one huggable, lovable friend

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While packing for our recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg (which was great and I'm sure I'll tell you all about it shortly), I started thinking about Pillow Pets. You see, Katie received the bumble bee pillow pet for her birthday and she now sleeps with it every night. So, it had to go to the hotel with us. Had. To.  I plopped the thing in the suitcase and zipped it on up.  Done.  Ready to hit the road.

Did anyone else have one of those pillow person things in the 80's/90's/can't remember the hell when, but I was a kid and they were super popular?  You know, the ones that had clothes kind of drawn on and floppy legs hanging off their square-ish bottoms and yarn for hair?  Really long yarn that would be considered a choking hazard now?  But, back then?  Parents apparently didn't care enough to care.  What were they called?  The pillow people, not the parents.  Let's see....




Oh, right.  They were called Pillow People.  How original.  And, maybe they didn't quite have chokingly-long hair.  Maybe I made that part up.  Anyway, this was the one that I received for Christmas one year.  I don't know how old I was.  I just remember that my dad (whom I used to call my "real dad," children of divorce can really be f'd up and scary sometimes), my dad gave it to me the year he was living in an apartment with a drug-dealing woman.  I don't remember her name.  Maybe there were two women.  Maybe I don't really know. 

Not my picture, I'm too lazy to deal with scanning and such.

Anyway, I got this pillow person for Christmas that year.  I can remember being incredibly thrilled, though I can't recall actually asking for it or anything.  Non-custodial parents have it so easy.  They can thrill their young children with anything. 

However, my dreams of snuggling down in bed clutching this little person to my chest and snoozing comfortably through the night were soon dashed.  The thing is, though, that my dad expected me to actually use this thing as my pillow.  Like, lay my head on it.  And, he didn't know how to wash it properly, so it got kind of dirty.  Eventually, she was shoved inside a pillow case.  So much for the pillow person/friend fantasy.  Unlike the girls in the commercial, I never pushed mine around in a stroller or played with her like my friend (okay, maybe I played with her as my dirty pal who really needed a bath.  Maybe.)

That's okay, though.  Because, it is kind of weird for kids to have a person look-a-like pillow that they clutch to their chest as they sleep at night.  It seems like a bit of a precursor to the blow-up doll.  You know, a fake partner with whom you snuggle.  Who can't talk back and always does what you want.  Such a fantasy.  I'm glad I have a husband, so that I'm not stuck hugging pillows.  That's the best part about marriage, you know!

So freakin' weird.  Yes, this thing really is for sale.

So, pillow people have now turned into pillow pets and Katie has one.  Alex is jealous and he wants one, too.  The grandparents plan to give him one for Christmas.  A dog, I think.  Because, he doesn't have enough dogs already (we have two).  Whatever.  They can both lay their heads on them so that they don't develop creepy feelings about snuggling with pets.  We don't want fleas in the bed, you know.