Polly Pocket, Early 1990s, by Lauren Hilgers

From MemoryArchive

Who:  Lauren M. Hilgers
What:  Polly Pocket
When:  Early 1990s
Where:  North Carolina  

When I was younger, toys were what I lived for, like most kids. Every commercial for an item that could appear in Toys ‘R Us had my eyes glued to the television, craving that toy! I had a My Little Pony unicorn with a matching My Little Pony watch. When I was finally potty-trained I got the most beautiful Princess Barbie doll I’d ever seen. One Christmas my grandparents gave me a Special Edition Christmas Princess Barbie doll. As a matter of fact, I think I owned every doll imaginable as long as it had blond hair like me. There was the ballerina princess doll, the jewelry princess doll, and the make-over princess doll (pretty much every doll was a princess). One toy that I especially remember wanting was Polly Pocket, a much smaller version of any princess doll. I got the Polly Pocket Pet Shop at K-Mart for about six bucks which was great, but what I really wanted was the whole Polly Pocket village with the magnificent Polly Pocket Palace. Oh, how I wanted that Polly Pocket Palace! I needed that toy. I never did get the Polly Pocket Palace, probably because it barely fit in my closet, let alone my pocket.

There are some things that never change. One day over the summer of 2005, twelve years from my Polly Pocket days, I was at my friend’s house in her room just looking around when I saw what I thought I’d never see again! She had the Polly Pocket Palace! I immediately brought it down from the dusty top shelf in her closet and started playing with it on her bedroom floor. It was everything I dreamed it would be. There was a little tiny hot tub, a miniature treadmill in the miniature gym, a microscopic dining room table with candles that really lit up, and a cute little stable with cute little horses. I played with that Polly Pocket Palace for hours while my friend talked on her cell phone (a new “toy” that everybody needs). Since I got that out of my system, I think I’ll be ok without a Polly Pocket Palace for another twelve years.