As frequently happens, I have gone into nostalgia mode. My new retro obsession: Strawberry Shortcake. And I’m singing The White Stripe’s Fell in love with a girl… fell in love with a girl… ah ah ah ah

Don’t get me wrong, I have always loved the Berry One. Gma used to make dolls from those kits where you knit the little body and attach a plastic head. Gma made me a Strawberry Shortcake, and for cousin Amber she made Apricot. I remember seeing Lemon Merangue with her white poofy hat and yellow hair; Huckleberry pie and his overalls, Lime Chiffon, her bird, and her birthday cake hat; Plum Puddin’, Crepe Suzette, Raspberry Tart and Blueberry Muffin - Gma made them all, and sold them at Aunt Barb’s antique shop.

Strawberry even figures into one of my earliest memories of my sister. When Spank was born we had to share a room. I slept under my little pink Strawberry Shortcake comforter in the big girl bed, and Spanky slept in her tiny white crib. Before She could even walk, my darling sister was given a gift that I wanted very badly. Just for being born, Spank got the pleasure of owning a plush stuffed rabbit with a strawberry shortcake sticker on the shoulder. When you sniffed the bunny it smelled like strawberries. I used to take her bunny and craddle it to my chest, pretending it was my own bunny. I figured she couldn’t fight me for it, so I was going to take it.

Consequently our relationship started out a little rocky. One day, in a fit of jealousy, or boredom, or whatever, I threw a softball at my infant-sister’s face. Spank had to go to the hospital, but I never confessed what I had done - until I was 15 or 16 when I knew mom wouldn’t punish me. I’ve always felt guilty about that, especially when I remember about that strawberry bunny. Spank never cried when I took it from her.

Anyway, I am again, full-on infatuated with Strawberry Shortcake. I used to have nightmares about the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak, but now I think he’s cute.

Also, just to let everyone know so they can be at once jealous, and then sad for my loss, I owned this very lunch box when I was in the second grade.
Where it went, well that’s something nobody really knows. The important thing is, for that brief moment I owned a little metal peice Strawberry history.

Posted in VT, Reflection