email:  ckoplien@todaystmj4.com

Are you familiar with these things?



Look, as the Dad of 3 daughters, I know all about dolls.  Over the last 14 years, my house has been filled with Barbie's, Bratz, Webkinz, Polly Pockets, Cabbage Patch Kids...you name 'em, we've had 'em.

But the youngest of our daughters, Katie, has had a particular affinity for a particular type of doll.  And, of course, it's the most expensive kind.

American Girl dolls.



My other girls know about American Girl dolls too.  But Katie...she is really into them.  I mean, she knows American Girl dolls the way Dustin Hoffman knew how to play blackjack in "Rain Man". 

She knows all of the names, of course.  She also knows all of the outfits, the accessories...the dolls' pets!  They have furniture, luggage, books and movies.  And Katie knows the whole list.



To be clear...she doesn't have a lot of this stuff.  She has one or two dolls...and a few of the outfits...but that's about it.  You see, some of this stuff costs more than my first car.  But even though she's not as well stocked in American Girl merchandise as she'd like to be, she knows enough to be the top salesperson in their showroom.



We get one of their sales magazines in the mail every couple of months.  You know, somehow we got on the mailing list.  And of course...once you're on one of those lists...you're not getting off.  When those magazines arrive, Katie studies them the way I studied the backs of baseball cards when I was a kid. 


In fact, now that I think about it, there's a parallel between my baseball card obsession and Katie's deal with American Girl dolls.  There was a time when I could look a any baseball card and tell you whether I had it in my collection.  And I've got something like 10,000 cards!  I don't know why, but I always had some kind of photographic memory when it came to baseball cards.  (If only I could have figured out a way to use my powers for good.)  Anyway, it seems Katie has that same gift with dolls.

I wonder if Katie's dolls will some day meet the same fate as my baseball cards...being packed in a box in the basement?