Baldie

My Baldie had a white and red outfit

When I was a kid I only gave my toys and pets practical names. My first goldfish was named Gold (not even Goldie, just Gold), my brown teddy bear was Brownie and my bald Cabbage Patch doll- You guessed it, Baldie. I distinctly remember sitting in the kitchen, holding the doll and thinking about a proper name for it. After a few moments of thought, I triumphantly declared "Baldie" was it. My mother was unimpressed. Why the designers at Cabbage Patch thought it'd be a good idea to make a bald headed doll for kids to play with is beyond me because I'm probably the only kid that loved it. I didn't have any friends with a bald doll but Baldie and I were tight.

Baldie was a boy- why would I want to hang out with a girl? they're so dramatic- and I'd like to think we had a fair bit in common. As a kid, I looked pretty sickly and people often asked if I was albino. When told I wasn't afflicted with albinism or a victim of leukemia- often their second question- people gave a quizzical look but generally accepted it and moved on. Because of this, maybe subconsciously, we were pretty close friends because he too looked as though he was going through chemo.

In addition to a vaguely sickly look, we had similar belly buttons. I've never liked mine and always called it an in-betweenie because it wasn't nice and finished like my friends' innies, but- thankfully- wasn't an outie like my dad's. It looks like an outie, but doesn't stick out past my belly. (If it did, I would have surgery to fix it.) Although Baldie's belly button was an outie they were similar enough to me to bond over.

I also remember licking his head because the plastic tasted good. None of my human friends had heads that I would lick. I was a weird kid.