Today’s Daily Prompt: Was there a special gift or toy you wanted as a child, but never received? What was it.
Well, actually there were two. Like just about every girl on the planet, I wanted an Easy Bake Oven~
I never did get one. But I did get to rock a similar hairstyle for many years, and there are embarrassing photos to prove it. But, if I would have gotten that Easy Bake Oven, not only would I have suffered many light bulb burns on the hand, but I would have required a companion toy to make my childhood culinary efforts even more “Easy”~
This is obviously a much lesser known toy. Who in their right mind would have asked for an Easy Wash Dishwasher for Christmas? Only the nerds who have boogers stuck on their glasses and suffer from ritual playground beatings. Maybe that’s a little harsh, but I certainly didn’t want one. I was one of the cool kids. We asked for an Easy Bake Oven, and then our servants could ask for an Easy Wash Dishwasher to clean up after us. Yeah, I was that cool. Not really. Maybe that’s why I never got one.
In the 90′s, when my kids were still kids, my youngest boy wanted an Easy Bake Oven. He wanted one really bad. Who was I to deny my son his dream of being a world class chef?
He turns 20 next Monday. He still enjoys cooking, and is moving up the management ladder in an extremely successful chain of sandwich shops. He hopes to own a franchise or two of his own someday, and with his drive and ambition, it may be sooner rather than later. It seems the boy was born to be in a kitchen. I’m glad I helped fuel his passion with the gift of the little light bulb powered oven.
What was the other toy I wanted so badly? None other than the Barbie Dream House. Who wouldn’t want that? The raddest pad ever to be had! I didn’t have very many barbies. Just a few. But they were compulsive shoppers. They quickly outgrew the little suitcase for their belongings. They had no furniture, no artwork, no kitchenware or cutlery. They must have been vagabonds who lived off the generosity of others. Poor little Barbies, wandering aimlessly through life, with nothing but their latest fashions, stuffed into this pathetic case.
Well, either it was just too expensive, or Mom and Dad wanted me to learn a lesson of some type, because I never did get the Barbie Dream House. I got the Barbie Van! Ugh!
Okay, so now they could live their nomadic lifestyle with a few creature comforts, but they were still homeless. How did they make a living? How did they make money to buy food and gas? What did they do when their home on wheels broke down? Think about it. Two girls, unchaperoned, in the 1970′s..nothing but a whole lot of very flashy clothes, and a hip, happenin’ van. Were they gypsies? Exotic dancers? Hookers, perhaps? I shudder to think.
Worse yet, they may have picked up a handsome but psychotic hitchhiker. Thankfully, they always left this guy eating their dust as they sped around the white shag carpet in my bedroom.
Ken Bundy
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hahaha who would ask for a dishwasher? but more importantly, why did they ever make one?.. it’s so weird.. lol ^^
That’s a really good question. maybe it was made by an appliance company? I dunno.
I loved my Easy Bake Oven…my father ate every crooked cake I baked. Remember Jiffy Cake Mixes? My mom made sure that if the oven was whipped out she would have one on hand. It is one of my first cooking experiences…
This was a wonderful blog! So well done!
Thank you. Glad you liked it! I do remember the Jiffy cake mixes. Still use them myself on occasion. My sister and I had a little fake kitchen when we were little. Avocado green. aluminum. A stove, a refrigerator and a sink-complete with a faucet for running water. But I don’t remember ever having water hooked up to that thing. When my youngest son, the future sandwich king, was taking home ec in high school, he cooked dinner for us once a week for a time, and he does make a mean omelet.
I suspect we are about the same age. I enjoy your writing…
When I think of the sandwich king I think of Food Network. Any relation?
I don’t know, I’m not familiar with that sandwich king. I’m 47 by the way. So glad you like to read me. Always such a nice thing to hear.
54 here
)
I never would have guessed from your image. You don’t look a day over 30
Your son wouldn’t happen to be an Easy Bake Oven chef, would he? That would TOTALLY rock.
No, unfortunately not. He uses a real oven now. But the Easy Bake Oven is still around. I’m pretty sure he still has it.
Ken’s hair is awesome!
Hmmm, looks oddly similar to yours in this photo of you.
His is actually shinier. I’m jealous!
A good slathering of silicone caulk across your handsome mug would take care of that right away, friend.
I’ll do it right now! Thanks, Cheeky!
You’re so welcome. Glad I could help.
I had a sports car with a fold out camper. Who ever heard of a sports car pulling a camper? Anyway, we never had to worry about hitch-hikers as GI Joe was seated firm in the sports car along with my barbie.
Good Plan. Barbie didn’t have that type of bad ass escort at our house. My older brothers had a couple of GI Joes, but they actually blew them up with firecrackers after my father disapproved of them having dolls. My sons, however, had a boat load of GI Joes, and they actually tossed my Barbies in with them for a time, so that they could have “dates”. Kids.
My little bother would play with us when we played with the Barbie dolls, but when he played we were always commandos or spys, climbing all over the livingroom…saving the world.
That’s too funny! Sounds like a blast! My brothers were 4 and 6 years older than me, so they didn’t play with us too much, but they did get stuck babysitting my sister and I a time or two.
How can you resist the Easy Dishwasher? It has the NEW JET ACTION! That sounds totally bad ass.
I don’t think my REAL dishwasher has jet action.
I take it that you’re your dishwasher then?
Oh no, I have one of them thar new fangled machines that warshes the dishes fer me. But it’s been in my kitchen since the mid 90′s, before Maytag and Kenmore started incorporating jet engines into their appliances.
That’s too bad.
Hey, it’s better than nothing, and I don’t have to wear my hair like that anymore, so it’s all good.
Lol.
I had Barbie and the house and all, but they wouldn’t get me Ken, I guess they thought I’d think up ways for them to sex it up, so my poor Barbie had to live the life of an old maid thanks to my uptight ‘rents. Or she played for the other team with my Tammy doll, thanks mom and dad for showing me how to gay up Barbs!
Too bad you didn’t have Ken afterall. He may have loved a little hot plastic girl on girl action–or maybe would have just wanted to borrow their clothes and stuff.
Dang. Just wrote mine and it was about… an Easy Bake Oven. Saw your post after.
Ha!
I guess the old Easy Bake was a dream for a lot of us. Great minds think alike.
Aw Cheeky, you made me go on ebay and look up my old Barbie airplane toy (the Friend Ship.) Take a look at it and you might not feel so bad about your Barbie van!
Barbie had an airplane? I’m so jealous!
No need to respond to this. Just had to add that I wanted an Easy Bake Oven in the worst kind of way, but Santa hated me and wouldn’t bring it. I also wanted a Dream Date game and was denied that as well. Bah humbug.
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I really wanted an easy bake oven! One Xmas, I was super excited because under the tree was a box that looked like it was the right size to be one! I savagely tore it open to find the grill version, which worked the same way but you cooked on a little hot plate on the top of it. Not sure if it was made by the same company–wasn’t nearly as cool looking as the oven. I had to act thrilled but I wasn’t. I sure made a lot of pancakes on that thing though! To this day, I don’t like baking. I blame it on never getting that toy.
Thanks for your story! That grill sounds like a pretty awesome toy. Unfortunately I do love to bake, so now I need the Easy Flab Off Treadmill. Do they make one of those?
I ALWAYS wanted an Easy Bake Oven but when my grandma finally got me one, my mom never let me use it because she said that I would die if I ate the cakes that were made in it. So really, it was pointless. I was quite sad.
Alas, my aunt let me help her make chocolate chip cookies in a REAL oven when I was little to make up for it
hence my love for baking these days 
When Jessica was small and she got too many girly toys one year, I gave her a Conan action figure. You pulled a chord on his back and his arm went up and down like he was swinging the plastic battle axe that he came with. The problem was that when he wasn’t holding the axe, he looked a lot like he was pleasuring himself… bad Conan… I need to post that story.
Yeah you do. That’s a funny one! Glad to see you back. Glad you had a nice Christmas. Can’t wait to hear about the projectile vomiting.
sigh…