(from Thursday, April 11, 2024)
Once upon a time and many moons ago, I played with Barbies. For HOURS. And YEARS. Their Homes were fully furnished with woodscrap bespoke furniture and colorful carpet samples. O the drama, the stories, family histories, vocations and annual salaries of these little humans who lived in cardboard apartments and closet cubbies just beyond the foot of my bed. How often you would find me just sitting on the floor, staring at my dolls, lost in my imagination...an entire chapter of their fictional lives playing out like a movie in my head.
But it couldn't last forever, or so I was told. And succumbing to the pressure, I dressed every Barbie back in her originial outfit, cleaned her little face with a washcloth and a bit of soap and water, carefully brushed her shiny synthetic hair and packed her away...so that I could fully embrace the next phase of age-appropriate activities (sports, Atari, hanging out) and fit in with all my peers.
Fast forward to this fine spring day. My husband Steve and I have been waiting for a certain smell to waft over us: the fragrant viburnum blossoms that hit in early spring, just after the hyacinths and a bit before the lilacs, wisteria and honeysuckle. And checking the progress of one of our various prospects, I rejoiced to find a break-out of glorious blooms that launched an immediate advertisement in my childhood brain (which is still alive and well, apparently, and ready to pretend at a moment's notice):
"ATTENTION all Barbie Wedding Planners & Photographers:
The VIBURNUM ARE IN BLOOM!
Providing thousands of perfectly shaped miniature bouquets
of luscious white flowers and pink buds.
HERE to make your Bridal Barbie (or doll of similar size)
the happiest bride in town.
Make her day -- and her wedding pictures -- spectacular
with a Viburnum Barbie Bouquet
Blooming NOW in a yard near you."