If you’re lost you can look and you will find me, time after time.
— Cyndi Lauper, 1984
This is my first Crissy Doll. It’s only been about 40 years since I first asked Santa to bring me one.
I found her, a Gen-Xer first-born in 1969, (haha!) at Mary’s Flea Market. Although come to think of it, Crissy was born a tweenager, so this is a problem. She’s actually Generation Jones, a sliver of a subset culture between Boomers and Xers.
Crissy cost me a whole dollar. I’m sorry she’s naked, friends — colleagues — anonymous passersby. None of my daughter’s American Girl or Lalaloopsy clothes fit her. Barbie’s clothes either. Way too small. Crissy’s like an Amazon compared to Barbie.
And, see that weird flying fairy doll in the background — the one we haven’t been able to make fly — her clothes are painted on. She’s absolutely no help at all.
When I was a kid and saw grown women collecting dolls I thought it was weird, but now that I’m well into middle age, I’m like, collect whatever you want, people. Life is very hard and dolls will never give you any trouble. The darn things will lose their shoes all the time, but you can deal with that.
Now, about Crissy’s hair. The doll’s unique feature was that her long lock of red hair fed back into her head with a mechanism on her belly. My friends had Crissy dolls and this mechanism thing always jammed. At any rate, long or short, Crissy’s hair always looked a little off-kilter; however, upon closer inspection, it appears she was actually a trendsetter quite possibly responsible for the iconic, wildly lopsided hair of Cyndi Lauper.
I’m just gonna go ahead and call it, y’all. Cyndi Lauper copied Crissy’s hair.
Please check back tomorrow as Crissy will be modeling some clothes she stole from American Girl doll Samantha or possibly Prairie Dusty Trails Lalaoopsy.
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