When I was a little girl, I would beg my mother to give me the paper doll pages from her McCalls magazine. I'd sit by her side as she read. "Let me finish the article." She'd say to my constant pleading.

.I loved Betsy McCall and all her many dresses. They were all so different and so pretty. I loved the stories that came with the Betsy McCall paperdolls too. Now I climbed trees barefoot every day and played stick ball with the boys. If my mother could get me in a dress, it would be dirty and torn in 5 minutes. My mom put me in jeans and I was happy but secretly envious of girls who could wear dresses. "I don't want any old dress!" Was my standard proclamation. Mom gave up and would not waste money on dresses for me after this happened about 4 times, but secretly I loved them. I wanted to make them.

When the Betsy McCall doll came out, I asked my mom if I could have one for Christmas instead of the usual hated pajamas. "No! 5.95 is too much!" She said. I was crushed. How unfair. I would gladly give up two pairs of pajamas if I could just have the Betsy doll with all the clothes.

But...I had six siblings and 4 were boys and big eaters.How my mom put two chickens on the table with fresh vegetables every night on my dad's salary was kind of amazing. She ran a tight ship.

They did give me a Madame Alexander doll that Christmas. They were cheaper. But I thought my Alexander doll looked like a baby. She was broken in a week. So... i never got a Betsy McCall doll. I never made her clothes.

But wait, 60 years later I have 26 Betsys and design Betsy clothes with the help of an extremely skilled seamstress. Between the two of us, i am fulfilling my childhood dreams of designing Betsy McCall clothes.