Meet my pretend husband, Ralph

I was reading a blog today that mentioned a childhood imaginary friend and it reminded me of my imaginary husband, Ralph. When I was little I was a very Martha Stewart-y type of kid. I loved playing house and had a kitchen and little bunk beds for my dolls. There are many pictures of me being domestic- doing laundry with my Suzy Homemaker washing machine, cooking in my kitchen and having a meal at my little, kid-sized table with Grover, complete with a tablecoth and place settings. I liked to pretend that my room was an apartment and I remember wanting a mailbox right outside my door. My older sisters had phones in their rooms- not real ones, but somehow these were only connected to each other and they could talk to each other from their rooms. I was so envious of those red phones!

My husband's name was Ralph McGillicutty and he had red hair. Years later I realized that I stole his last name from I Love Lucy, a show I watched all the time. Something I can remember vividly is pretending I was shopping in our living room and stepping into a phone box (which was really a little space next to our china cabinet) and calling Ralph to tell him I wouldn't be home until later and that he'd have to feed the kids.

Being the baby of the family, I can remember the kids all leaving for school, while I had to wait until noon to go to kindergarten. I was allowed to watch Sesame Street, Electric Company and Mr Rogers' Neighborhood, which was a huge treat since TV was banned in our house for a year or so. (Our parents were sick and tired of us arguing over what program to watch.) For some reason, Mr Rogers reminded me of my own dad, although they don't look alike at all. I also used to pretend that I was on a cooking show. I can remember walking my audience through the process of making peanut butter and jelly. All those hours of Julia Child must have rubbed off on me.

The year I was in kindergarten, my mom had a surprise birthday party for me. Except that I had no idea that it was a surprise party until I figured it out years later. I just remember thinking how lucky I was that my friends started to show up and my mom happened to have pizza and pound cake for all of us. Apparently I was not real quick on the uptake.