Freckled Relics

Meet Strawberry Shortcake, Internet. I've had this plate since I was a little girl and it's my all time favorite. Where I go, she follows. This may sound strange, but it's one of the only "artifacts" that survived my childhood intact. Through a combination of forgetfulness, scissors (for cutting dolls hair), drowning (for when my toys would accompany me in the bathtub) moving a few times, yard sales, and moths, I only have a few of my toddler/childhood possessions.

I have a Big Bird chair that Spencer now sits in, my stuffed dog animal (no, I don't sleep with it), and my plate. Obviously I outgrew the chair, and it would be a little sad if I still slept with a stuffed animal, but Strawberry Shortcake is still perfectly acceptable! But it's not just a plate for me, SS was one of my favorite characters because she had freckles. You see, I had (have) a ton of freckles. As I've gotten older they've faded a bit. but I still have about 5 times more than the average person.

Spencer with my Mr. Big Bird chair last summer.



I hated my freckles from the moment I knew I had them and most of the other kids didn't. I hated being called Freckle Face and Dot Face- which happened every day. Kids can be really cruel, and I soon began trying to find ways to remove them. When I was three, my mom found me trying to scratch off the freckles on my arm. She tried to tell me they were cute and that I would look funny if I didn't have them on my face. But there was nothing she could say that made me feel better.

For some reason my freckles aren't showing up very well in old pictures of myself, but if you look at the larger version, you can see them a little bit better.

Realizing she needed a new strategy, my mom went about finding famous freckles. This was how I came to love Strawberry Shortcake even more than I already did! Of course Punky Brewster helped out a lot too- I L.O.V.E.D Punky Brewster and that's how I got my nickname, Punkiepie. I was always hearing how much we looked alike and that I could be her little sister, which made me feel super cool! It may sound insignificant, but it really helped me to know that even though they had freckles, everybody liked SS and PB.

It took me a long time, a long long long long time for me to call a freckle truce. And looking back on those years when I was made fun of teasing, I realize that it actually made me a much better person. I have a lot of faults, but one thing that I'm proud about myself, is that I've never made fun of someone. When I was in 2nd grade, we had a new student from Scotland in our class, and the kids were just awful to him. I don't know why he ever came back to that school after his first day, but he did, and I became his only friend. I defended him until my classmates stopped their taunting but we stayed friends even after it wasn't a necessity. When his family eventually moved back to Scotland, he gave me his most valuable stamp from his collection (yes, I had/have a stamp collection, and no I wasn't a dork) and a kiss on the cheek (my first).

Freckles are certainly not the worst affliction for a child, and looking back, I realize I should be grateful for that. So that's why I still keep SS around, even though she is 25 years old (I got it as a present on my 2nd Birthday). From the ages of 3-5, it was the only plate I'd eat off of, which makes it all the more amazing that it survived me, especially considering that there used to be a matching cup and bowl that didn't make it!

Look at all those freckles! I was 23 here, and this was the last year of my life that I actively sought out to become tan. The next summer I started using self-tanner or I went and got a spray on tan. Now, I'm pretty much just embracing the pale!

So what about you, do you still have anything left from your little kid years that you use? And what made it worth saving all these years?