American (Girl) Dream

Olivia asks to visit American Girl stores the way I imagine my younger self pressed my parents to stop by Hard Rock Cafes during our family vacations. I remember the cachet those logo tees held. Rocking one of their shirts at school after a recent trip to a big city netted you some coolness points, and owning several all but ensured you a place high in the social strata. (Unless, of course, you wore a bootleg version purchased from a street vendor by the convention center.)

I’ve never owned a (real) Hard Rock shirt in my life, but my parents deserve no blame for my uncool schoolboy status as a result of their refusal to pay what was clearly an exorbitant markup on a plain tee that bore the logo of a restaurant in which we’d never dined. So why can’t I practice my parents’ brand of fiscal discipline when navigating an American Girl store and their life-size prices?

Maybe it’s that I’ve bought into the notion that children can discover and love the subject of history through their interactions with these dolls and their backstories. Or maybe I’m a giant pushover.

Either way, I’m glad that I’m not the sole financier of this pricy operation. Olivia’s grandmothers have been very generous toward her efforts to build up her doll collection. On this super-hot summer day, my mother-in-law scored some major cool points with her granddaughter after treating her at the American Girl store in St. Louis.