Object Number 18

Object Name: Sindy Badge
Accessioned: 2009
Donor: purchased
Notes: random purchase on Ebay

Comments: I have to admit this will not be the last Sindy item to appear on this blog. I was a Sindy girl my entire childhood, in my eyes Barbie just couldn't measure up to her. I grew up in the era of the Hasbro Sindy, which in a lot of ways mimicked Barbie in her penchant for pink and her figure. Although her feet and her chest were relatively flat in comparison to her American rival.
I'm not going to give you a biography of the Sindy doll as there are plenty of websites and blogs that do that already. I'll just tell you why I felt the need to buy this badge. As I said I grew up with the Hasbro Sindy but my sister had Pedigree Sindy - or as they are some times known "Big-headed Sindys". She had a whole doll house full of late 1970s to early 1980s furniture, complete with an orange kitchen and a blue bedroom. As I got older I was allowed to play with this doll house and my small headed dolls had their time renting this mid century gem. Now I feel the need to own my own, perhaps for myself or for a future family but part of me wants my own small plastic orange kitchen.
The second reason I bought this is just pure collecting. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s I was like many kids and owned many collections. Stamps, coins, keyrings, fancy paper, pencils and pens, soaps, Puppy in my Pocket and badges. Although my old collection of badges is long gone, this represents them. Or maybe it's just a rusty old badge.

Object Number 17

Object Name: Agfamatic 2008
Accessioned: 2009
Donor: gift
Notes: My mother's old camera.

Comments: This is the camera my mother used from the 1970s until the 1990s. As a child it was the most satisfying camera to take a photograph on based on the mechanical action alone. The excited clockwork noise it made as you slide the mechanism to roll forward the film, which gave it the name "Ritsch-Ratsch-Kameras", was a delight to me and still is. Anything with a big red button like that has its own particular attraction anyway.
It was a follow on from the camera featured in Object Number 6, it's film came in a neat little cartridge and produced tiny thin strips of negatives. Mostly I remember my mother having to take pictures outside as getting the flash to operate was a little tricky. When she did use it though it made that wonderful high pitched warming up noise. Not only did the flash screw onto the side but it was hooked up using a cable to the body of the camera.
Looking through the view finder, a little yellowed and with the silver brackets to aid in centring, makes everything look like the 1980s to me. Everything look just a little vintage, as if the world is framed in the paler, round-edged photographs of my childhood.

Object Number 16

Object Name: Purple Velvet Doc Martins
Accessioned: 2009
Donor: gift
Notes: Given to me by my other half.

Comments: There are a few things that I am remembered by. One of those is a pair of black velvet Doc Martens I wore in primary school when I was about 11/12 years old. My aunt gave them to me and they were 1980s velvet romantic goth magic represented in boot form. I wore them, literally, into the ground. Towards the end they actually looked like they had mange but I loved them. When the velvet wore away so much it cracked to show the canvas underneath I attempted to colour in the exposed areas with a black permanent marker. How I loved those boots. What made that time more special was that those boots forged a very long lasting friendship. Emily, another slight eccentric like myself, wore the most amazing Docs money could buy at the time.  She had not one, but two pairs of fabulous footwear: A silver pair with an oil stain-like iridescence and a pair that were bright patent red. These boots form our first memories of each other, and all most 15 years later we still talk about those boots.
So it was my glorious other half that tasked himself with finding me a new pair. Having searched the internet for them myself, all I ever found was blog posts bemoaning the lack of velvet Docs. They appear to have been an exclusively 1980s phenomena. So with a tall order and a girlfriend with rather large feet, my other half stalked Ebay patiently. It finally paid off. Last year he secured a pair of purple velvet, size 8 genuine Doc Martens for an undisclosed amount. Unfortunately I regard them so highly I barely wear them. I hope to change that (somewhat) in the new year.