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

My story is long and complex.

EDITED since the link was deleted (no problem!)

When I was young, no one in my family could afford an American girl doll. I first saw the Original Three when I was really young, in a magazine, back when they only had three books each and no furniture. I sort of liked Kristen, and my older sister loved Samantha, but we knew we couldn't have them, being poor kids. So I pushed the wish out of my mind. Didn't think about them again.

Then, in 1993/4 or so, I went to visit my gramma for Christmas, who lives in Wisconsin. And she had an American Girl catlogue in the house. Don't remember how she got it, probably for something that she ordered in the mail for me. I'm like maybe 13 at this time. And on the cover, there was a black girl with a black doll in a Christmas dress. Hmm, I thought. That's new. So I flipped it open, mused through it. Felicity was an "eh" for me at best, and I knew the other three. So I kept looking. And near the middle, in all her 18 inch glory was...

Addy Walker.

And I fell in LOVE. Being black, and being all about the Civil War history, I wanted Addy. I decided there and then that I was getting Addy. Or at least beg everyone for her. So I begged. I begged my mom. I begged my gramma. I got promises of after highschool, then after college, then eventually. You know, in the way that people blow off kids.

I poured over catalogues. I taught myself how to decode the ordering codes. Once the website launched, if I went a single month without one I would email off for another. I mailed off cards every time the catalogues stopped (The books which I got at goodwills--I actually got all of Kristen's at a 10 for a dollar sale). I was bound and determined to have her. And yet, I never could get stuff together enough to order her. But I was going to get her, oh yes I was.

This past October, my mom in law asked me what I wanted for Christmas, as she does me and the manperson. I shuffled my toes, I sighed, I felt embarrased, and I said, "I want just one thing. An Addy doll from the American Girl site."

She said, "Okay." So I hoped hoped hoped she'd get her for me and not change her mind because, well, I'm in my 20s asking for a doll and some people frown on that. So I knew, but I didn't really know. Then we flew in for Christmas, and late on Christmas eve she set a box under the tree, and I just knew it was her.

I couldn't half sleep that night for knowing she was under the tree. But nothing prepared me for opening that box. She wrapped the box it shipped in. And when I opened that box, and I saw that maroon box, I literally stopped breathing.

And when I opened the biggest box, and Addy was looking into my eyes, I nearly cried.

12 years of wishing and wishing and wishing, and Addy was mine.

<font color="#051E50"><font size="1">[ March 18, 2006 11:50 PM: Message edited by: Nethilia ]</font></font>

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ March 18, 2006 11:51 PM: Message edited by: Nethilia ]</font>

My very first AG was Bitty Sarah the bald blonde one around Feb. 2005. I really don't know what made me get her as I wasn't in the collecting mode yet but I always had thought she was really cute. I wanted to start sewing for AGs so maybe she was the only affordable option at the time. In August 2005 I was needing a model to take to craft shows with my doll clothes and I didn't want to take my dd's Molly that she got at age 8 in 1998. I was using her as a clothing model but definitely didn't want to haul her to a show. So I started hunting on ebay and won a very nice Molly of my own. She doesn't have her glasses so at the shows I would either tell people she got contacts or had laser surgery, lol.

Well my firsts were pretty uneventful but I feel like Molly, Sarah and I had the most bonding time. I was getting ready to turn 30 the year they were introduced and I'm not sure I even realized what they were. I was getting heavily into Barbies and replacing my childhood baby dolls at that time. Molly was happy when I told her I wasn't doing craft shows anymore--she didn't like it when people asked if she was for sale.
PS: I just read Nethelia's post about her first doll (sorry if I messed up the spelling, I can't see your name in this window). I LOVED your story about getting Addy! Definitely a tear jerker and so very special. I can't blame you for being totally happy with your doll. What a caring, unselfish mil you've got too! Great story! [img]graemlins/rose.gif[/img]

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ March 18, 2006 09:30 PM: Message edited by: Tari ]</font>

Oh Neth...that's such a great story! I was almost in tears.

Addy was my first doll, too. I really wanted a doll so that I could play with my DD and her Samantha. My DH and DS were really into collecting toy tractors at the time, so DH understood.

I was trying to decide if I could really spend that much, and which doll to get when I got that first catalog with Addy in it. I was standing in our mud room, looking at it as DH had just brought it in with the rest of the mail.( DH always stopped at home for lunch) I was squealing looking at her, and DH said, "Well...just order her!" So I did...and I got her school dress. I have always thought she was beautiful. And I love civil war history.

That was before check cards...or before I knew they existed, anyway. So I had to send in an actual check and order her that way. It was agony waiting, but boy was it fun to get that package!

My first dolly was Kirsten. I remember being very little, around sixish when the catalog first showed up at our house right around January or so. I looked through the catalog and thought all the dolls were lovely, but Kirsten was the girl I looked most like then and knew I wanted her which I told my mom while she helped me cut out the doll's pictures from the catalog pages.

My mom made some vague remark about 'soon maybe' and I promptly went on to hope that someday this pretty doll would be mine, even naming a porcelin doll that I got for another occasion, "Kirsten" and being devastated when i couldn't get that doll's hair into her braids.

A few months before my seventh birthday, we had to move from the house I had lived in since I was three and the only neighborhood I really remembered. I was so sad about it that on our moving day my mom brought me a box and said she wanted me to have this present early.

And inside was Kirsten, who proved a very wonderful and faithful friend when I was at my lonliest. It occurs to me now that she was an especially good choice considering how well I was able to identify with her new experiances in America and relate them to mine in my new neighborhood.

Unfortunately Kirsten's life was a little breif, those were the days before the doll hospital you see and limbs were lost. I could kick myself and my mom both for not realizing we could have saved her ourselves, that dolly had a white body and would be highly prized today!!

My first doll was Nemesio, (My Marisol). I ordered him in September when I came to the horrible realization I was probably never going to have my Ball joint dolls of my dreams (Luts El, Hound, Vols LE Lucas, etc.) 2 days later I ordered a #4 to be his best friend, he needed a buddy, of course. (See, it starts early, but s/he needs a friend, brother, sister, cousin, etc. [img]tongue.gif[/img] )
When they got here, I had to wait about a week to opene them, and then I waited a coouple more days. I was scared to open them, actually I don't know why.
I actually opened them and gingerlly put them on a shelf. I dressed them in the cargo outfits. I was confused as to what to do about Jun's bangs. Then they got butched clean off, and the poor boy has been in a hat very since - I couldn't find the perfect wig.
Then I started messing with them alittle bit. My next goal was to get them another friend, Ben, my Kaya boy. I got him in October, right before I joined the board the first wek of November, I think.

After that it became a blurr of buying..... [img]graemlins/hmmm.gif[/img]

I'm sorry if that was more information than anyone wanted to know.
[img]graemlins/bat.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/bat.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/bat.gif[/img]

I had seen the catalog around '92, and I had read all the books that were available at that time too. I decided I liked Kirsten best, so I set my heart on her.

I got her for Christmas '93 when I was 11. She was so beautiful! I truly did not expect her even though I had been asking for her. I got her Summer dress and hat that same Christmas, but I never got anymore of her collection until Fall '04. (My grandmother made me lots of clothes for her, though.)


I played with her a lot until I was about 15. After that I would change her clothes a couple of times a year, and she stood on a doll stand in our dining room.

Then a couple of years after I was married, I became interested in AG again. I was looking at MLP's on ebay (I was so happy to see one of my fave childhood toys come back!) and I was looking at someone's other itmes for sale, and they had some AG items listed.

That got me to thinking about my Kirsten and how much I missed her, so the next time I went to my parents' house, I decided to take her home with me and pamper her all over again!

I would feel silly saying this to anyone else, but I think somehow, even though she was always smiling before I brought her home, she was sad that I "outgrew" her for a while. But now I think she's happier than ever, especially since she has 2 other sisters to talk to. I know you all understand where I'm coming from when I say that! We're all in love with our dollies here! [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ March 18, 2006 10:01 PM: Message edited by: tngirl03 ]</font>

Quote:

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Originally posted by Nethilia:
My story is long and complex.....

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nethilia, that is the best story I have read here on HB, bar none. Similar in a lot of ways to mine, and much better told. My dad brought us here from Canada when I was just a little girl, and life was always about making ends meet. My girl cousins got the pretty dolls, but the holiday spoils ate our house were slim and mostly necessities like clothes. Started working at 15 out (had to), supported myself from 18 on, got married at 23. When my daughter was small, the first AG catalog came, and I too drooled over it and every one that came after, but only wished. Money was always just too tight, and the kids came first. Fast forward 30 years, and my darling, darling hubby finally convinced me that I could allow myself my heart's desire for xmas. I got the blond, green eyed AGT and she will always be my favorite. I remember going ape over a pink stuffed poodle under the tree at the age of 4, and I'd say opening the box to my doll xmas morning 2005 was right up there with that silly poodle!

One day in Febuary 2004, I went over my best friend's house and she had two American Girl Doll, AGOT #13, and Kailey. I fell in love with the retired Coconut Stationary Set that she had, so my mom said that if I got a good report card we would go down to AGPNY to get it. The day before we went I looked on the website at the dolls, and I fell in love with Kailey, with the pictures of her on the website. She was beautiful. I asked my mom if I could get her. She was alittle optimistic, because I stopped playing with my barbies many years before this. She said that if I cleaned my room that the next day we would go down, and get Kailey. When we got down there I got Kailey, The Glitter Jeans Outfit, Heart Print Pajamas, Trundle bed, Girl Sized Cocnut, and the Stationary set. It was the best day of my life. Kailey is still beautiful and I love her dearly. A couple of weeks after that we went down again and again and my collection has grown to 14 dolls 2 years later.


Edited: for Typo

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ March 18, 2006 10:43 PM: Message edited by: Kaileyfan1 ]</font>