All I ever really wanted was an Easy Bake Oven
All I ever really wanted was an Easy Bake Oven.
When I was a little girl, around seven or eight years old, I pined for an Easy Bake Oven. They were so cute, so little, so pink! I was riveted by the tiny plastic perfection. Only a small girl with her small hands could nimbly remove a hot miniature cake pan with the little pink spatula that came with the oven. Only a small girl could genuinely enjoy the gummy pucks that were the result of earnestly following all the instructions to the letter.
My friend Suzanne had one, and I coveted it. Of course, she had two older sisters, so they always had all the cool toys, even the ones that we were too young for. I pestered my mother for my very own Easy Bake Oven.
But despite all my wheedling and wishing, it was not meant to be. My practical mother just said, "Why do you need one of those? You can just cook things in the regular oven. I’ll help you."
That stopped me cold. How do you argue with the truth? We did have a regular oven, and she was more than happy to help me cook things in it. We made cookies, we made muffins, we made banana nut bread. The appeal of having your own tiny little oven, your very own, was lost on her, the adult who didn’t even particularly enjoy using her real one. She was unmoved by my weak retort, a piped, "But I just want one!”
But I still dreamed of having my own cute little pink oven that cooked with the heat of a dim light bulb. I wanted to rifle through the packets of replacement mixes in the toy department at K-Mart and pick out my favorites. I wanted to act important, like I was making a gourmet meal for a VIP, triumphantly holding aloft my version of a perfect chocolate souffle.
I settled for helping Mom make miniature cherry nut loaves to hand out as Christmas gifts. We baked them in the big oven, but at least there was small comfort in the fact that we used little tiny aluminum pans.
Twenty-five years later and I still stop to look at the Easy Bake Ovens every time I’m in Toys R Us to buy something for my two-year-old son. He tugs at my sleeves, trying to pull me over to the aisle with all the Geotrax trains, while I am temporarily hypnotized by this utterly absurd thought: Hey, I could buy one now…
I jokingly told my husband that I wanted an Easy Bake Oven for my birthday. He was incredulous. Did I really want to eat something that was cooked by a light bulb?
But I think deep down, he has to understand. This is the man who has stockpiled at least a half-dozen Lego Star Wars kits because he loved them so dearly as a child— even though our own son is at least five or six years away from having the manual dexterity to play with them. Because who can resist buying the Toy that You Always Wanted Or Dearly Loved when you actually have enough money to buy it yourself?
I was that way about the Snoopy Sno-Cone machine! I never got one until I told my husband how cruelly I was deprived, and he found one on ebay for me. They don't make them anymore, but Eleanor will get to play with it. I think the Rookie needs an Easy-Bake Oven.
Posted by: Tricia | May 21, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Oh YES I loved my Easy Bake Oven. But my sisters and I had the biggest fights over the Snoopy Sno-Cone machine. Add ice (freeze your hands off and drip water everywhere) and food coloring (stain your t-shirt AND your lips) and crank crank crank at that thing until you got a teeny, tiny sno-cone. We loved it.
What's the FIRST best toy for girls?
Posted by: natalie | May 21, 2008 at 10:57 AM
We had one of those! The smell of an Easily-Baked cake is probably the closest I will get to having a Proustian madeleine moment.
Posted by: rtb | May 21, 2008 at 11:15 AM
My most-wanted-never-had toy was the giant Barbie head you put make-up on. I believe Mattel still makes them, but I'd rather live with the memory of a be-sparkled nostalgic ideal than have the plastic reality.
Posted by: Jane Plane | May 21, 2008 at 11:42 AM
Oh my brother and I had The Best Christmas Ever when we got BOTH the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine and Hungry Hungry Hippos! We were the envy of the neighborhood, I tell you.
Posted by: Zia | May 21, 2008 at 12:17 PM
For me it was the Barbie Star Traveller Motor Home. It had bunks that folded away! And a shower that used real water! I think the realism stopped short of a blue-ice toilet, though.
Posted by: Cardinal | May 21, 2008 at 04:26 PM
It was the Snoopy Sno-Cone for me and Hungry Hungry Hippos for my brother.
But all I want now is my Fashion Plates back!
Posted by: Janey | May 21, 2008 at 08:48 PM
Oh Fashion Plates were the best thing EVER.
Posted by: Kerrie | May 22, 2008 at 07:52 PM