For a period of about 4 years I begged, dreamed and hoped that Santa would grant me my Christmas wish of having my very own Barbie Dream House. The girl next door had one. I used to collect aluminum cans and buy Barbies with the money I'd make taking them to the recycling center. Mom said the dollhouse was too cheaply made for the price they were asking, I kept asking but no dream house ever appeared under our tree.
The last year I asked for one I was 11. I just knew, THAT would be the year I'd get my dreamhouse. My parents, in all their wisdom, spent above and beyond what that toy house would have cost to get me my first stereo, complete with cassette and record player. I hadn't even thought about getting a present like that, but my dream was about escape through play and in their wisdom they knew I would outgrow the cheap plastic toy and made a decision that would eventually change my life.
I often joke that if I had gotten the dreamhouse, maybe I would be a trophy wife now...but I never aspired to be Barbie, I just wanted to play in her world. My stereo created a world of my own, a dream world where I could express myself and dream dreams that I could actually achieve. I had some dark times in my teens, but music was always a means of escape from a world I was learning how to live in.
Music freed my soul to go to places where this world could never take me; it made life not so hard to take and continues to lift me up and provides escape. Sometimes I think my parents are the smartest people ever, because although they knew what my heart wanted, they somehow knew what I needed and when you consider that I'm now a midday jock on Charleston's Classic Rock station, that Barbie Dream House, truly was the best present I never got.
-Morgen
