I was 3 and taken to a Jumble sale, or Jungle sale as I called it. I bought a doll with my 20p, that doll was then carried around for a good few years according to my Mum.
Over the years I was fascinated by dolls and puppets, as a boy I was sort of steered away from girl dolls and was bought puppets, 6 million dollar man and the Lone Ranger dolls instead.
Our local shop got a Quick Change Sindy in stock in 1982, I have never wanted anything more in my life as I did that doll. She sat and sat there and I could only dream of owning her.
I must have had an influence on my Sister Pam as on her 7th Birthday she got Fashion Faces Sindy. She had a party and had so many other presents no one noticed me hide her under the stairs so I could play with her.
The following year, I was playing quite a lot with my best friend Sharon and she had lots of Sindy so we had hours of fun, another lad called Dean also loved to play with dolls too so we had loads of fun swapping and trading toys to get more Sindy's.
We used to visit my Grandmas most weekends and she didn't at all seem to mind when I asked for a Sindy one weekend. I got the blonde ballerina and LO
VED her, my Grandad was a bit displeased but wasn't too bothered either. Every week me and Grandma would look at the clothes and I could always get myself a treat from her. Sometimes Pam would come to Grandmas too and also get new clothes.
My next Sindy was 1984's Beach Party and I remember getting her from my favourite toy store which was Wizard for Toys. That summer a giant Toy 'N' Hobby opened in my hometown and they had LOADS of Sindy that the little store couldn't get.
Cut N Style was my next purchase as I was a budding hairdresser, we also got loads of clothes from the 1984 range as well as probably a few more ballerinas. In late 1984 we moved away from where we grew up and away from all our friends.
Living in a new area me and my sister bonded over Sindy and delved deeper into our own world. By 1985 Pam had the Sindy Superhome and a swimming pool as well as loads of other paraphernalia, we could play for hours and now had a large collection of swapped & given dolls from friends and jumble sales. Pamela stayed true to Sindy but I enjoyed playing with Barbie too and had discovered a few Barbie's that interested me (Pink N Pretty, Day to Night, Peaches & Cream, Crystal and Loving You) I had also taken a shine to the reversible Twice as Nice fashions. I did get Shaping Up Sindy and a Blonde Starlight.
1986 was a HUGE year for dolls, not only did they change Sindy they also brought out Jem & The Holograms! Jem had me hooked but that is another story on it's own. We still got Sindy and where getting new dolls most weekends now from Grandma. It could have been a Sindy or a Barbie or a new Jem. Jazz Dance, Ballerina & Magic Moments are dolls we acquired that year.
Jem was still huge in 1987 so I had 3 dolls to contend with collecting as Barbie had brought out exciting ranges with the Tropical dolls and Barbie & The Rockers.
Sindy had also had another facelift to a new cuter face. The 1987 range of dolls all pretty much had active bodies so where always snapped up, Ballerina, Ice Skater and the Mix and Match set dolls (I had Yellow & Peach, Pam had the Pink & Purple)
We where still spending most weekends with Grandmas playing for hours creating beauty shows and having all kind of dramatic events for the dolls. Picksies was a game that me and Pam would play which involved laying all the dolls out (could have been like 50 or so) and then picking one each until they had all gone. This usually resulted in the other picking your favourite and such but it was good fun.
A few 1988 dolls where purchased but by then we where growing out of our phase.
By 1990 most of the dolls, houses, cars, rangerovers, kitchens had been given away to younger kids in the area and we never noticed Sindy disappear.
11 years later In October 2001 I joined e-bay and looked up Jem. The following 6 years became an obsession obtaining most of the collection, some of which had eluded me.
In October 2007 our beloved Grandma passed away, In light of her passing I thought it would be fitting to buy my sister some of her beloved Sindy's for a wedding gift as she was getting married in December 2007.
She loved her dolls so much and we had a good chat about old times and the dolls, I still had no inclination to collect Sindy again myself as I had picked up on Barbie again.
In December 2008 I bought myself a Beach Party Sindy after an e-mail update from Lollie Dollies. Now here I am hooked again and searching for my precious memories and dolls of the past
