Flashback Friday
Okay, so I know that by the time this post is being published it's actually Saturday, but I got a little busy yesterday and didn't have time to finish what I wanted to post! I was surfing some blogs and I don't know where, but I saw someone write posts each Friday of flashbacks from their life. I don't know if I can be disciplined enough to write every single Friday, but I'll give it a shot!
I want to preface this by saying that I would never have thought of this memory had it not been prompted by a project I'm working on as a surprise for my mom. Something I was putting together made me think of TROLLS! When I was about 10 or 11, Russ brand trolls were all the rage among me, my friends and my school classmates. You were nothing to the "cool crowd" unless you had an army of dressed up freaky little trolls--and let me tell you, they were not really for playing with. We set them up as if they were prized possessions, treated them as our moms did their finest crystal, and did not let them get dirty, smudged or scratched. This was our craze before the much cuter, although just as worthless beanie babies hit the store shelves.
One thing that every girl I knew wanted to do with the troll collecting was to out-do one another by getting the latest ones first, having the largest collection, etc. (Weren't we girls crazy!?!) My parents would never fall for buying me new trolls on a weekly basis, so I knew the only way to the throne of troll 'queen' for me was by getting some trolls that were hard-to-find and more extravagant (as if trolls ever could be such!) than the others. I couldn't focus on just getting the naked buggers in every different color of neon spikey hair--I had to go bigger.
So one day at Hallmark I set my eyes on the ultimate prize--a set of bride and groom trolls! Immediately I was infatuated with these hideously ugly dolls dressed in phony satin, and I was determined to own them. I told my mom and my step-dad all about them and I'm sure threw a bit of a tantrum that day when they wouldn't buy them at the drop of a hat. So they set to make me work for the darn things...my room was the cleanest in the neighborhood, the dishes were loaded and unloaded from the dishwasher before mom or Gene could think to ask, and I was on my best behavior. For what seemed like an eternity (I'm positive now it was probably a week), I was constantly reminded by them and my uncle (who got in on the fun of harassing me over this) that if I wanted to earn those trolls, I had to work for them, be a good girl, etc. You better bet I was an angel, a model student, an honorable sister to my little brother, and all for the day when they finally said I could go and buy me these:
Now here I am approximately 16 years later wondering what I could possibly have been thinking!?!! I cannot believe that I worked so hard for some ugly, worthless toys! Why as young girls did we think trolls were worth collecting or worth an ounce of our time? Haha! The funny thing is, I can remember wanting them so badly and I know that I eventually got them, but I don't think I moved up the "coolness chain" at school or that I truly felt any better having earned something that others in my class didn't have or couldn't find in their respective Hallmark stores. And after all of this reminiscing, I'm now wondering what crazy little items Jaden and Sienna are going to have me hunting all over town for in a few years. Even better, what kind of excellent behavior and list of chores am I going to get out of them to make them earn their little trinkets as I had to? haha! I'm going to have fun with this!
As if anyone reads my nonsense, if you are intrigued by these trolls or know someone as crazy as I once was who might enjoy them as a good flashback or even a gift, they are currently listed on ebay right here. I know I won't be buying them--one time was enough--and I should probably be saving my pennies for whatever my girls consider collecting one day :)
I want to preface this by saying that I would never have thought of this memory had it not been prompted by a project I'm working on as a surprise for my mom. Something I was putting together made me think of TROLLS! When I was about 10 or 11, Russ brand trolls were all the rage among me, my friends and my school classmates. You were nothing to the "cool crowd" unless you had an army of dressed up freaky little trolls--and let me tell you, they were not really for playing with. We set them up as if they were prized possessions, treated them as our moms did their finest crystal, and did not let them get dirty, smudged or scratched. This was our craze before the much cuter, although just as worthless beanie babies hit the store shelves.
One thing that every girl I knew wanted to do with the troll collecting was to out-do one another by getting the latest ones first, having the largest collection, etc. (Weren't we girls crazy!?!) My parents would never fall for buying me new trolls on a weekly basis, so I knew the only way to the throne of troll 'queen' for me was by getting some trolls that were hard-to-find and more extravagant (as if trolls ever could be such!) than the others. I couldn't focus on just getting the naked buggers in every different color of neon spikey hair--I had to go bigger.
So one day at Hallmark I set my eyes on the ultimate prize--a set of bride and groom trolls! Immediately I was infatuated with these hideously ugly dolls dressed in phony satin, and I was determined to own them. I told my mom and my step-dad all about them and I'm sure threw a bit of a tantrum that day when they wouldn't buy them at the drop of a hat. So they set to make me work for the darn things...my room was the cleanest in the neighborhood, the dishes were loaded and unloaded from the dishwasher before mom or Gene could think to ask, and I was on my best behavior. For what seemed like an eternity (I'm positive now it was probably a week), I was constantly reminded by them and my uncle (who got in on the fun of harassing me over this) that if I wanted to earn those trolls, I had to work for them, be a good girl, etc. You better bet I was an angel, a model student, an honorable sister to my little brother, and all for the day when they finally said I could go and buy me these:
Now here I am approximately 16 years later wondering what I could possibly have been thinking!?!! I cannot believe that I worked so hard for some ugly, worthless toys! Why as young girls did we think trolls were worth collecting or worth an ounce of our time? Haha! The funny thing is, I can remember wanting them so badly and I know that I eventually got them, but I don't think I moved up the "coolness chain" at school or that I truly felt any better having earned something that others in my class didn't have or couldn't find in their respective Hallmark stores. And after all of this reminiscing, I'm now wondering what crazy little items Jaden and Sienna are going to have me hunting all over town for in a few years. Even better, what kind of excellent behavior and list of chores am I going to get out of them to make them earn their little trinkets as I had to? haha! I'm going to have fun with this!
As if anyone reads my nonsense, if you are intrigued by these trolls or know someone as crazy as I once was who might enjoy them as a good flashback or even a gift, they are currently listed on ebay right here. I know I won't be buying them--one time was enough--and I should probably be saving my pennies for whatever my girls consider collecting one day :)
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