Childhood STOLEN by American Girl Store

I recently went on a trip to Colorado with Abby. We spent a week dog sledding, skiing, and gazing at the magestic beauty of the Rocky Mountains. We did not decide to spend our last day outside in the refreshing barely-oxygenated mile-high air, and instead decided to spend it in the retail air of Park Meadows Mall where an American Girl Store had just opened!

Like all little girls, I begged my mom for an American Girl doll on a regular basis. My mom was a big fan of her daughters reading, so she happily purchased the six books of every series for me and my younger sister Sami. My favorite books were about Samantha Parkington. I read Meet Samantha, Samantha Learns a Lesson, Samantha's Surprise, Happy Birthday Samantha!, Samantha Saves the Day, and Changes for Samantha hundreds of times each. At the back of each book was a small, harmless-looking postcard that you could send away for the American Girls Catalogue which sold dolls based on the series. My mom didn't appreciate the series as much after the arrival of the catalogue.

Sami and I would spend days lovingly turning the pages of the catalogue (Sami focused on Molly because they both wore glasses). They were the greatest dolls you could EVER own. Not only could you have the doll, but you could get everything the doll had in all of the books! You could get Samantha's pretty pink dress from Happy Birthday Samantha! along with a tiny ice cream maker and a tiny wicker set of table and chairs. You could even get a matching outfit for yourself! However, the dolls cost around $85 just for a starter kit - doll, book, and maybe a brush. My mom dismissed our whiney begging, stating that she would get us the dolls when they went on sale. Sami and I knew, they would never go on sale. My mom eventually got us similar looking porcelain dolls at a lower cost that partially filled the massive void in our American Girl hearts.

When we saw the American Girl store had opened just a week earlier in Colorado, we decided to go. I have to admit that even at age 25, I was excited to see a Samantha doll in person - a little sad, I know. We arrived at the magical store, where glass covered perfect displays of all the dolls just like in the catalogues. There were a few new dolls that I didn't recognize - Josefina? Ruthie? Rebecca? LANIE? Who the f*** cares? Where is Samantha?!? I rushed through all the displays, but she couldn't be found.

Abby, Sami, and I aggressively elbowed children out of the way to talk to one of the salesclerks.

"Excuse me miss, where are the Samantha dolls?" Sami asked as we all backed the clerk into a corner.

"I'm sorry, Samantha has been retired. It actually happened a few years ago," she politely replied.

"WHAT!?!" we responded in unison.

She's only 10 years old, I thought, how could she retire?

"I was going to pass one on to my daughter!" I said loudly to the sales clerk, realizing in the same moment that - 1) I don't have a daughter and 2) to pass something on to a daughter you have to own it yourself first. I could have cried (don't worry, I held it together - a future pediatrician should not openly sob in a doll store), and we left the store sad and dejected.

Samantha now costs around $300 on e-bay - a little too much for me to handle. I'm guessing she's going to come out of "retirement" at some point to give a little sales boost to the doll makers - much like the Disney vault which gives you a periodic one month window to get a limited edition Beauty and the Beast before it goes back in the vault. I may get my sister a Molly doll for her graduation so she never has to face the horrible realization that she can't pass it on to her imaginary daughter.

--By Farrah, who is house hunting and considered applying for those HGTV shows about "My first home" but didn't want to look too Liz Lemon-y looking for a house to live in by herself