They seem smaller than they used to and are a little dirtier than when I first freed them from their boxes.īut at one time they had personalities and I knew them. It's always a little disconcerting to encounter toys you spent years pretending were your children.
#Cabbage patch birth certificate printable foot prints Patch
My Cabbage Patch Kid dolls are packed away in my parents house and I haven't seen them in years. Since no boys were welcome to play house I usually situated the dad off in the army in France. I changed their diapers, fed them and dressed them in outfits for different occasions. Jo Jo and Fannie quickly became cherished dolls and assumed the preeminent spot in my toy collection. Fanny Marlene had shiny, blond hair that you could comb instead of the plain yarn hair. I did have to wait until they came out with Cornsilk Hair Cabbage Patch Kids, before I could get a girl doll. The task wasn't easy but I got my real doll. Most of the boy dolls came with looped yarn hair as well, but we managed to each find a bald one.
My sister and I didn't like that it was made from yarn. It was the hair on the girl Cabbage Patch dolls that presented the problem, though. He had no hair to play with - just a smooth bald head. Instead he wore a football uniform complete with a green jersey, pads and a helmet. I couldn't outfit Jo Jo in pretty dresses. The decision to adopt a boy kind of surprises me in retrospect. An inheritance my mother received from her aunt and uncle allowed my sister and me to purchase dolls after we were each allotted $40, which was an unheard of fortune at the time. I never had to be content with an imitation Cabbage Patch, though. Part of the appeal of the real Cabbage Patch Kids was their dimpled knees, soft-sculptured individual toes, outie belly button and the seemingly unpronounceable Xavier Roberts signature stamps on the dolls' bottom. This particular homemade version was well made and quite cute with its print dress and matching bloomers but it was stiff and didn't fold into the crook of your arm like a real Cabbage Patch Kid. And the doll didn't come with any ridicule. Like David, mine was courtesy of my grandmother, although she bought it at a craft show instead of making it. I eventually received a homemade Cabbage Patch Kid myself. We had a few seconds of fun and created a memory to be ashamed of long afterwards. So, being clever, we decided to call the pair David and Goliath. The doll was much larger than a regular Cabbage Patch Kid and the boy was small and named David.
He proudly displayed his new toy and with innocent cruelty the rest of us laughed at his homemade doll. When I was in second grade one of my classmates made an unfortunate decision to bring a Cabbage Patch Kid his grandmother had sewn to school. However, their pleasure in these homemade creations didn't always go unchallenged by their peers. Some children, less influenced by Cabbage Patch commercials, were satisfied with these knockoffs. They wanted the real dolls, which were surprisingly expensive for being such a popular toy. Not surprisingly, these imposters were entirely unacceptable to most children. Most sewing stores had creepy displays of Cabbage Patch Kid heads in plastic bags that could be attached to bodies sewn by enterprising, economy-minded homemakers. Grandmas and crafters tried to replicate the popular dolls with homemade versions. The papers made clear that this fact was important and it certainly was. These identifying marks certified that this was a real Cabbage Patch Kid. The birth certificate was even signed by Xavier Roberts and was stamped with the doll's foot and finger prints. I signed his adoption papers and my sister signed as the witness. My first Cabbage Patch Kid was Diggory Joseph or Jo Jo as I called him.