For some reason, the first childhood toy that always pops into my minds not my favorite one, just the biggest standout. Her name was P.J. Sparkles.
She was a hard plastic doll with bright flashing lights attached to her...the perfect toy to cuddle up with to sleep every night. I guess comfort wasn't most important to me as a five-year-old. I regularly went to sleep with my fancy mary jane shoes on. Fashion first, people.
But my absolute hands-down no-questions-asked favorite toy of all time was my blanket. Someone gave it to me as a wee babe and I clutched it in my hands every night for far longer than was probably appropriate. It was a white thermal knit blanket with satin trim, covered in Sesame Street characters. Nothing gave me more joy than that blanket. Somehow it always was cool to the touch, no matter how long you held it.
One day, my beloved blanket came to its end during a fiery battle between my brother and me during our adolescent years. I have no idea what we were arguing about, but it ended with my blanket being shredded to bits. And wouldn't you know, I held on to the biggest remaining shred and it remains with me today...in a box in the attic. Surely thirty-one is too old to sleep with a scrap of blanket from the 1980s. But is it too old to occasionally snuggle up with a 1980s Pound Puppy?
