Cabbage Patch Kids

Lucky for me, having a birthday that took place in winter meant that my birthday parties could not be held in a park, the backyard, or some other free place that could contain and amuse several children and not require my parents to hide their breakable knick knacks.  Birthday number four (as best as my mom and I can remember) took place in January of 1985 at none other than Chuck E. Cheese’s.  Besides the shear awesomeness of celebrating the big oh-four at the place where “a kid can be a kid,” that was the birthday where I got the best gift any little girl from my generation could have hoped for… a Cabbage Patch Kid (CPK).

To the best of my recollection, this is what Jennifer looked like except she had a yellow bonnet.

I don’t remember every detail of that day but I do remember her; a dimpled, bald baby, dressed in a yellow, knit outfit with a yellow bonnet and smelling like baby powder. I named her Jennifer and she would be my favorite doll for many, many years.  Even my CPK that could move her mouth and talk could not come close to knocking Jennifer from her proverbial pedestal.

My most memorable time with Jennifer was when we left my grandparents’ house in Ohio to go back home from a family visit.  I think we lived in Connecticut at the time (on the east coast for sure) so it was going to be a long ride home.  Somewhere into our trip I realized that Jennifer had gotten left behind!  We were far enough away that it was inconvenient to go back but thankfully not super far away. A good heart wrenching cry from yours truly made my dad turn the car back around to get my baby.  I think I spent most of the ride home apologizing to her for my forgetfulness.

The new Cabbage Patch Kids.  Cute, but definitely redesigned like they do with toys.

Final Flashback

Each CPK came with a birth certificate/adoption certificate that listed the name of the doll and gave you something to sign showing that you adopted him or her and would care for them.  I would sometimes change the name but I think Jennifer was the name mine came with.

The funniest thing to me as a child was Xavier Roberts’ (the creator and also a character in the CPK story) signature on the butt of the doll.  Like who decided on that?

There was a cassette (remember those?) that came out sometime in the 80’s with Christmas songs that were sung by the CPK.  I listened to that every night near Christmas and all night Christmas Eve when I couldn’t sleep because I was too excited.

The Cabbage Patch fad was, to my generation, what the Tickle-Me-Elmo and Furby craze would be to future generations. Parents would fight each other just to get one to take home to their daughters.